Victorian Farmhouse Reno

Long before West Asheville was filled with breweries and bungalows, the McCollum family built a farmhouse along one of the neighborhood’s eastern ridges using horsehair plaster and hand-forged nails. More than a century later, when Whitney and Jay Lanier discovered the Victorian home for sale, it had fallen into a state of disrepair. But beneath the wear, she saw something increasingly difficult to find: history. “I’m always drawn to old things because of the stories they tell,” Whitney says. “So when I found this home, I immediately fell in love.”

A House With a Past

Before Whitney fell for the house, though, she fell for a fisherman.

While studying art history and studio art at Wake Forest University, Whitney met Jay, a fly-fishing-obsessed English major. After graduation, his passion for casting a line eventually drew the couple to the mountains, where they settled in West Asheville and began searching for a home in which to raise a family. In 2012, they closed on the former McCollum farmhouse.

Though many details of the home’s past have been lost to time, traces of earlier lives still surface unexpectedly. During one service call, for example, an HVAC technician casually mentioned that he’d grown up in the house—and that an upstairs room once operated as a neighborhood hair salon. “I like to imagine women with beehives gossiping upstairs,” Whitney says.

The house also carries visible reminders of its past. Original white pine floors dip and slope with age, enough that a dropped marble will roll clear across an upstairs room. Stained glass windows scatter colored light across the walls throughout the day, casting shifting washes of green, amber, and blue. And in the attic, rough-hewn beams still retain traces of bark along their edges, evidence that the lumber was milled directly from trees once standing on the property.

There’s a certain romance to these imperfections. Whitney says her husband often jokes that she bought the farmhouse because she could picture herself reading in every nook and cranny—“which is true,” she admits with a laugh.

Restoring the Bones

Still, romance alone could not disguise the home’s growing list of practical problems. After welcoming their son, August, in 2017, Whitney and Jay realized the house no longer functioned for the rhythms of modern family life. True to its Victorian style, the layout offered little storage, while portions of the aging foundation required significant structural reinforcement to meet current building standards.

To help reimagine the space, the couple brought in Wendy Legerton of Legerton Architecture, who later connected them with designer Myra Grace Hooker of Graceland Design Studio. Together, the team approached the renovation with equal attention to preservation and practicality.

^{In the middle of this project, she began working with designer Myra Hooker (on right) at her Graceland Design Studio.}

Hooker says the house was deceptively difficult to work with, thanks to its narrow rooms, towering ceilings, and awkward transitional spaces that could easily feel disconnected from one another. “We really focused on creating moments where you feel like you’ve landed,” she explains.

Fortunately, the collaboration between designer and homeowner came together far more naturally. What began as a successful renovation partnership eventually grew into a close friendship—and later, a professional one, when Whitney joined Hooker’s firm, where she now helps oversee sourcing, installations, and project coordination.

To start on the house, contractors reinforced the foundation and installed a steel I-beam across part of the downstairs ceiling. According to Legerton, the team also “took great care to waterproof and help stabilize the masonry of the existing home,” including restoring the aging chimney system to accommodate a vintage green enamel wood stove Whitney thrifted from Habitat for Humanity for just $500.

Meanwhile, the kitchen footprint was expanded, built-in storage was added throughout the downstairs, and a former laundry room was converted into a bar area for Jay, whom Whitney jokingly describes as a “mixology-obsessed Renaissance man.” Throughout the process, the team worked carefully to preserve the home’s 1890 character. White pine floors were refinished, historical trim profiles were restored, and custom molding was made to match the original millwork throughout the house. “It was important to us that the newer work still felt connected to history,” says Whitney.

Designed to Last

That same reverence for the past carries into the finishings. Rather than creating interiors that felt overly polished or precious, Hooker says the goal was to design spaces that reflected both the character of the house and the personality of the family who calls it home.

In the breakfast nook, Jay’s great-great-grandmother’s tiger-oak table rests beneath a vintage Italian pendant sourced from 1stDibs. Just beyond, handmade Zellige tile and Bianco Superiore quartzite introduce texture and warmth to the kitchen without overwhelming the home’s 19th-century charm.

In the living room, deep green bookshelves give the space a collected, salon-like feel, while a framed print of sprawling white oak trees mirrors the massive oaks rooted just beyond the farmhouse windows. Nearby, a piano purchased decades earlier by Whitney’s grandmother in Bryson City anchors one corner of the home. “My dad learned to play on that piano, so having it here feels special,” she says. She still keeps the original retro sales catalog her grandmother saved from the purchase, complete with what she describes as a “Mad Men woman” posed across the front cover.

^{IN LIVING COLOR: While Whitney tends to prefer a monochromatic palette, Hooker “can handle sensory overload.” Together, they amped up the living room colors in an approachable way. The walls and shelves are drenched in Farrow & Ball’s “Breakfast Room Green,” and a deep-red vintage rug from Togar Rugs anchors the space.}

In the downstairs powder room, Victorian-inspired wallpaper features an intricate repeating pattern of garden terraces, ponds, fish, and otters. Whitney says the design immediately reminded her of childhood hours getting lost in patterned fabrics, inventing stories about the tiny details hidden inside them. She hopes her son will one day look back on the farmhouse with that same sense of wonder, remembering what it felt like to grow up inside a home shaped by generations before him. “There’s a beauty to building a family in a home that’s had a history of families,” Whitney says. “There’s comfort in seeing your place in a larger timeline. I hope that after all the love we’ve poured into this home, it continues to be lived in and cared for over generations to come.”

Resources

Graceland Design Studio
Asheville
www.findinggraceland.com

Legerton Architecture
21 North Liberty St., Asheville
(828) 251-9125; 
www.legertonarchitecture.com

Ashley’s Kitchen & Bath Design Studio
2950 US 70, Black Mountain
(828) 669-5281; www.ashleyskb.com 

Carolina Cornerstone Construction
10 Creek View Dr., Asheville
(828) 515-0223; www.carolinacornerstoneconstruction.com

Nature of Stone
4598 Hendersonville Rd., Fletcher
(828) 681-8001; www.natureofstone.us 

Togar Rugs
562 Long Shoals Rd., Arden
(828) 687-1968; www.togarrugs.com