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Kim Faison found the Tuscan dining room chairs in pieces and had them put back together about 25 years ago. The primitive table is Norwegian; the crystal chandelier is French. The big Delft jar, circa 1720, was discovered at a small antique fair in Sweden. The big cabinet is 18th-century Swedish baroque. The gold medallion, which came from her mother’s house, will be installed on the ceiling.
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“What’s interesting about my house is that it never had crown molding,” Faison says. “I could have put some up there, but I didn’t because it never had it.” The antique dealer purchased the black lacquer chest and large polychrome faience pot by the fireplace when she was in her 20s. Staffordshire nesting hens with their biddies, circa 1820, from her collection line the fireplace mantel.
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In the primary bedroom, the wallpaper and drapery fabric are by Thibaut. Faison found the red painted chest at the Newark Antiques Fair in England years ago. The large blue-and-white pot is Chinese export porcelain. Both the carpet and Delft cat were discovered at the Brimfield Antique Market in Massachusetts. The chair is Swedish, circa 1740.
Sometimes old houses in need of a friend will whisper to kindred souls and call them in.
Those who answer know there is work to be done, but their appreciation for design nuance, stories of the past and possibilities lures them to the task. Such a house in historic Church Hill got lucky in 2017 when Kim Faison gently pushed open its front door to look inside.
“I just felt something,” she remembers. “I thought, ‘I’m going to have to buy this house.’ Somebody needed to fix it. It had good bones, … but it made you want to cry.” She was just the friend the house had been waiting for.
Vacant and in disrepair, the 1874 Victorian Italianate house was unlivable. “A friend and his wife had owned it for more than 40 years but hadn’t lived in it for 25,” Faison says. Greeting her were a leaking roof, bugs, dirt floors and a lack of walls, plumbing, electricity, heat and air conditioning. As she turned each corner, she recalls, “Everything was a surprise.”
Over the next two years, Faison poured her heart and soul into a full restoration, intent on preserving the integrity of the house. The interior was returned to its original elegance with few modifications. Every architectural element, from the unusual nine-member interior molding to the floor-to-ceiling Jefferson windows in the front parlor — triple-sash windows that open like a window or are used as a door, much like the windows Thomas Jefferson installed at Monticello — were treated with care. The only structural change was the addition of an upstairs closet to house a washer and dryer. Also, to avoid running ductwork, mini split HVAC systems were installed for temperature control.
With the transformation from neglected to new complete, Faison moved on to selecting just the right contents to fill the house. Her 35 years in the antiques business had prepared her to create a gracious, comfortable and visually eclectic refuge from a busy, modern lifestyle. As a go-to source for interior designers and other buyers, Faison is known for her sharp eye for 17th-, 18th- and early 19th-century Scandinavian and European treasures purchased on visits abroad. Finding and collecting is in her blood, she says. “My mother was in the business, and I was her apprentice for 10 years.”
The resulting aesthetic is a warm combination of shades of blue and taupe, delightful antique furnishings with patina and lively new textiles and wallcoverings. “It’s an old house with early things in an updated setting,” she says.
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Faison says she bought her Danish carved cabinet on her first trip to Copenhagen over 20 years ago. She first saw the faience lions at the Montpellier Antiques Fair in France but got there too late to purchase them. A few months later, they popped up in a little shop in Paris, where she bought them.
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Faison says that shopping the world’s antiques markets is a family affair. “We’ve [Faison, her mother and son] always had a pact that whoever sees it first gets the chance to buy it.” She recently purchased the Swedish tall case clock from her son, who saw it first. She discovered the Swedish table at the Newark Antiques Fair. The desk is Danish. The faience charger on the desktop was a birthday gift from her mother, who bought it at Brimfield ahead of her. On the top of the desk, the large jar on the right is a rare, 17th-century Barbadillo apothecary jar.
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The English cabinet — with its scumbled paint finish and beautiful old paper in the back — first caught Faison’s eye at the Newark Antique Warehouse, but she didn’t buy it until she came across it again in France 10 years later. She found the blue painted chair at the Brossard Antique Fair in Sweden.
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Faison fell in love with and purchased the square mosaic at the center of the backsplash — framed by the tortoiseshell patterned tiles — in Brussels and shipped it home in her container. She says that the figure in the middle is probably the oldest part. The rest are tiles that she collected and had set in a random pattern.
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The window seat is one of Faison’s favorite spots to sit. The bee mobile hanging above the window was a gift her mother brought her from England when she was 10 years old. She bought the Oushak rug from her son Ben when they both had booths at a show in Round Top, Texas, about 10 years ago.
There are three traditional formal rooms on the first floor, but not the stuffy kind. Antique painted tables, tall case clocks, corner chairs and comfy sofas, well-worn rugs, three coal fireplaces that have been converted to gas, a primitive dining room table from Norway, Italian tables that she loves — “they add flair and curve” — all make for a space to casually welcome guests and family. She defines her style as “Continental … European,” and adds, “I like a mix of primitives from different countries, and what brings them all together is their age.”
Adjacent to her state-of-the-art kitchen is the morning room, brightened by south-facing windows overlooking a tidy garden. The room is Faison’s favorite. “I’ve always wanted to do upholstered walls,” she says, and at last she was able to make it happen with Thibaut fabric and padding that give the room a luxurious and hushed ambience.
Every room features tiles — Dutch Delft and French faience in particular — found in her travels. “I’ve sold and collected tiles for years … picked up a box of tiles here and a box of tiles there. … I’m crazy about pottery, and I’ve always loved blue and white.” At one point, she says, she collected Chinese export porcelain, but the market flooded with copies so she focused on authentic pottery — Dutch and English Delft, Italian and French faience — that shows its age. “I love the primitiveness of earthenware. I like to see age on a piece. … It gives it character.” She adds that in the restoration and design, she depleted her stash of tile that she had tucked away for future use, but there will always be more.
Faison is happy in her newly feathered nest. “I’m grateful, and I think it turned out really pretty. It’s true to itself. … It’s a beautiful thing to live surrounded by things I love.” As for her new location atop Church Hill, she says, “I really like the neighborhood. It’s diverse, and it suits me, really. There are lots of restaurants to walk to, and my neighbors are great. It’s perfect for me.”
