Marché Maison's Spring 2017 Home Tour, Part 1

Michelle Olson
Mar 24, 2017
5 min read

Hi everyone! Thank you so much for stopping by and touring my home here in Allentown, PA! You know what? I love so many styles - seriously, I could change the decor of my house every year - shabby chic to rustic mountain to chic Miami modern to old English antique. I do love it all. So, what do I do? I decorate my home seasonally so it changes several times a year. Seasonal decor is MUCH easier on the wallet than forking out cash for new furniture! ha! The style that resonates most with me is a relaxed French farmhouse vibe. I want to feel cozy in my home. Things that are old and have stories are cozy and warm to me. Take this vintage printers tray with all those compartments where I have put moss, grasses and eggs for spring. I wonder where it came from? They usually had letters in them for printing - I wonder what it printed? Maybe the Boston Globe? Or maybe old real estate deeds? I have taken many pictures of my little vignette to share with you. I will chime in from time to time!

Chiming in now. So the people of Instagram really liked this picture. I wonder what spoke to them? Maybe its this blue-ish wine jug with jute on the neck? I picked this up at a local antiques mall for $18.00 - okay that is not a steal by any stretch but the detail is gorgeous - had to have. Speaking of picking it up, did you know there is a name for people like me? We are officially called "Pickers." There are actual TV shows about Pickers that go all over the country picking through peoples attics and garages and wherever else treasure can be found. I love to pick - I love to find treasure in the middle of trash - it gets the creativity going. Where do I pick? - garage sales, thrift stores, Goodwill, barn sales, antique stores, junk stores and large market sales like Lucketts for example. The grey bucket here is from a thrift store - you will see its matching partner in my dining room later. AND they both came with an interesting accessory, hmmm? What could that be? Check out the stack of berry crates which say the earth has rested and it is ready to give us fresh fruit soon! The Eif...yup...that's it. The Eiffel Tower or something French or from Paris usually finds its way to a picture - I was joking on Instagram the other day that its sort of like Wheres Waldo! See if you can find the French item in each picture - ha ha!

One of my besties gave this cool rusty storage bin to me last summer. You know she is a bestie if she can actually part with this rusty yumminess for her friend! I am just loving the grass in it - don't you just want to pat it! This grass comes in 12" squares at Michael's and is easy to cut and I think it looks so real! I hope I didn't ruin that for some of ya'll who thought this grass was real! You know I love tarnished silver - these goblets proudly display some unique wool like green balls that I actually picked (picked by the Picker) up at a gift shop in the outskirts of Philly.

Psst - guess what? These moss covered rocks? shhhh....from the DS! code for Dollar Store!

So over to the other side of the spring vignette, you will find old books. I love these in particular because of their faded green color and because they are small. I use them all the time. Old books can walk you down nostalgia lane too - who owned these books? Some of their titles:

As I was typing this blog, I literally went down and read these titles and thought how cool. So...I wonder what the original owner was selling? Can I just tell you that I want to read them now - I am curious! Also in the vignette is more seed starter containers - love their color and texture. I have a seed packet on this side - funny that I have removed the seed packets from the vignette but it was still here when I photographed. I made several seed packets last year because I wanted them to be neutral - when I went to Home Depot for seed packets - they were too bright and colorful for my decor vibe. This seed packet is held by an antique sign holder that came from a barn sale. They told me that it held signs in a department store. It is rusty and old and I have 2 of them. I always love when I can get a pair of something!

Here is a close up. Moving away from the vignette, here are some other pictures of the Living Room

This is a vintage strawberry picking tray. It came with the antique cartons - too good to pass up. So I wonder if a local farm had a bunch of these that customers would use or if this belonged to a particular family that used it to regularly pick berries? They are filled with blooms right now for spring.

I have a thing for lamp shades, especially the deconstructed types. I actually deconstructed this one myself. Do you have any undesirable lampshades that have fabric on them? Tear the fabric off to reveal a beautiful metal frame. I actually like when it leaves a little fabric residual at the base like this one pictured. There is so much you can do with these. You can tie fabric from top to bottom all the way around, or just hang strips from the bottom (I did this in the spring window display - you can see it on my Swing in Spring blog post). In this picture, I gave my shade what I like to call the corset treatment :)!

This is my little buddy Pumpkin that literally came from a pumpkin patch. I was there shopping for pumpkins (for fall decor of course) and there he was. So off he went after I got permission from the farmer. He is a kitty from the country now living (sleeping, eating, looking cute, playing) in the city!

So Pumpkin and I bid you, our faithful reader, a farewell. Thank you for touring around. Come back soon as I will post Part 2 of this tour real soon! I will be also talking about an upcoming trip to the Magnolia House in Waco Texas - wanna come?!