Simple, Shaker, and Secondhand: A 1906 Farmhouse in Minnesota, Ready for Winter

Noted recently on Instagram: a snug family farmhouse in Saint Paul, Minnesota, replete with small wintertime pleasures.

“Our home is an old farmhouse built in 1906,” writes Emma O’Connor, a part-time nurse who is raising two children, Theodore and Luella, in the house with her husband, Brandon, a third-year medical student. The two are both originally from Minnesota, and the family moved in just a little over a year ago, in September of 2020. “One special piece of history we discovered recently: My husband’s grandmother grew up just a few houses down the block and was good friends with one of the girls who lived in our house.”

Since moving in, the couple has tended to it by hand—”all nonessential,” Emma writes, “but helpful in making the house feel like our own.” They’ve painted every room, redone the kitchen, ripped out carpet and old vinyl flooring, planted a garden, and filled the space with handed-down, pre-loved finds—and garlands and greenery for the winter months.

Join us for a look around.

Photography courtesy of Emma O’Connor (@emmaelizabethoconnor).

Above: Inside, the front hall opens into the living area. “We, my husband mostly, have done all the work ourselves, and with some help from my parents,” writes Emma. “There are still things we hope to change, and our to-do list seems unending at times, but that’s part of the fun in home ownership. We are still finishing up some details in the kitchen from the remodel that started a year ago! Our homes are ever-changing and being refined, just as we are.” The staircase, too, is in the process of being refinished.