Everyone Loves the Tree House-Like Porch in this Home

Country style cottage kitchen with green-painted island
Photography by Jim Bathie

In 2008, Dershie and Larry McDevitt decided to take on a major renovation of the home they had purchased 15 years earlier. The house sits in a valley near Asheville, North Carolina, and Dershie exclaims, “It’s truly a fun house on a very busy piece of property with its 25 or so wild turkeys and four or five deer in the yard.” The couple substantially changed the footprint of the house during the renovation and that partially explains why the house is so funky looking, but Dershie admits it started out being a little funky.

One of the reasons the couple’s interior designer Linda Constable so enjoyed the project was Dershie’s love for a good hunt. She and Linda could sniff out the perfect, one-of-a-kind items for the home. And the room that profited most from their detecting know-how is the screened porch. “The new wicker couch looks old, but was finished with a weathered stain to instantly mellow it,” Linda says. Instead of one long dining table, two square tables were commissioned allowing more flexibility in arranging the porch for entertaining. Finds such as the red chair and the stack of school chairs added to the rustic ambience of the space. Linda shares, “Everyone loves when you’re sitting on this porch; it is like being in a tree house.”

Country style cottage kitchen with green-painted island
Photography by Jim Bathie

Originally bare wood, the chest was painted in a distressed style while the top was finished with a wood stain. Two glass pendants spotlight the piece and add a warm glow to the room. With just enough room for a couple of barstools to sit opposite the drawers this piece became the perfect size island for the space.