Mary Hummert's first antique, a Staffordshire porcelain figurine of Mary and her little lamb, was a gift when she was just 6. The collecting bug bit, and by the time she was 18 she moved out of her family home "because I had five housefuls of furniture. That's how my business started." Self-taught about antiques, Mary houses her business, Pairabelles, in a charming 800-square-foot cottage behind her home in St. Libory. The cottage began life as a chicken coop and then was a tiny, two-bedroom motel. Her husband, Dennis, replaced its siding with cultured stone leftover from a construction job, and Mary fills it with her vintage finds.

It's not unusual for the couple to turn into their driveway to discover a piece of old furniture left by an area resident. "For some reason we get a lot of wood dressers," she says. "One is in our bathroom now" — after she faux- and hand-painted it in Victorian cottage style. "We believe in giving something old a new lease on life. Save the old and tell its story, but make it beautiful for modern use."

Their traditional bungalow reflects their green philosophy. The Rutter family, who owned the general store in town in the 1840s and lived above it for a century, built the two-story home during World War II on an acre of land in the center of the village. "The house was built by many (present-day) villagers' fathers and grandfathers," says Mary. It is such a landmark in the Illinois village of 600, that when the Hummerts were married there in 2002 about 500 people showed up at their house — instead of the 200 they invited. "The others came because they just wanted to see the house," Mary explains casually. The Hummerts, only the third owners, also opened the home on a Christmas tour in 2006.

There are five bedrooms and two and a half baths. Dennis re-plumbed and rewired the 2,500-square-foot house, refinished floors and remodeled the 800-square-foot basement into entertaining and work space. He often repairs and reworks its vintage furnishings, replacing the top and removing doors from a worn Empire buffet, and painting it black for wine storage in the dining room. The Hummerts take recycling a step further. "Most of our redos feature 'upcycling,' or reinvention of some element," says Mary.

"Our house is an eclectic mix of woods and style; nothing matches. A lot of it is salvage." She folds a crazy quilt made by her great-grandmother from her great-grandfather's ties across the master bed, hangs clocks, tucks baskets atop wardrobes and displays French, English and other pieces throughout. Mary repeats as many as six items, such as botanical prints, in identical frames, or trios of topiaries for balance and order. To avoid clutter she groups and edits collections of Flow Blue and majolica pottery and bisque porcelain figurines. She hangs vintage purses from unusual glass knobs inserted into a guest bedroom wall. To avoid overcrowding, she rotates pieces from the house to the sales cottage and back, laughing that there are price tags on many furnishings in the family home.

Mary and Dennis Hummert

Home • St. Libory

Ages • Mary is 46; Dennis is 44.

Occupations • Mary is a legal assistant for a St. Louis law firm. She also designs, creates and sells handmade jewelry, along with antiques, through her business, Pairabelles (www.pairabelles.mybisi.com). Dennis is a bricklayer foreman and union bricklayer with Joseph Becker Masonry in Breese.

Family • The couple has been married eight years. Mary has two daughters, Maggie Thomas, 15, at home, and Tori Wright, 23, of Carbondale. Family pets are Mini-Me, a silky-haired terrier; Issabeau and Oliver, the cats; and Harley, a mini macaw.