photography: Celia Pearson
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Fourteen years ago, Miles Andrews packed her car for a cross-country move and pointed it toward Vancouver. On her way, she visited friends in Charlottesville, Virginia, where "something about the mountains and the people caught me," she says. She stayed long enough to begin dabbling in faux paint finishes with a local theatrical set designer and, after two successful years painting everything from houses to restaurants, decided it was time to stop renting and buy a home.
"I drove through every neighborhood around the University of Virginia looking for a small, affordable house," she recalls, "one that was special, with the potential for my kind of do-it-yourself charm." Miles discovered one low bungalow, tucked nearly out of sight behind a fence and overgrown bushes and wished it were on the market. She says, "A few months later a real estate agent directed me to the same house, and it was for sale!" That one-story 1930s cottage had "everything I could ever want–old quirky windows, a graceful little fireplace, amazingly high ceilings for the house's tiny size, plaster walls to take my paint finishes, and the original ‘cottage green' sink and tub in the bathroom," she says. "Whoever ordered that tub in the '30s ordered it for me—it fits so perfectly." Miles viewed the new house as "one more opportunity for expression." Her passion for design dates back to childhood, when she played with swatches belonging to her father (a builder) and went to furniture auctions with her mother. A budding desire to create anything fresh and unconventional led her to work with the flamboyant Cirque du Soleil when it debuted in California, and then to pioneer some old-world paint finishes and recondition flea market furniture in Charlottesville. There, she opened a store called Terracottage and, with Kelly Gentry, now runs the shop 2 French Hens. | 
It’s all about giving the eye lots to feast on—not clutter, but choice accents. 
