heritage preservation award

each year, during preservation month, the city of chatfield gives out an award to an individual that has done an outstanding job, restoring a structure in town that is at least 50 years old....i was THRILLED to find out that my husband and i won the award this year!! they did a sort of combo award....for the work we did on the shop (adourn) and the restoration we're doing on our 1870 victorian. we were invited to the city council meeting on tuesday night, and they presented the award to us.

i am so happy that we've been able to contribute to the historic preservation of the town! and it really does make me feel good that other people are also interested in the preservation and recognition of doing so. there are so many amazing homes and buildings downtown that could be restored and saved....extremely grateful that we've had the opportunity to preserve history....twice!

THANK YOU CHATFIELD!

'new' vintage items at shop

i just put out a bunch of 'new' vintage items at the shop!! here's a little sampling!

open till 5pm today

new jewerly line for the shop

im designing a new line of jewerly to sell at the shop...using vintage costume jewerly and new modern pieces! these make a beautiful statement and would look great even with jeans and a t-shirt!

here's a little peek, all of them are one of a kind!

antique dresser

just finished a new dresser! i love how it turned out....i wanted something light and airy looking with a little detail...white, coral and gold!

for sale at the shop!

design services

its spring-time finally!! have you wanted to refresh your home with some new accessories, paint colors or do a big overhaul on a room?! adourn offers design services, which can include: shopping for you, color selection, furniture and accessory selection, re-styling your current scheme or even entire room/or house projects.

adourn customizes in painting kitchen cabinets, bathroom cabinets and built-ins. you can instantly update your existing cabinets with paint for a fresh look and save thousands of dollars. if you want a an existing piece of furniture painted to liven up your room, we do that as well!

i love to re-use, recycle or salvage what we can for a project and maybe add in some brand new pieces to give a nice balance of design. you will end up with a very interesting, one of a kind project!

contact adourn for more information on how to get started! here's also a link on the site to give a little more info!

507.251.4202 or shopadourn@gmail.com

amazing community!

since we've started working on the Victorian, we've had SO many chatfield residents excited and supportive of the restoration. a lot of people have said what a shame it's been that the house was going downhill so badly... and they're happy to see someone coming in to bring it back to the beautiful lady it should be! I've met several new people through out this journey, and that's been so great. our neighbors and the people of chatfield are wonderful! the Fillmore county journal did an article on my husband and I a few weeks ago, about the restoration project. since then I've had several people stop in the shop and say how excited they are to see the all the 'after' work! I've even had some people stop and offer old windows, so that I take the glass out to use to repair our broken ones, offer doors that may work for our missing ones and lots of other things! a neighbor even came over the other day and gave me a name of an underleak (family that built our house), that can give me the history of it!! I'm SO excited to get in touch with her! how amazing is that?! I'm really excited to be involved in this new community and to become a permanent resident.

we've already been approached to have our house on the big Christmas tour in 2016! how fun will that be?! we can deck the whole house out in Christmas garb! I think a lot of people have seen this house going downhill for so many years, that they are so excited to see it restored... and what a better way, than to get a little Christmas tour!

on another community involvement note, seeing I've gotten so much support for the shop, and now the house... I decided to be a member on the heritage preservation commission, and the habitat for humanity committee that has started here in town! I'm really excited to be a part of them and to help give back to the community!

anyways, just a HUGE thanks to chatfield and everyone else that has been so kind during our adventure! And to all of our friends and family that have spent numberous hours helping, and to some of them that have been at the house, more than they've been at theirs.....HUGE thank you! There's no way, ever that we could've come this far without YOU,

mothers day

i've been busy at the shop getting ready for mothers day! lots of great gifts for mom......stop in before sunday and pick up something special for her!

candles
jewelry
linen spray
key rings
mercury glass
aprons

almost....

its ALMOST time to move in!! things have come together the last couple of weeks and this has been the fun part! getting the kitchen cabinets set, the lighting installed and at least the trim for one room painted....its getting closer and i cant wait.

we've stuck to the budget fairly well thus far. we needed major things for the house....new boiler, some plumbing, all new electrical, insulation, air conditioning, water heater and water softener. those things add up FAST! which had me having to really budget all of the finishes and cabinets in the house. if you saw the post on the bathroom, i used a vintage buffet for the sink vanity, which i think i found for about $30, and i'm using a pair of mirrors my cousins gave me when they remodeled their house. i did however buy new lighting for the bathroom...thats a little harder to come by.

these are the sconces above the vanity

this is the main light fixture

i did the marble hex tile in the bathroom...it was a little bit of a splurge, but its perfect for the period of the house and its really, timeless. its not going to go look dated in years to come. its neutral enough, where i can change out my colors in the bathroom if i ever want to and its going to feel so nice with the in-floor heating we put in the bathroom. yes this is a 'restoration', but the modern amenities are SO nice!

just have to grout and get trim up and the bathroom is done!

im using a really neutral, warm color scheme for the house. accenting with navy blue, coral, red and greenish/blue tones.

i chose all benjamin moore colors. i use those most when doing design work, and know my favorites! i chose mostly warm greige colors for the walls. nice soft color.

the kitchen was a pain in the butt...seriously, a pain!! we had to move the cabinets several times to get them to fit right and then get the appliances to fit right. the walls and floor aren't exactly square, so it was a little challenge to get everything lined up and level...but he did it and they look exactly the way i thought they would! i ended up specing my cabinets from ikea. when i did a remodel at my house in mpls, i used ikea cabinets and i loved them! they're so versatile and you can make everything exactly the way you want. the possibilities are really endless. and there are SO many things you can do to make them look more 'custom' and 'built-in'. which we'll be doing once we get in the house. i'm going to build furniture feet for the lowers and put we'll put crown on the uppers. i also want to put some corbels under the uppers to make them look even more period to the house! lots of fine little details, but it will give such a gorgeous look to the project.

i was going back and fourth about color for a long time, but finally decided on white uppers and grey lowers. they look perfect with the tile on the floor and i love the contrast of the dark and light.

i am so happy with the herringbone pattern i chose for the floors!

we spent this last weekend putting drawers together, doors and panels on everything and getting everything set into place. thats the only drawback to ikea cabinets...you put everything together yourself...it wasn't as bad as i remember from the other time...it went pretty quickly actually. all of the doors and drawers have soft-close, which will be nice. i put some glass doors on the a few of the uppers to lighten it up even more, and we added puck lights in those cabinets and then under cabinets lighting to the rest. have i mentioned how nice it is to be married to an electrician?! and he put a docking station into the wall over by the fridge, which can charge 4 devices...i saw it at a someones house a while back and loved the idea!

i chose some period lighting, and then some fun pendents for over the island.

love the look of the old 'school light', so i chose that to go above the sink

this is what i got to hang above the island. love the industrial look of them and the cool huge edison bulbs!

the hardware is traditional, i don't want that to look dated in a few years either. i wanted to do traditional long pulls for the drawers and then knobs for some of the doors.

countertops have been a little hard to find....i need to stay within a certain dollar amount and what i've found so far is WAY out of it! so i need to keep shopping around!