HISTORY in the MAKING

A MILWAUKEE COUPLE REVIVED A VACATION COTTAGE IN DOOR COUNTY, WISCONSIN, FILLING ITS SNUG SPACES WITH VINTAGE FINDS, SATURATED COLORS, AND PITCH-PERFECT WALLPAPER.

- KELLY RYAN KEGANS

ALONG the FRONT LAWN of a CLAPBOARD-SIDED 1940s COTTAGE, afternoon sun dapples a hedgerow of Little Lime hydrangeas, their green blooms faded to dusty autumn pink.

Kevin Brost (left) and lan Hampton's front patio faces west to capture sunsets and glimpses of Lake Michigan.

OPPOSITE To turn their prefab garden shed into a dream potting space, the couple painted the floor in Benjamin Moore's Dunmore Green, a shade inspired by 18th-century records from Williamsburg.

The shrubs buffer a split-rail fence. Beyond it, two dogs lope across the grass. Add a trio of white Adirondack chairs and a basket of apples, and the scene is a postcard welcome to Door County, Wisconsin.

BACKSTORIES Repurposed as a coffee table, a $75 wooden workbench shows its wear, weathered after decades in the elements. "You can see the cuts where someone was sawing on top of it," Kevin says. "I find it beautiful, but it's also something no one has to be careful with."

BACKSTORIES Initially the couple limewashed the living room walls, but after a while, agreed that the white color washed everything out. So they pivoted to blue (Farrow and Ball's De Nimes) and have no regrets.