auntie Lo, barn wood & some knobs

I don't think that I have ever actually bought anything from Pottery Barn, but periodically I will just walk through the store to look and touch. I love old things. I realize Pottery Barn is not filled with old things, they just make things to look old-- so I can't deny that I like to peruse the store. I probably don't buy anything from there because it is faux-old stuff (not real old stuff). Well that, and it is too expensive. But I like to look. Do you remember that episode of Friends when Rachel buys the apothecary table from Pottery Barn and tries to tell Phoebe she found it at a flea market? I can relate. Sometimes I am Rachel and I want everything in Pottery Barn because a lot of it looks like it was built from old reclaimed railroad ties. cool! Then again, I am like Phoebe and hate that it's all just expensive mass-manufactured furniture. (Obviously I am talking the wood furniture and trinkets here, not the bed linens and slip-cover couches. Who wants reclaimed bed linens?)

Then there is the genuine old stuff. I have found inexpensive furniture at consignment shops and yard sales that I love. And then I have gone to antique shops and my jaw drops at the price of things. Not always because it's 200 years old (I get the ornate hundred year old stuff being expensive) but sometimes I swear it's a nightstand that is falling apart, but it is super expensive because the paint is chipping off which makes it "shabby chic". ugh.

But, I can't lie, I have sanded stuff to give it that weathered look. So sue me. I would beat a brand new piece of wood with a giant chain to make it look like it is "distressed" and not think twice about it. I am my own little Pottery Barn sometimes, looking at my mid-nineties furniture thinking "how can I make this look like it is from 1930?" Guilty as charged. (Don't get me wrong...I can also say, without a doubt, the coolest old stuff is the real old stuff).

Then there is auntie Lo. My auntie Lo is someone who knows where to find the good, real old stuff. And she knows how to take old stuff and make it into something amazing. Or even not so old stuff she makes look old (you know, the whole "distressing" thing). Old beat-up shutters made into a corner shelf, old chairs recovered to look perfect once again, windows hung as art and old wood to serve as a shelf... whatever- she does it. She's my old-stuff decorating hero.

In comes the farmhouse. It's an old house that became a dorm for campers at camp, (like real old, not PB old). The first year I was ever a camper at 7 years old I stayed in that farmhouse. The first year I was a counselor I stayed in that farmhouse. It's not so much in working order anymore. It's just too old at this point, to put it simply. That building holds a lot of memories-- and I spent some of my toughest summer days and some of my best summer days in that old house. So when the talk began about having to "get rid" of this building (eventually) I thought, "I must salvage some old stuff!" So I did. I took some door knobs, because I loved them.

Then there is the farm. My in-law's farm. They have an old tobacco barn on their property that fell years ago. So my father-in-law and my husband gathered some old barn wood for me.

I thought to myself, what would my decorating hero auntie Lo do with these old things? What would make Pottery Barn itself sweat my style?

voila.

I know, it's just a little shelf. But, the hubby and I made this together. And I love it. Real old stuff with a little modern TLC to create a shelf to hang and display things. And, to remind me of the good old farmhouse, forever. An old-stuff-lover's dream.