My new favorite!

In our business we take something that is ready to be discarded
and show it some love! 
Quite often we find ourselves attached to our creations
 either due to the wonderfully old character of the wood,
a fun vintage item we have used in a clever way,
or just the amount of time and work we have invested in some of these.

I have to say I am quite smitten with this latest creation!

This window was both old and dirty!!
It took some scrubbing just to clean it up, but once the dirt was removed, some perfectly old, chippy pale pink paint was reavealed.
I loved it right away and knew that the paint would dictate the rest of the creating.  I mixed some pink and coral paints to match some of the aged pink paint that was already showing through.  Perfect!  

 

Next it was sanded and sealed and
re-chalked to hold the fabulous old wavy glass in place.
 It was just waiting for the perfect quote.  

"Sugar and Spice" in beige on a pale pink window would be just right!

 Yep - I am smitten!

Personalized space

Another customer photo...

and another great example of how wall graphics can add personality and a special touch to any space.

Personalized wedding sign

I just finished this customer's order and LOVE how it turned out!  

An old cabinet door has brand new life again!

What a perfect wedding, shower, or house-warming gift...

personalized and functional!

I have a feeling we'll be making more of these.

Part of something bigger...

So we LOVE finding out when our products are part of bigger stories.  

It is an honor to be a help create special moments, memories, and projects.

Recently, we were contacted by a customer who was going to surprise his fiancee with a "bedroom makeover" while she was away for a week of vacation.  

He had the whole project designed and wanted to include one of our wall graphics. 

http://oldbarnrescue.com/2012/03/loved-you-yesterday-love-you-still/

 

We talked through some different options, sent some color samples to his parents' home to make sure no suspicions arose,
and planned a timely pick up.

He just sent us the following pictures of the finished project and thanked us for our help.  

He said that his fiancee loves it! 

We LOVE it too and we think she has found a great catch in this guy!  

What a great gift and beautiful job!  Single ladies take note!  

How sweet is this!?!

Go Jump in the Lake

We were recently commissioned to create a window as a gift for a client's sister and husband.  

They were hosting a huge family reunion at their lake house and 

all the sisters wanted to give them a special gift.  

We are so glad they thought of us!  

It was an honor to create this personalized quote and window for them.  

We love the response we have received from the whole family! 

 That's why we do what we do. :) 

A Sailor's Bedroom

How super cute is this bedroom?!   

What a great job this customer did with our Mark Twain wall graphic!

http://oldbarnrescue.com/2011/11/throw-off-the-bowlines/

Laundry never looked so good!

More customer appreciation...

This is a GORGEOUS laundry room 

and we love seeing our wall graphic add a finishing touch!

Fun statement!

Another customer just sent us this picture of our vintage damask graphics

on her gorgeous plum-colored wall!  

Love what a great statement these wall decals can make!

Be glad of life

One of our customers just sent us this adorable appreciation photo!

This is still one of my all-time favorite quotes hand-lettered by Adonna with a few extra large stars and swirls.

So, as I try to get on a "blogging roll", I thought I would share.

Go confidently

If you've ever wondered why we are so bad a blogging...here is the answer!

We are so busy creating windows for stores and custom orders and keeping up with all our wall graphic orders that we never seem to get around to blogging.  Good problem to have, right?

Anyway, I loved this picture a customer just sent us of the window we did for her. 

It looks fabulous in her daughter's room.  

We love seeing the final result and LOVE our happy customers!

Here's to more creating and maybe inspiration to blog more of our creations (we'll see)...

Took a breather

We have been so, so, so busy lately - well, since the beginning of November it's been non-stop.  We keep thinking it will slow down but it hasn't.  It's a good thing we tell ourselves but we do get tired of producing product sometimes.  That is one reason why it is so awesome to have a great business partner.  When I said I'd like to take a couple days to just go visit my folks Jan quickly said, "Go!"  So I had a quick trip out to Bayview, Idaho for a visit and got to play 3 rounds of Settlers of Catan and 2 rounds of the Marble Game, eat homemade cherry pie and sleep in till 9!  Here are a few pics of my folks lake - Heaven.  Jan, now it's your turn for a breather!

SUGAR and SPICE

You can't manufacture age.  

So we are thrilled when we find wood that is genuinely aged and has a wonderful true, shabby color we can embrace.  

That was the case with these two windows.  I  had to touch up the paint a little and seal it all with a clear finish but the original colors were the inspiration.

I started with the pink one because I immediately fell in love with the color and knew it had to be designed for a girl's room.  After much debate and thought, I pieced together a couple of our wall graphics to create this Sugar and Spice design in our brown matte vinyl complimenting the brown wood showing through.  Then I added a brown handle to complete the look.  CUTE!!

So cute, in fact, that I decided to do another one in this mint colored window.  

(Again, the original paint color).  

This time I added some brown and mint buttons at the bottom as my finishing accents.  

Sweet and Fun!!

