LUMBERTON — A stained glass window inspired Pat McKenzie when she decided to redecorate her 1947 home in the Tanglewood neighborhood.

Mimicking the glass, she spread dark red paint over the den’s walls, added bright white molding and painted the ceiling mustard yellow.

As visitors streamed through her house Saturday on the Robeson County History Museum’s Christmas Tour of Homes, McKenzie greeted them and talked about the secrets of her home.

The textured ceiling in her kitchen? Wallpaper, not the shiny painted metal it appears to be.

And why does the paper shine? That would be the Mop & Glo McKenzie slathered over it.

McKenzie has lived at the McMillian Avenue address, one of five homes on the Lumberton tour, since 2004. Through the years, she has molded a back porch into a breakfast nook and turned a closet into a bookcase.

“I love it,” McKenzie said of the bookcase. “It’s one of my favorite things.”

Upstairs she had three skylights placed in the roof near where she works on art projects. In the spring and summer, she can see the neighbor’s trees through the skylights.

“It’s like sitting in a tree house,” she said.

Down the hall lies the former attic, now a play house and “Batcave” for her five grandchildren. Following her can-do decorating attitude that led her to paint over old tiles and use leftover paint for stripes in the play house, McKenzie coated duct work with family photos.

“It’s there, you decorate it,” she said.

Renovating since 2006, Rob Redfearn also decorates what exists. He has painted the walls around a skylight in the process of being installed and arranged antiques and wall decorations.

The taupe and cream painted diamonds on the porch lead to more earth tones inside the 1901 house.

Inside, the home is painted in greens and browns with new dark wood cabinets. A hallway in the downstairs features a wall with siding. Upstairs a built-in desk and window seat are in the landing. The scent of apple cider and the sounds of music greeted visitors.

At the Bodiford home — a 1999 brick two-story structure — eight Santa Clauses and a towering Christmas tree welcomed tour participants as they popped in for a peek at Martie Ann Bodiford’s Christmas decorations.

A quartet of trees and 10 to 12 Christmas puzzles are mixed with pillows and other decorations throughout the downstairs. Martie Ann said the jigsaw puzzles began as presents from friends. She pieced the puzzles together and glued the backs. Years later, she began seeking the puzzles and framing them.

Framed in the home of John and Clyde McKee are photographs of Clyde’s namesake and grandfather E. Clyde Wade and the oil portraits of John’s ancestors.

“They were handed down to me through my father,” John said of the 19th century pieces, which have been restored.

Depicted in the paintings are his great-great-great-great-grandfather Edward Bishop Dudley, who was North Carolina’s governor from 1836 to 1841. Dudley was the first governor to be elected by popular vote, John said.

Dudley married Betsy John Haywood, whose portrait hangs across the living room between her aunt Ann Henry and their daughter, Elizabeth Dudley.

“She is my father’s great-great-grandmother,” John said.

In the dining room and bedrooms, more family portraits, old and new, are displayed in the 1974 Dutch Colonial-style home.

Down the road from the McKees lives Bob Andrews in a glass house, at least partially. Built in 1965, Lumberton architect Elizabeth Lee designed the house to incorporate nature. She used stones in the entry way and glass walls covered with drapes.

The home features built-in book cases and a glass sitting porch off the den, which has a concrete mantle over the fireplace. Andrews and Lee constructed the mantle by filling a box half full of sand, then placing shells and fish on the top. They poured concrete over that to create a mold for the mantle.

“Then I spent quite a bit of tip chipping the shells out,” Andrews said.