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T
wo years ago, Kathryn and
David Strand decided to
lighten up. David had just
retired from teaching, and
their grown children were
living on their own. After
selling their Minneapolis
home, they headed upstate to live in a
1,400-square-foot bungalow in a small
town north of Duluth.
The drab state of the 1920s home didn’t
hold the couple back. Out went what,
decades ago, seemed like upgrades: dark
paneling, dropped ceilings, and thick
carpets. “The house was small to begin
with, and the low ceilings and dark colors
made it feel even more cramped,” says
Kathryn, a former home economics
teacher. “We live so far north that daylight
is premium. We had to lighten things up.”
The budget-minded couple pulled
together their home’s new look by
shopping discount stores and remaking
old furniture. In need of a comfortable
armchair, Kathryn stripped a garage-sale
find down to the frame and reupholstered
it in blue-and-white stripe ticking fabric.
David made the fireplace mantel out of
oak saved from his father’s lumber mill
and sealed it with a light natural finish.
“We have a great sense of accomplish-
ment from doing the work ourselves,”
Kathryn says. “And it turned out exactly
the way we envisioned.”
