FAMILIAR GROUND

A NATIVE MIDWESTERNER LANDS BACK HOME AGAIN IN INDIANA, WHERE A THOUGHTFUL INTERIOR DESIGNER HELPS HER BREATHE LIFE AND ECO-FRIENDLY DETAILS INTO HER NEW-OLD MIDCENTURY HOME.

- LAURIE JUNKER

There was a time when Susannah Gray might have felt sheepish revealing her Hoosier roots to East Coast friends.

But not anymore. "I'm proud to be from the heartland," Gray says, reflecting on why—after living in New York City for most of her adult life—she purchased a midcentury property in her hometown of Bloomington, Indiana. It had a familiar limestone exterior, reminiscent of the Indiana University campus where her dad taught for many years. And when her sister pointed out that the house had once belonged to their mother's best friend, that sealed the deal. "I remember being there as a kid and thinking it was kind of sophisticated!" Gray says.