Eddie Seal/Special to the Caller-Times

Jim and Terry Parker love to garden or lounge on the patio Jim built. Some day they will enclose the patio to expand the living room.

By Diane S. Morales, Caller-Times

Octoberr 01, 2006

Eddie Seal/Special to the Caller-Times

An angel figure from Attic Antiques in Portland hangs from the mirror in the dining room.

PHOTO GALLERY

After her husband survived an illness, Terry Parker made a deal with God — quit corporate America, leave a comfortable and successful life in Austin and move your family to Rockport where you don’t know a soul.

Pressured to find a home fast, the Parkers settled on a house in dire need of repair. The concrete walls were solid, but the interior was in bad shape.

“I thought, okay, it’ll take two months tops to fix. It just needs some paint and rouge,” Terry said.

Simplifying 20 years of living for material things reduced the Parkers and their daughter Dani to living in a bedroom for eight months. Jim Parker and a friend gutted the three-bedroom, two-bath house. When they finished, the family named their home the “Cottage by the Sea.”

Inspiration for the home’s shabby chic décor came from Terry’s newfound appreciation for her late grandmother’s hand-stitched quilts.

Eddie Seal/Special to the Caller-Times

Even the kitchen’s pantry door is a work of romantic art with a vine of roses. Terry’s late grandmother’s teacups and saucers dangle above the doorway.

“She made one for me every Christmas when I was a girl and I really didn’t care for them then,” Terry, co-owner of Lasting Impressions, a decorating business, said. “But I treasure them now.”

And she’s going with what she has always liked too — things with a history or a perceived history.

A rustic faux wood plank floor is the base for the mix of pink, white, cream, antiqued white and pale green colors floating around the home. Bead board throughout the home adds to the rustic retreat.

Guests to the Parker home step into the dining room at the home’s entrance. An antique sideboard and matching dining table were finds from Austin. Angel statues and jeweled candleholders adorn the sideboard with a gold-framed mirror hanging above it.

“The mirror belonged to Jim’s mom. It survived Hurricane Celia,” Terry said.

Most of the Parkers’ accessories come from estate sales, antique shops and Terry’s jaunts to Wimberley for market days. With space at a minimum, Terry takes out something for every new item she buys. The rule keeps the house in cozy order and the sign on a beam that reads “Simplify” is the Parker’s motto.

Eddie Seal/Special to the Caller-Times

Terry’s ivory and green striped vanity with flowers is from Wimberley. She displays her late grandmother’s jewelry box, mirror stand and hand mirror.

White paint-cracked corbels flank the corners of a beam to the living room. Terry scored the corbels in Wimberley, which were nearly bought by the shabby chic diva Rachel Ashwell.

“The dealer told me she forgot them and I thought ‘Oh my God she was here,” Terry said.

In the living room, a series of grapevine wreaths hang from ribbon in front of the windows overlooking the backyard. Another sign above the window reads “Welcome to the Beach.”

A patchwork quilt — one of Terry’s grandmother’s — covers the seat of a sofa. An old green screen door propped against a wall from Heart & Home in Rockport frames a basket of flowers Terry arranged.

Eddie Seal/Special to the Caller-Times

For Dani Parker’s 13th birthday, the couple granted her surfer-girl wish with a styling room. Jim crafted her bed from a magazine photo. White bead board breaks up the tangerine wall color.

The family’s cat Jenny lounges on a moss green velvet chaise near the windows. A crackled pale green rocker with custom floral cushions sits in a corner with a pink trimmed accent table. Broken pieces of dishes form a mosaic on the table. Hand-painted pink roses by artist friend Francis Felps mark book covers, furniture, vintage boxes and vases.

In the kitchen, white bead board mixes with crackled cabinets and brush nickel knobs. Terry made pink floral café curtains to dress a few cabinets. The pantry door is adorned with hand-painted pink flowers. The home’s name, “Cottage by the Sea,” is painted just below the sink.

Tropical motif

The master suite is markedly feminine with rose floral bedding, a chandelier fixture with lampshades above the bed, angel figures and Felps’ rose handiwork.

For the headboard, the couple fashioned pieces of a wrought iron gate with fleur-de-lis tips and a weathered screen door in the center. The couple is converting an attached garage into a master bath, which Terry hopes will be completed by Christmas.

Down the hall, Dani’s room breaks from shabby chic to surfer chic with tangerine wall color and Hawaiian print bedding in pink and white from Pottery Barn.

“We let her pick the colors for her birthday and Jim built her bed,” Terry said.

In the guest bedroom, a pink chenille bedspread with floral and quilted pillows creates a romantic scene. Some old roadside posts and refinished white shutters were pieced together for the headboard.

Black and white family photos and a neat stack of Terry’s grandmother’s quilts near her grandmother’s sewing machine shows what’s important to the Parker family.

A custom painted sign hanging above the kitchen door reminds them all every day.

“The most important things in life aren’t things.”

Contact Diane S. Morales at 886-3758 or moralesd@caller.