WASHINGTON — Margaret Carter was looking for a short-term relationship: Interior designer in search of charming rental to make over as home, office and design lab.
While scrolling Craigslist, she spotted this: “Great 4BR/ 3.5 BA four square farm house.”
Carter loved the look of the 1919 house, with its wraparound porch, heart-of-pine floors and high ceilings. It had tons of potential, but then there was the beat-up linoleum kitchen floor, cracked plaster walls and dated bathrooms. She knew she would have to whip out every design trick in her portfolio to make the “as- is” house a home and a calling card for her business. She moved in last April.
“It reminded me of a frat house,” says Carter, 45. “But I fell in love with it.”
She envisioned the spacious rooms polished and filled with furnishings in her decorating style, which she describes as “London chic with a bit of Connecticut barn.”
The landlords negotiated a plan to recognize the investment Carter would make in the house. The owners agreed to plaster and paint the walls in colors chosen by Carter, take down light fixtures and remove mismatched cabinets. Carter would use her own contractor to upgrade bathrooms, install lighting, restore wood floors and paint cabinets.
“This recession is not an excuse to live in an ugly environment,” she says. “Dated light fixtures and ugly oak ceiling fans can really bring you down.”
In 1997, Carter moved to Boulder to start her own antiques business and wound up spending a decade in Colorado decorating mountain homes and condos. In 2007, she sold her interior design business and home in Telluride and headed east.
She settled into the freshly painted house with a long to-do list and spent $12,000 on immediate improvements.
She remodeled the bathroom, painting walls melon, laying a yellow Marmoleum floor, installing a modern medicine cabinet, repainting the claw-foot tub and adding a glass Anthropologie doorknob.
Is she anxious about how long she’ll be able to stay?
“If I live my life wondering when I’m going to get kicked out of here, I’ll drive myself crazy,” says Carter. “My lease goes until the fall. Right now, I’m enjoying every day.”
