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Farmhouse Home Decor & Vintage Shopping Tour of Maryland & Virginia

May 16, 2017 5 Comments

Farmhouse & Vintage Home Décor Shopping Tour

I’ve gushed about the treasure hunt of home decor antiques available in Maryland and Northern Virginia a few times before, (Fall home decor post here + Holiday home decor post here) and I’m here to share another trip the antique lover’s capital! I was first introduced to these spots by my mother, an avid Southern Living Magazine and home decor enthusiast. Hmmm… I wonder where I get it from?! Here’s a recap of our April 22 adventure, the stops we took and treasures we spotted from modern farmhouse decor finds, to vintage antiques.

We always start the day in Buckeystown, Maryland at Chartreuse & co. This home decor enthusiasts’ dream spot consists of a few charming farm buildings filled with various antiques and upcycled home decor vendors.

On this Saturday they were also having a “Spring Market Day” with additional tag sales and local vendors set up outside. It was amazing, again definitely worth the 6am wake up call and 3 hour road trip from Pittsburgh. There was plenty of affordable finds from romantic french country inspired pieces to rustic and farmhouse styles. At Chartreuse the vendors offer a mix of newly manufactured pieces, handmade pieces, untouched antiques and upcycled pieces.

Just up the street from our first stop is Buckeystown Design Co Op. This shop features a bit more upscale, more refined home decor pieces & furniture. Instead of upcycled pieces, here you’ll find nice, quality things purchased from suppliers and fun finds from places like High Point furniture warehouse sales. The space was fit for spring with beautiful fake spring flowers.

Next up on our home decor shopping adventure we visited Sweet Clover Barn. Sweet Clover is vintage home decor and handmade marketplace housed in a dairy barn on a horse farm in Frederick, Maryland. Again there are various farm building used to display multiple vintage home decor vendors, create another ultimate home decor lovers’ paradise. This place was upcycled kitchen hutch central. I was swooning over each unique farmhouse kitchen hutch.

And yes I said hello the the horsies on the farm. They came right up to say hello 🙂

We then ventured on to the Old Lucketts Store which was filled to the brim inside and outside with treasures of all kinds. Lucketts describes themselves as “Vintage Hip”. The grounds are filled with outdoor decor pieces and sheds spilling over with pieces. I mean how fun are these brightly painted bikes?!

Only the 2 main houses were open this weekend, but still everytime I turned a corner there was another room or another stairwell to explore. Each space features a different vendor. I was particularly obsessed with this glass sliding barn door.

I purchased a vintage wood buffet piece from an outside vendor and will be flipping it! Stay tuned for updates 🙂

We made a stop to refuel at Roots 657 Cafe and Local Market. It’s beautiful inside a great for a quick lunch. Just down the street on James Monroe Highway in Leesburg is a a bunch more treasure-filled shopping spots: The Hummingbird’s Nest, On a Whim and Rust and Feathers. I purchased a fun lamp at On a Whim for $50. Rust & Feathers seems to be a bit on the pricey side, haven’t found much I loved there yet.

If you’re interested in planning your own trip to the area, I would suggest starting your research with this Southern Living Article highlighting the area’s best stops, and my recaps from my previous visits (Fall home decor post here + Holiday home decor post here). Happy home decor treasure-hunting.

Home Decor

Furniture Flip with DIY Chalk Paint Recipe

April 11, 2017 4 Comments

The Before…

I searched for the perfect French Provincial set of dresser drawers for months. Through Craigslists, LetGo, Facebook groups, and second hand stores. There are lovely pieces at the various vintage stores I love in Frederick Maryland, but honestly most are out of my price point. Plus I wanted a piece I could flip and make my own. Plus my mother wanted to help with a project. I finally found a piece I liked through Craigslist about an hours drive from where I live. It’s not exactly what I was looking for, but my mother and I both really just wanted to get started on this project. I paid $130 cash for this second hand piece.

The Paint Color…

I researched pre-mixed chalk paints a lot before deciding I wanted to mix my own. I chose this route so I could pick my own color and not be limited to the premixed Annie Sloan or Amy Howard colors.

I have always been a purple girl. I had two different purples paint colors in my room as a young girl and in my post-college apartment 🙂 I just couldn’t pick one!

For my furniture piece I selected a shade soft purple gray called Cotton Flannel by Olympic Paints and Stains.

The DIY Chalk Paint Recipe…

Mixing in water and Plaster of Paris obviously dilutes the quality and changes the consistency of the paint, so its best to use a decent quality paint.

Materials:

Plaster of Paris
quality interior latex paint in a flat sheen
plastic mixing bowl
cold water

This DIY chalk-finish paint can’t be mixed and stored to reuse later. To mix enough chalk-finish paint for one coat for an average sized 6 drawer dresser, use a ratio of 1/3 cup of Plaster of Paris to 1/3 cup of cool water. Stir that combination until completely smooth. Then combine with 1 cup of latex paint and stir thoroughly. This makes only enough chalk-finish paint for one coat. Its best to dry completely and sand in before mixing another batch between coats.

The Furniture Flip After…

I wanted to take this piece to the next level with metallic detail. We used Rust-Oleum American Accents Champagne Gloss Metallic Latex Interior Paint to add stencil detail and border accent. We kept the hardware as is. The drawer border stencil is Martha Stewart Crafts Laser-Cut Stencils, Flourish.

I love the end product. It’s truly me. Some might not like the purple or the flourish details, but I do! This is what I love about DIY projects, making the piece your own. We can all take inspiration from what we see in Pinterest or Instagram, but I hope when it comes to the things we bring into our home, we don’t just emulate the look – we take inspiration and create our own version. I personally love the feeling of transforming something to reflect myself. I look forward to finding another piece to make my own soon!

