Belleville house tour: Simple holiday decor mirrors 1870 home’s design

Kent and Louise Ishibashi own a modest old home in Belleville, the perfect backdrop for simple, but whimsical holiday decorations — like the Christmas tree with 400 pig ornaments.

The 1870, two-story Folk Victorian-style house on West Main Street has white walls throughout, original dark wood floors and big windows through that stream sunlight into tall-ceiling rooms. It’s minus much of the elaborate ornamentation of its generation, which is fine with Louise.

She likes to keep things clean and simple, said husband Kent, 74, whose ethereal paintings throughout their home grab attention. The one in the living room hung in the Brooklyn Museum in the 1960s.

Louise bought the house almost 11 years ago and the couple has completely redone the interior and exterior.

The home is one of seven in Belleville this year to be shown during the annual St. Clair County Historical Society Candlelight House Tour. It will take place from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Having lived for years in Hawaii, Louise was taken by how big the yard was when she first looked at the property.

“In Hawaii, you have just a little plot, so this was wonderful,” she said. Now, a hedge of yews surrounds the property with edgings of fountain grass and meandering brick pathways. On the front door is another of Kent’s paintings, this one his rendition of Santa on wood.

Louise and Kent met on Oahu and have been married 46 years. They have three children who live in California, Hawaii and Washington state. Louise, 71, moved to Maplewood, Mo., and worked for the chairman of the Internal Medicine Department at Washington University before retiring. When her mother and sister moved to Belleville to be close to her, she eventually moved here as well.

Kent, who is retired from marketing development for the media holding company Gannett, says he’s responsible for the start of the holiday pig infestation in their home, but friends and family have kept up the comical tradition of sending them porcine ornaments.

“During my childhood, my dad was a pig farmer,” said Kent, who was raised in Honolulu. His father had land and a home he built on it confiscated by the U.S. government after Pear Harbor. Years later, he was able to reclaim the property and Kent spent two years working with hogs while he was in junior high school.

“My favorite is the ballerina pig,” said Louise of a painted glass ornament with a white feathery tutu.

“I don’t have a favorite,” Kent added. On the floor is a cast-iron pig bank painted white — big enough to look like an escapee from a farm pen.

Kent is a collector of antique and vintage toys, most of which stay out year-round, and some holiday delights. In the dining room, eight small brown reindeer pull Santa and his white sleigh across the long tabletop. All eight look identical, even though Kent found them in various locations before putting them together as a team. He built the table out of reclaimed wood, too.

In the kitchen, Louise’s modern Dept. 56 village collection lights up and lines the top of new cabinets, set off by a miniature white picket fence made by Kent.

In a corner, a small Christmas tree sports beribboned cookie cutters doing duty as ornaments. They complement the collections of glass syrup jars with jaunty colored spouts on a nearby open shelf. The couple’s favorite part of the kitchen renovation was Louise’s idea to hang a small old door on the wall horizontally, paint the trim white and fit two chalkboards inside it. It’s covered with phone numbers and reminders.

“It was a great idea. We use it all the time,” said Kent.

In the front foyer, a line of red flocked bottlebrush wreaths from the 1950s are tied with white ribbon going up the white staircase bannister.

Kent hung a display of antique pinball games and a ouija board in a second-floor hallway.

The pair recently completed the renovation of the attic into a guest bedroom with sitting area and bathroom. On a bedside table, two miniature white ceramic Christmas trees keep company with a vintage lamp with a base that has a girl perched in a swing that moves.

Visitors are welcome to visit the newly redone room.

“But you have to climb this,” said Kent with a grin, pointing. To accommodate the space, the old attic stairs were replaced with a winding wrought-iron set.

This story was originally published December 10, 2015 at 3:23 AM with the headline "Belleville house tour: Simple holiday decor mirrors 1870 home’s design."