shabby to chic

If you like to see what ordinary people have done with their homes, you’ll love this weekend’s annual Shabby to Chic Home Tour.

Nine homes will open their doors and invite the community in to share decorating styles and tips, and provide inspiration for do-it-yourselfers.

One of the homes on the tour is the 1928 Sears and Roebuck bungalow purchased in 2002 by Glenn and Virginia Kinach.

The cottage, which sits on a small lot in the Garden District, is trim and neat. Baskets planted with blooms hang under the front window and a cozy sun porch greets visitors.

A straight walkway leads from the sidewalk to the front steps, but the Kinachs traveled an interesting path to get there.

Both are commercial air pilots. Glenn flies out of Los Angeles, and although she keeps her license current, Virginia stays home with the couple’s 6-year-old son.

After the birth of their child, the family lived for more than a year on a 42-foot boat in California. It was an exciting time, but Virginia began to long for the comforts of a home.

“With a baby, the inconvenience of not having a washer and dryer was a big deal,” Virginia Kinach says. “I had to load the laundry cot and the stroller and walk down the dock to do the laundry.”

After returning to dry land, the couple set off in their RV in search of a home. They landed in North Idaho.

“My husband had a friend in the area,” Kinach says. “We loved it immediately.”

After searching fruitlessly for a suitable house, Virginia drove by the bungalow.

“I knew when I spotted it,” she says. “I just knew it.”

Watching the video the couple recorded during the home inspection prior to the sale, Kinach shakes her head.

“Looking at it now, it’s hard to believe,” she says. “But you know, what I saw in the house was really there. We just had to find it.”

Kinach had the exterior door on the front porch restored and painted the exterior. “I got advice from everybody,” she says. “I even asked the mail deliverer what color to paint the accents.”

She tackled the interior with characteristic energy. Floors were refinished and walls were painted. Kitchen cabinet doors were replaced with “reeded” glass panels. The kitchen and bathroom windows also were updated.

Pulling from her experience on the boat, Kinach brought a mariner’s sensibility to organizing her tidy home. Every inch counts.

When her son’s toys began to clutter up his small bedroom, Kinach carved a “toy store” out of a former pantry space in the basement.

“Now he has a place for things and he knows where to put them when he’s done,” she said.

The basement was transformed into a cozy family room complete with kitchenette. A workroom for Glenn and an efficient laundry room were added, too.

Kinach didn’t just bring energy to the remodel. She brought the skills of a champion bargain hunter.

“I seriously furnished this place at garage sales, or on closeout prices,” she says. “I mean everything.”

She’s not kidding. Even the white farm-style kitchen sink in the downstairs kitchen was a $30 garage-sale find. So was the back door, a $5 steal, and the pile of old brick pavers Kinach laid by hand to create a patio in the backyard.

The result is a unique and charming home.

“Virginia did it,” Glenn Kinach says. “And she did a good job.”