A 19th Century Farmhouse With Nods to Japan

Name: Eric and Lori
Location: North High Shoals, Georgia

Eric and Lori’s Georgia farmhouse is filled with so much color and texture but stops short of overloading you with whimsy. Each room has its own distinct personality, and we’d happily set up shop in any of them!

From Eric: Our home was built around 1898 in North High Shoals, GA just a stone’s throw from the Apalachee River. The original part of the home was a Mill House built for the factory workers for the textile mill that was built in High Shoals around 1848. We have three bedrooms and two baths for our family of five plus our pet rooster Freddie. The house has a natural charm and warmth around it. It sits atop three acres with a creek running along the back that you can see from our sleeping porch in the back.

The property additionally has two outbuildings. One was an old carriage house that we remodeled into our studio/shop for our business ME Speak Design. The second two-story building, we were told was an old barn that housed one cow! It is unfinished but we currently use the top floor for packaging up and shipping out our work and for storage of our pieces.

The decoration of our home, much like our business, is Japanese-inspired with Southern roots. Our home is very colorful, decorated with the things we love and many that we have made. We also have some special pieces from travels that we hold dear. We have some beautiful textiles from India, pottery and paintings by Eric’s mother who now has Alzheimer’s and is unable to create art, a Japanese statue that sits on top of our piano that Lori’s father brought back from Japan where he was stationed in the Navy and a brass Thai dancer gifted to us by Eric’s father that he brought back from Vietnam. Our nightstand was made by Eric’s grandfather and given to us on our wedding day; we celebrated communion at our ceremony using that very table.

We have built much of the lighting and furniture for our home and recently did a mini kitchen remodel, painting the cabinets and replacing the old hardware with ones that we hand forged from brass, we designed and made brass and copper pendants and charred pine countertops. We are avid cooks and love spending time in the kitchen. Our home is our sanctuary and our favorite place to be.

Thanks, Eric and Lori!

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