Feelin' the LOVE

Just in time for Valentine's Day!

This creation once again resulted from a little love on our part -- love for this rusty hinge that I simply could not remove.  When my husband cut the door, he had to cut around it.  It left this little lonesome piece of wood attached to the rusty hinge and I simply could not throw it out.  So...with some vintage typewriter keys fitting perfectly in the holes and some other funky metal pieces and buttons this sweet piece developed.

Sweet, one-of-a-kind, and sending its love!

 

You can purchase this on our website at:

(Remember, there is only one available!)

http://oldbarnrescue.com/2011/10/love-with-typewriter-keys-and-rusty-hinge/

Happy New Year!

I can't believe tomorrow night we will welcome in 2012!   

As I think back on 2011 for Old Barn Rescue Company, 

my heart is full of thankfulness and joy. 

It has been an amazing year of growth for our business with so many wonderful memories. 

Old Barn Rescue Company's top 10 highlights for 2011:

10) Our TV airing with Great Day St. Louis

9)  More stores selling our wares.

8)  Reaching 2000 sales on Etsy for our wall graphics.

7)  Reaching 3000 sales on Etsy for our wall graphics.
 6)  Participating in Art on the Green in beautiful Coeur d'Alene, ID in early August.
5)  Getting our new website up and running.

4)  Hiring Shawna to help us with our growing business!!  (More to come on Shawna soon)

3)  Continuing to create new and unique items inspired by what we find.

2)  Pottery Barn purchasing some of our windows to decorate their local store.

1)  Adonna and I sharing 3 days on the road from St. Louis to Spokane to transport our creations for the Art on the Green show.  

What a time to laugh, share our hearts, revel over breathtaking scenery and dream for our business!

What started out as a fun "hobby" in an attempt to save some old barn wood has turned into quite the adventure for us and for this we are so grateful!  

So as we look to this new year, 

in keeping with our love for words, 

here are some wonderful ones to live by:

Thank you for all your support and appreciation of our creations! 

May 2012 hold more surprises and joys!

Custom orders

This is a busy time of year for our custom orders. 

We LOVE that we can offer a gift that is personal, truly one-of-a-kind and eco-friendly!  

This customer certainly loved it, too!   She ordered this for her parent's Colorado cabin.  FUN!

Holiday Boutique

We are asked ALL THE TIME if we have a shop.  Besides the fact that Jan and I have no clue how to run a shop (other than an on line one!) we are soooo busy with creating we would never see our families if we ran one.  So we do the next best thing...open up our homes every so once in awhile and invite any and everyone we know in the area to come see our wares and enjoy a glass of wine with us.

That's just what I did this past weekend here in Spokane.  We had an open house on Sunday from 2-4 and had a nice little crowd of friends and family come through.  Here are a few pictures from it...if you didn't make it just know, WE'LL DO IT AGAIN!

Off to create some more - Adonna

Our windows decorate local Pottery Barn store

We were honored to have 3 of our windows purchased by the buyers for Pottery Barn Teen, Pottery Barn Baby, and Anthropology. 

They used the 3-window combination to decorate the front wall in the teen section of Pottery Barn's new store in Frontenac, MO. 

What a FUN statement!

Wall graphics go Ohdeedoh!

Our wall graphic division has been a wonderful addition to our business adventure.  Wall graphics are a beautiful, economic way to personalize and change the look of any room.  

You can go bold and big or subtle and classy -- either way they are a simple and easy way to add that special touch.  
The sweet addition of our leafy mendalas to this wall show the subtle and classy impact that can be made:

Gorgeous, huh?  This room is featured on Ohdeedoh today. You can go vote for her room to win (it's toward the bottom of the article) and feel free to share on Facebook!!!
http://www.ohdeedoh.com/ohdeedoh/small-kids-big-color/a-taylormade-room-small-kids-big-color-entry-28-162136

Merry little scraps of wood!

Instead of throwing out these little scraps of wood - 

we used them to create the PERFECT Christmas gifts!  

They are little, can sit anywhere, 

are eco-friendly, 

one-of-a-kind, 

AND will add a whole lot of cheer!

An Ugly Duckling

I LOVE transforming something ugly and out-dated into something sweet and usable.  This sweet little sign evolved from such materials.

 It all started out with this ugly scrap of wood, an out-dated flower brooch, a chipped up lock latch. and recycled door knob.

The latch I have had for quite awhile and I have always been drawn to the dusty pink paint that shows through all the chipping.  I decided to use that as our main color.  That required some paint mixing, but I covered the ugly wood and out-dated brooch to bring new life and sweetness.

Then I had to assemble it all for sturdy construction which involved some drilling, wiring, gluing and hammering.  A small little pearly pink button completed the center of the brooch and hid the screw I used to attach the brooch to the door handle.

Last, but not least, I added the "You are my sunshine" quote in our brown matte vinyl and sealed it all for the finished touch.  LOVE this great little transformation!