The home of Diane Cary-Thomson and her husband, Kenner Thomson, is a house of borrowed treasures and whimsical styles bound together by an encompassing artistic sensibility. In this home, it is not unusual for the bathroom door to have a mail slot or for window shutters to hang on interior walls.

Years before buying the property, Diane and Kenner began collecting old doors, windows, and other architectural pieces from salvage yards and flea markets with the aspiration of designing a house in which to showcase them. According to Diane, her attraction to unusual doors and windows was instinctive: “It wasn’t premeditated, but more like, ‘These are wonderful, let’s try to incorporate them into our space.’”

The house that Diane, an artist, and Kennar, a builder/cabinet maker, bought in 1983 turned out to be rotted and termite-infested. That was okay, says Diane, because to the Thomsons, it was all about the view. “It’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen,” says the well-traveled Diane. “We’re at the widest expanse of the Severn - one of the most beautiful rivers in the country - and we get spectacular sunsets.

With Kenner serving as the builder and Diane acting as the general contractor, the couple tore down the original structure and rebuilt. The new house’s arched windows and columns bring to mind an Italian villa, while whitewashed decorative molding and an attractive porch on the second floor are reminiscent of colonial India. In summer, the porch’s white umbrella and a sprinkling of potted palms complete the image. The interior is also unique, embodying a dab of shabby chic, a touch of antebellum charm, and shades of Victorian comfort. The ceilings are all at least ten feet high, lending the house the illusion of greater size.

Each of their discovered details is used in an inventive, decorative way: Old doors are turned horizontally and used as paneling in the guest bathroom, and in the master bedroom hangs an enormous Palladian window from Alexandria, Va.‘s, city hall. Several shutters from an old church in New Hope, Pa., are covered with wallpaper and hang inside by windows on the first floor. Simple, white kitchen cabinets were a gift out of a friend’s country home in Sperryville, Va. Diane’s favorite art deco light fixture came from a Parisian flea market, but her most triumphant find is the marble used in the master bathroom’s shower, which came from the elevator fronts of the student union at George Washington University, her alma mater. “A friend of ours was doing some work down there, and he was the one who told us they were coming down. He knew how much I love everything from GW, and it was very thoughtful of him to let us know.”

Salvaged items are also incorporated into the moldings, like the ornate pediment crowning the porch doors that once adorned the Elks Club on Baltimore’s Pratt Street. The pediment was obtained from another friend, who owned an old collectibles shop in Arnold, Md. She sold Diane the pediment, which was stored in her barn, as well as the marble used in the Thomsons’ entry foyer. Likewise, the home’s stunning interior moldings and trims, all built by Kenner, were copied from those found in rooms throughout Annapolis’ historic Maryland Inn. Diane has found it handy to have a master wood craftsman around the house. “I can come up with an idea, and he can execute it,” she explains. “Not many people have that.” Kenner has no problem helping with his wife’s design whims: “It is fun,” he says, “and we really enjoy working together.”

The decorative style of the house changes from room to room, from the galley-like kitchen located on the second floor, where Diane and Kenner’s hydrangeas dry upside down in russet-colored bunches, to the private spaces on the ground floor where Ralph Lauren rose-covered wallpapers evoke a sense of Victorian comfort. The master bedroom is covered in a wallpaper reminiscent of a patterned tin ceiling. “The textured wallpaper adds dimension to the room,” says Diane.

Throughout the house hangs Diane’s artwork. The entry hall contains paintings of a ballerina en pointe, pastel-hued children on a beach, a stark landscape of a farm in the wintertime, and a white wicker chair surrounded by a summer garden. Some pieces reflect her days as a copyist at the National Gallery of Art, while others are from her personal repertoire of landscapes, still lifes, portraiture, and sculpture.

Potted palms and swishing ceiling fans give the living room/dining room the feel of a tranquil drawing room in Bermuda. As if echoing the water outside the windows, the room is awash in shades of blue: blue and white striped seersucker sofas, a blue toile loveseat, mismatched blue throw pillows and a collection of blue and white china. Scattered among the artist’s trappings - sheet music for the piano, paints and an easel, coffee table-sized art books - is an eclectic collection of items the Thomsons picked up while traveling.

The couple’s attraction to restoring tired objects has transcended the fickle tide of trendiness. Says Diane, “What we do with old relics is analogous to God’s transforming ability to take something tattered and broken and make it new.”

Christianna McCausland is a Baltimore-based freelance writer.