Refeathering the nest: with children grown, a Starkville couple reinterpret their classic home with help from a favored family designer.

It all started with the new curtains. The 15-year-old Starkville house of Dorothy and Jerald Ainsworth had served them adequately as their two sons grew up, but once the nest was empty, it seemed time for a bit of sprucing up. Dorothy's mother, Hattiesburg interior designer and antiquarian Charlotte Kidd, suggested more dramatic and opulent window treatments in the two front rooms. The rest of the changes followed naturally, with the help of Kidd's keen eye for color and collectibles.

"My mother has always been my designer," says Dorothy. "Ever since I can remember, she has been busy collecting, upgrading, selling, and buying wonderful things!" Kidd relocated her shop, Captain Kidd's, from Clarksdale to the Hub City six years ago and retains her booth in Jackson's Interiors Market. She has longtime clients all over the state, but this job was clearly a labor of love.

After a bright pumpkin-orange dupioni silk with lavish bail-fringe trim was selected for the living-room window treatment, it was evident that the walls required new paint. A bold, deep Provencal yellow was chosen to replace the tamer yellow once there. The carpets in this room and the dining room across the front hall were taken up to expose the concrete subflooring. To recarpet or not was the question, and "not" was the verdict. Jerald, whose day job is associate dean of research in the veterinary school at Mississippi State University, moonlights as a decorative painter/faux-finisher/all-around crafty guy for his mother-in-law and wife. He prepared the concrete floors in these front rooms and stained them a rustic, variegated tobacco color that resembles aged stone.

The furnishings are an eclectic assembly of family pieces and Charlotte's finds over the years. An unusual wicker parlor chair, rich with the curlicues of its Victorian era of origin, was painted a deep lettuce green and recovered. Along with the understated contemporary sofa and two antique side chairs, it provides seating in this formal parlor that, Dorothy admits, sees use mainly during large parties.

The ebonized secretaire on the far wall holds the same collection of memorabilia and antique books that it always has, but it was moved here from the dining room to anchor the scheme. A skirted round table was custom-fabricated with a banding of acanthus-motif patinated metal and holds a lamp, as does the French table on the other end of the sofa. An antique mirror flanked by brackets holding porcelain birds was hung over the sofa. A zebra rug placed diagonally on the cool floor provides texture and interest.

In the dining room, the Ainsworths and Kidd knew they wanted a bodied, strong terracotta wall color, but the first attempt resulted in something that was "way too citrus," as Dorothy puts it. Deepening and muting the paint resulted in the present shade. This provides ideal contrast to the pale trellis-stitched silk curtains, which, like those in the living room, are finished with ball-and-loop fringe.

Because the room is dark by design, a glass-topped table lightens the scheme. Supported by cast-stone pedestals capped with mirrors, it is surrounded by painted chairs reminiscent of French chinoiserie.

On the far wall, a dramatic mirror banded in an old Oriental door frame made of gilded fretwork tops a bracket-supported shelf that acts as a server, in lieu of a sideboard. Two tall bronze crane figures give drama and impact to this shelf without usurping valuable space.

Glass shades were added to the old light fixture above the table, and the room's other appointments were kept classic and simple. An inlaid 18th-century Georgian corner cabinet, scaled perfectly for the room, is filled with silver and old English china and topped with an Imari goose figurine. Kidd had the interior of the cabinet lined with antique damask to form a luminous backdrop for the collection within. Opposite this piece, on the other side of the cased opening, is a multi-tiered "dumb waiter" holding more collectibles.

On the wall facing the front window hangs an old Victorian enameled tabletop in a turtle-back shape, its lacquer and mother-of-pearl inlay shadowed by time. Hung in an orbit around this intriguing piece are a collection of German gold-banded plates centered by painted flowers in bright hues.

The den, where the family spends most of its time, is painted in a suede-like taupe. A freestanding bookshelf, custom-designed for the south wall, is more like a piece of furniture than the built-in it resembles. Dorothy's collection of Mexican banks hold pride of place here, among many books. A faux-leopard rug, banded in black, was a gift from Dorothy's mother when she moved from Lyon to Hattiesburg. Along the north wall, a huge English oak sideboard, possibly originally made for a church, provides weight and ample storage. Above it hangs a Mexican mirror framed in wide panels of oxidized copper. An oil painting of hunting dogs, well-suited for this interior with its English-country-eclectic leanings, hangs over the fireplace.

The kitchen was refloored in a rustic ceramic tile, and Jerald did a masterful two-tone glazed finish on the existing cabinets. The boys' bedrooms, now unoccupied except for the occasional visit, are guest-ready with more sophisticated fabrics and antiques. The master suite, located off the breakfast area, is a quiet retreat that adjoins a highly styled bathroom featuring a painted ceiling medallion in the dressing area (another Jerald oeuvre) and a mural over the whirlpool tub by artist Donna Woods of Hattiesburg.

The Ainsworth house, like any family dwelling, is evolving as the children grow up and away and as the owners' needs change. Sometimes, it's simply time for a facelift, to ready the house for the next phase of life.

Dorothy and Jerald are quite aware that they are extraordinarily lucky to have a mentor with enthusiasm and vision like Charlotte Kidd's. And don't "Kidd" yourself: the designer had a wonderful time as well.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHUCK KENNEDY