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Any space can be transformed into a private sanctuary...
just look what this homeowner did with only 112 square feet!
by Rose Bennett Gilbert
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 Just reading Lori Ahern’s resumé is enough to make most of us tired: interior designer, caterer, antiques dealer, mother of three...to which she can now add “demolition expert” and “impromptu architect.” Proof of Lori’s latest prowess sits small (a scant 8' x 14') in the backyard of her home in Grain Valley, Missouri. There’s no plumbing, no insulation, not even sheetrock on the interior walls, yet her “getaway,” as she calls it, plays a big role in her career. “It’s so typical of my work—I’m an ‘out-of-the-box’ decorator,” Lori explains, meaning that when she plans a project, expect the unusual.
The little cottage itself is a reincarnation of a 1940s lakeside cabin that once belonged to a boyfriend of her daughter Brooke. When he took the cabin down, windows and other architectural bits and pieces came home to the cottage the Aherns were building in place of a former horse shed on their 4-acre property. But the little house quickly took on a life of its own, Lori recalls. It became her design office, a guest house, a repository for all the antiques and other collectibles she’s spent a lifetime gleaning from flea markets, and estate and yard sales.
“I’ve been collecting antiques since I was 17,” she says. Touring the cottage with her is like tracing the map of her life: “That’s [son] Tyler’s first ‘big boy’ bed...The wicker chaise came from a garage sale...The oak mirror was in a department store dressing room...I made those cushions from 1940s fabric I found at a sale....”
The cottage may be a tiny 112 square feet, but it has been a huge gift to its architect, as she says: “I feel so blessed that I can go to work everyday doing something I love in a place I love, too.” •
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The wicker chaise came home from a garage sale; the ‘end table’ is old suitcases stacked on a wooden cart.
Photos: Bill Mathews; stylist: Gloria Gale
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