Home is where her art is

Many times over the 18 years she has lived in her 1940s Colonial, Christine Moretti has tried to squelch her desire to be, as she puts it, "wacky." And each time she has, she's hated it.

There was the all-white interior she disliked. Then there was the more minimalist approach of tearing down the paneling that lined the house (the plaster came down too).

So Christine got to work, making every room a madcap work of art.

"I knew if I didn't do what I wanted to do, it would never be me," Christine says, describing the house as "whimsical and tongue-in-cheek."

"It is intended to put a smile on your face," she says.

If the koi pond she painted on the landing in the living room doesn't do it for you, the painted zebra desk in the library will.

Christine and husband Al Moretti lived in a Philadelphia rowhouse for 10 years. When they started a family, they looked for a single home in the Somerton section of the Northeast.

Al, a letter carrier with the Torresdale post office, remembers seeing the three-bedroom for the first time.

"I had no idea what she saw in the place," he says with a shrug. "It was smaller than the place we were in, and it needed some help."

But in all marriages, there are compromises. Christine, a Harrisburg native who met Al on a blind date, knew that this Philly guy would never move, so she came to him.

She knew this house had potential, as well. "I said, 'Oh, I can do something with this,' " says the self-trained painter - the kid in school who always doodled.

When they moved in, Christine was home with their two young sons and was antsy to do something with the place. Out came the paintbrush.

"I have painted this house so many times, my sister jokes that the rooms are probably 10 inches smaller now," she says.

The former sunporch/playroom that now serves as their dining room is tricolor: red, black, and white. Christine glued fabric to the walls on either side of the fireplace, and just two months ago had a tin ceiling put in. High on the walls hangs her collection of black-and-white plates.

At one end of the room, a garage-sale love seat that she recovered stands next to a chair from Overstock.com. The red dining chairs are from an antiques store. A $5 mahogany dresser that Christine painted black and white and dressed up with silver pulls now holds linens and dishes. Her rooster collection occupies a shelf.

Off the living room is a space that Christine, who works as a billing coordinator in Abington, transformed into a library/office - one with a strong feminine side. The ceiling is pink, the desk a $5 vanity she painted with zebra stripes and purple trim and paired with a zebra chair.

The fireplace is faux, as are many of the books - they were painted on the walls with stencils. Add a love seat and a grandfather clock and, Christine says, "This is the room where I have my coffee every morning."

Next door, the living room has an island vibe that warms even a cold winter day.

"I wanted it to have a vacation feel all year round," she says. "When I told my husband my idea for the room, he said, 'Just don't paint the walls orange.' "

We'll call it cantaloupe. And the ceiling is yellow, the sectional a sea green.

Christine painted a striped beach towel on the wall - to match one she did right on the hearth tiles. And, of course, there's that koi pond.

"When you are standing upstairs, it looks like the fish are jumping out of the water," she says.

On the second floor, tropical turns a bit frosty: Christine painted a snow scene on bedroom and bathroom doors. But warming rays aren't too far away. Just off the master bedroom, the Morettis built a large sunporch, where they and Zoe, their Cairn terrier, spend time in warmer months.

Painting is not the only project this DIY girl will tackle. She's tiled a powder room and helped her sons with their rooms, listening to what they wanted, naturally.

Jeremy, 21, a student at Temple University, wanted a more grown-up place where his friends could hang out, with a futon and a TV and the requisite posters. "I like that our house is different, so do my friends," he says.

"Jeremy is the one son who will probably want me to help decorate his house some day," Christine says.

Josh, 25, is a Penn State grad who's just started a job with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.

"Josh asks me to help him in terms of my opinions about where to put his furniture in his room," she says, "but he has his own ideas about how he wants it."

Christine would like to expand her talents. "I want to take a woodworking class to learn how to miter, so I can do a few other things around the house," she says.

But for now, she has put down the brush.

"It is fun to hear people's reactions to the place. Nine out of 10 people get it. The other person will say, 'You are crazy.'

"Then there are the people we know who approach us and say, 'When you sell your house, tell us.' "