Forty years ago, Mark and Linda Heister gambled on reinvention. Mark, a graphic designer, had always wanted to work as a fashion designer, while Linda dreamed of a career in public relations. So that's exactly what they did. By the time the Heisters shuttered their fashion house in 2009, the duo has discovered another outlet for their creative energy: a log cabin in New Buffalo, Michigan.
In this photo: Mark rejuvenated the dining furniture that came with the house, replacing the table's Colonial legs with cut-down utility poles for a more rugged look, and outfitting the Old Hickory chairs with upholstered leather seats.
Bright idea: The Heisters stitched these striking drapes from classic Hudson's Bay blankets.
The Heisters approached their retreat with their signature aesthetic: the interiors, which seem simple at first, soon reveal themselves to be the height of sophisticated understatement. Mark and Linda both gravitate towards cast-iron skillets, matte pottery, and twiggy furniture, but manage to wring major drama from plainspoken objects. Contrast has something to do with it. Those black pans, for instance, hang on a white wall.
In this photo: The great room's flagstone fireplace displays a taxidermic buffalo head, vintage iron cookware, and Mexican and American pottery.
The kitchen cabinetry has been updated with handsome pine fronts, but the room still boasts an original apron-front sink. Mark also decanted all the couple's dry goods into glass jars with fanciful clip-art labels. "When you're obsessed," the fashion designer notes drily, "you do that kind of thing."
In this photo: Mark concealed the kitchen's Fisher & Paykel dishwasher with this pine front, which mimics the other cabinetry. He also crafted the window's trompe l'oeil valance—actually a wooden shelf. The walls are painted Swiss Coffee by Glidden.
Built in 1932 as the prototype for a planned community on Lake Michigan, the Heisters' home came with a jumble of Old Hickory furniture—antiques that today carry an impressive appraisal. Instead of fighting the lodge vibe, Mark and Linda embraced it, tweaking things here and there to suit their style.
In this photo: Linda painted the master bedroom's 1930s maple bed and dresser black, then "aged" them with a sanding block.
Amid extreme contrasting colors, judicious hits of green, red, and yellow offer the design equivalent of a knowing grin. The basic, primary color scheme also has practical benefits. "Mark taught me that if you stick to one limited color palette, you can easily swap things from room to room," explains Linda, who claims she's in charge of "procurement, grunt work, and fetching," while her husband is the visionary of the operation.
In this photo: Mark partitioned a section of the basement to create space for a bathroom. He constructed the shelf beneath the mirror from fragments of an old dresser; hard-wearing Rust-Oleum paint (the wall is painted White, while the chest is Hunter Green) unifies both pieces with the flea-market chest below.
Deer antlers hang above a 1930s pine-cabinet dartboard on the four-season porch. This new chair could pass for one of the Heisters' Old Hickory antiques.
As a result of the Heisters' (left) renovation, the cabin reflects the urbane sensibility of its current owners, while retaining the rustic essence that roots the property in the past. The latter was confirmed a few years ago, when a man and woman in their 80s pulled up the driveway one day and asked if they could take a peek inside. The son and daughter-in-law of the home's former owners, this elderly couple had canoodled on the back porch as teens. For them, the romance of the place hadn't faded at all.
Original article and pictures take www.countryliving.com site
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