  The exterior of Deborah Kershaw's house. She describes it as an enchanted French cottage. (SHNS photo by Hal Stoezle / Rocky Mountain News)
 Deborah Kershaw's dining room as seen from the kitchen. (SHNS photo by Hal Stoezle / Rocky Mountain News)
 A cozy sitting area in Deborah Kershaw's house just off the kitchen. (SHNS photo by Hal Stoezle / Rocky Mountain News)
 Deborah Kershaw's upstairs bathroom. (SHNS photo by Hal Stoezle / Rocky Mountain News)
 Deborah and Rick Kershaw with their dogs in a window seat in their kitchen. (SHNS photo by Hal Stoezle / Rocky Mountain News)
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by Betsy Lehndorff
Scripps Howard News Service
Every Saturday, Deborah Kershaw shops for such luxury items as Louis XIV armchairs, hand-hammered copper pots, silver tea sets, fine art and bolts of designer fabrics. But you won't see her at fancy stores or design centers.
Instead, she grabs the classified ads, rounds up her girlfriends and heads out to garage and yard sales across the metro area.
"It's an addiction," says Deborah, 55, of Denver. "I like to find deals."
A few hours later, she'll return home with complete sets of Ralph Lauren sheets, baby cradles, designer barstools, blue and white delftware china, needlepoint pillows and, of course, lots of decorative rabbits.
Kershaw is a savvy garage-sale shopper. She and her friends have been navigating Denver's neighborhoods for 10 years in a caravan of three SUVs.
With her treasures, she has decorated a cottage-style home to the rafters with a designer's touch. The native Texan has an eye for quality and color.
"I don't know what year my daughters were born, but I know the price of that lamp," she says, pointing to a red iron fixture topped with a painted paper shade. "$1.50."
She points to barstools she spotted at a sale--$100 for three, plus $30 each for custom-made cushions. "I found the fabric at a garage sale," she says.
Her husband, Rick, admires his wife's talents as a bargain-hunter and decorator.
"This is Deborah's decorating on a dime," he says. His wife restricts herself to $100 a week in spending money and always lets him look over her purchases before she brings them into the house.
Even the couple's house was a bargain. In 1985, when they decided to move from Omaha to Denver, Rick came ahead to find a temporary rental. The home they chose, a French Tudor, was the first he saw. It was built in the 1930s out of clinker-style bricks. Roofs were high-peaked, and windows were shaded with Virginia creeper--so shaded in fact, that the vines concealed all the window shutters.
"I called and told her, 'It's got planks for floors, and it needs work,'" he says.
But the moment Deborah arrived and saw the home, she was hooked.
"I saw a rooster weathervane on the chimney and I thought, 'I'm going to love this house,'" she says. "It was charming, and I liked the cottage look to it. Of course, I hadn't seen inside. It was a disaster."
The couple moved antique furnishings in, and Deborah began to nest, creating cozy bedrooms for her three young daughters.
The rental was for sale, and the Krenshaws decided to make an offer themselves and snagged the 980-square-foot residence at a bargain price. Over the next 20 years, they added on to the back and bumped out the kitchen. The instant the plaster dried, Deborah would start decorating.
Inside the front door, visitors see a timbered dining room dominated by a huge dining table. The floor is covered with wide oak planks, all original to the home. A fireplace mantel displays white ironstone pitchers.
A double-wide timbered arch frames a recently remodeled kitchen dressed up in provincial blues and yellows. The central countertop is made of butterscotch-colored granite and contains a huge farmhouse-style sink made of slabs of the same material. Above it, Deborah displays a wealth of copper pans, bowls and accessories. Only one was a gift from a friend; the rest are trophies of her Saturday adventures.
One side of the kitchen has been bumped out to make room for a gas fireplace and sitting area. Upholstered chairs overflowing with accent pillows offer inviting places to rest. One of Rick's favorites is a recliner Deborah bought at a consignment shop for $180 and reupholstered with a blue-and-yellow designer brocade fabric. Nestled in its cushions is a needlepoint pillow decorated with lily of the valley, another $5 yard-sale find.
"People give stuff away," Deborah says. "It's amazing. It's really the thrill of the hunt. It fills my retail-therapy need. When I take a chair and a needlepoint cover and put it all together, it's just beautiful and it makes me happy."
(Betsy Lehndorff of the Rocky Mountain News at www.rockymountainnews.com.)
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