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Home Decor, House & Home

Projects & Progress

March 30, 2017 4 Comments

I’m in the middle of three (yes 3) DIY projects right now. Three that I’ve started at various times but haven’t been able to complete. I am still really excited to complete these three projects, it’s just finding the moment and energy to do so. I’m so excited about these projects, I need to share.

Kitchen Open Shelving

Through browsing on Instagram I’ve come to swoon over pictures of open display shelving. With the only open wall space in our teeny tiny kitchen, we’re going to build the most beautiful open shelving.

I AM SOOO EXCITED. Seriously. I ordered the most charming and unique shelf brackets, as girly and swirly as my BF would let me go.

I picked out beautiful pine wood board at The Home Depot. I chose to stain it a warm brown color we had leftover from earlier in our flip project. It’s a custom mixed color in a Zar interior stain, mixed to match the hue of our laminate flooring.

I can’t wait to hang the shelves and brackets! I just need an extra pair of hands to help me level the boards. My BF has been hard at work on his flip projects, but hopefully we’ll find a moment this weekend to get the shelves hung!

French Provincial Dresser

I searched for the perfect French Provincial set of dresser drawers for months. Through Craigslists, LetGo, Facebook groups, and second hand stores. There are lovely pieces at the various vintage stores I love in Frederick Maryland, but honestly most are out of my price point. Plus I wanted a piece I could flip and make my own. I finally found a piece I liked through Craigslist about an hours drive from where I live. It’s not exactly what I was looking for, but I really just wanted to get started on this project. I paid $130 cash.

I researched chalk paints a lot before deciding I wanted to mix my own. I chose this route so I could pick my own color and not be limited to the premixed Annie Sloan or Amy Howard colors. More to come on the color and recipe I used.

Small Mirrored Shelf

I found a charming mirrored shelf piece at the last Hannas town flea market in October. I think I paid $10 for it. I’ve started to antique the glass and will paint the wood, maybe charcoal grey? I think I might hang it in the bathroom, but am unsure it will fit the space.

Stay tuned for project updates…

If you can’t already tell, I really love to get hands on and make things my own. Plus I love decor pieces with soft curves and swirl aspects 🙂 I’m really hoping to wrap these projects up this weekend! Stay tuned for the details final reveals.

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Home Decor

Spring Refresh Home Decor

March 26, 2017 14 Comments

Spring has sprung! Time for a home decor refresh! I gathered my favorite glass pieces and flowers from Jo-Ann Craft Store to create my own spring blossom-inspired display.

I LOVE these new soft paper flowers from Jo-Anns. I couldn’t resist purchasing these purple lovelies. I set them in my antique teal large blue mason jar. I paired that with a few up-cycled pasta jars panted in a soft teal chalk paint. The paint I used is FolkArt® Home Decor™ Chalk Paint

This rose gold set is upcycled Four Roses Bourbon bottles. I love the shape, glass color and roses detail on these glass bottles! I decided to spray Rustoleum’s copper metallic spray paint just over the raised roses emblem.

The larger bottles are upcylced Moscato bottles with the same metallic spray paint.

I love combining different types of gold in my decor and recycling pieces throughout the season. All it takes to transition is mixing in pops of seasonal color.

I updated my silver mercury glass tub for Spring with more of the lovely paper flowers from Jo-Anns.

This charming slate board is a gift from Pampered Chef!

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DIY Home Renovation

House Flipping in Pittsburgh

March 21, 2017 9 Comments

So my boyfriend bought another house, actually two (check out my post from the first surprise house here). He’s really getting into the business of flipping small outdated homes and revitalizing them for the active Pittsburgh rental market. He’s been working hard on each property since January 2017, with myself helping on any small projects that I can. Mostly just painting and design choices, plus food & drink supplies for the worker bee of course! Working mostly on the weekends, the projects are starting show great progress! Thought I’d share the before state of one of the projects and a bit of the progress he’s made to show that it just takes a little, budget, commitment and hard work to transforms a dated, dull house!

The Before…

A dated green kitchen!

A pink bedroom!

A bedroom covered in Pittsburgh’s favorite faux wood paneling!

And last, but not least, a colorful basic bathroom!

This is a standalone single family home located just north of the city of Pittsburgh. It’s 3 stories with 3 bedrooms and one full bath. The unfinished basement features a Pittsburgh toilet, workshop and laundry area. A lot of progress has been made so far! I am not involved in everything going on, but I do know that the home has received a bathroom overall, all new appliances (kitchen& laundry), new flooring throughout, expanded electric wiring, new paint and lighting; among many other updates. These simple updates have proved to significantly refresh the space.

I’ve been spending a lot of time painting lately and per usual have gotten a lot of paint in my hair! I need to learn to always wear a hat when painting.

We’ve used a very strong odor killing, stain concealing and mold killing/preventing primer, as well as Pittsburgh’s hometown paint brand’s PPG Paints Manor Hall, and Glidden Premium.

If you’re interested in trying PPG Paints products here’s a Friends & Family Discount!

Paint-Splattered Jean Trend

If you’ve seen my BF or I on the weekends in the past few months, we were probably covered in paint. I just want it to be known that we started this whole paint-covered jean trend, that’s in store now. Seriously go to the mall, multiple brands are selling paint-splattered jeans, from NY& Company to Armani Men’s. Ridiculous. If you want paint-splattered jeans, come help us paint!