When Emily and Russ Viguerie first toured the Woodstone house they now call home, there was a hole in a bedroom ceiling where a tree had fallen through. Rottweilers had gnawed on doorframes, and the air conditioning units had been stolen. But where other potential buyers saw problems, this newly married couple saw a project worth tackling.

Along with its difficulties, the house also came with some added bonuses in the form of several antique furniture pieces left behind by the former owners. It was an instant starter pack for filling the rooms, but the Vigueries didn’t stop there. Russ’s father’s years of experience flipping houses and Emily’s flair for finding hidden gems at estate sales helped the couple to truly make this house their own.

“The vision was always to have an open floorplan, but I also wanted each room to have its own feel,” Emily says.

The construction process was spearheaded by Russ’s dad, David Viguerie, and the couple did much of the work themselves. Walls were removed to improve flow between the kitchen and living room, and a new home office and pantry were tucked into a corner near the kitchen via a design by friend Allison Keppinger, an architectural associate at DNA Workshop. Another friend, Carlye Graugnard of Sage Hill in St. Francisville, helped Emily find many of the eclectic pieces that fill each room during market trips to Dallas and New York together. “We kept working on things after we moved in,” Emily says.

But the soul of this space comes from Emily herself, a degreed graphic designer who now works in design for Queen of Sparkles. Though she self-identifies as “secretly a hoarder,” her ability to pull together collections of unexpected items and to incorporate rich colors and textures ultimately grounds the house and gives it a sense of depth and history.

Emily’s collections range from the elegant—like her mother-in-law, she loves blue and white pottery pieces and has them on display in nearly every room—to the eclectic. The array of vintage wood-handled dough cutters that hangs on a wall surrounding the door to the pantry was assembled over time from estate sales all over Baton Rouge, objects of utility that now serve as objets d’art. And shiny copper pots hang from a rack in the kitchen, a warmly glowing holdover from another era.

Russ’s imprint is also on this space. The home office has an old-school masculine feel, and a pair of his trophies from deer hunting excursions is on display just inside the front door. The massive turkey that he had mounted, however, does not currently have a place of prominence, Emily points out. “He used to hang it up whenever I would leave,” she says with a laugh.

His love for the outdoors influences the couple’s efforts in their kitchen as well. Emily has become adept at cooking game like duck and venison as well as the fresh catches he brings home from fishing trips. This room, along with the adjacent central living area with its big sectional sofa, is also where the couple often entertains friends and family. That penchant for hospitality dovetails with Emily’s other position as director of community life for First Presbyterian Church, where she helps to create connections through year-round events.

Even with the paint barely dry on some of their new rooms, the couple already has designs on future enhancements, from sprucing up additional bedrooms to taking on the outdoor areas. As Emily proclaims, “I love a project.”

This article was originally published in the January 2026 issue of 225 Magazine.