Text by Kim Ratcliff • Styling by Julie Walker • Photography by Davies & Lawery

Walking through her Raleigh, North Carolina, neighborhood six years ago, Ashley Carter saw a drab green fixer-upper, so tilted that it looked like a haunted house.
   Having previously restored a battered bungalow to cream puff status, she was no stranger to makeovers. Always up for a challenge, she and her husband, Graham, sold their perfect pad, bought the tilted terror, and lived in one room for two years while they gutted and renovated the rest of the house, building an addition off the back and adding a master bath. “I cried a lot during the first six months,” she recalls.
   But decorating the place was easy, because Ashley designs for Goldbug Studio, her limited-edition gift line inspired by fairy tales and folklore.

(a) Neighbor Sophie isn’t about to miss Ashley’s May Day celebration, (b) announced on a charming vintage chalk easel. (c) After Ashley reupholstered the vintage slipper chairs (snagged at a yard sale), “I liked the fabric so much I bought a coordinated pair of stiletto heels!” (d) Gerbera daisies set the mood for a spring fling. (e) Ashley with “my very foxy husband,” Graham Fry. Ashley’s creations, including a Good n’ Plenty Faery Crown,  (f) Hand-blown Murano glass pinwheel sconces create a festive vibe in the family room and couldn’t be more different from the folk and found object art she enjoys, including this painting, (g) by Tom d.
   “I tend to collect things I personally can’t create.” (h) In the guest room, where cat Sydney (aka “the Neighborhood Ambassador”) rules the roost, a fireplace mantel stands in as a headboard. A toile-and-parchment ballerina dress form made by artist Kim Perry displays Goldbug wares.

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