At Home in Arkansas: Carita and Bennie Ryburn and their two daughters, Halley and Madison, are a young, active family. How did they amass such an impressive collection of antique furniture?
Designer Tobi Fairley: This house belonged to Bennie’s grandparents, and he was very close to his grandmother. When she passed away, she left the house to him and his family. It was full of her antiques—wonderful old furniture, with many pieces from Hickory Chair and Baker. The Ryburns left things intact for a little while, and when they were ready, I came in and helped them with the process of determining which items to keep. Many items were sentimental to them, but they wanted the house to feel modern and updated for their children—someplace they could live in for a long time.
Once you began the remodeling process, your initial plans were derailed a bit.
After we finally decided which items to keep, I picked up all the antiques, moved them to my warehouse in Little Rock, and began refinishing and reupholstering them. Once we began the remodeling process with the contractor, the house caught on fire due to some old electrical wiring in the sunroom. A few things in the house had to be restored. We didn’t lose much, but we had to completely start over on the renovation. That was about four years ago, so this has been a five or six year process.
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