The (not Pottery) Barn

All righty then. I'm just going to ignore that header mess up there and hope that maybe the HTML fairies come by and clean things up for me. In the mean time, I want to tell you a little about a place near to my heart called The Barn.

The Barn is the name by which my family's cabin is known. It's not really a barn, nor is it barn-shaped or barn-colored or anything remotely barn-related, for that matter. My great-uncle's cabin is on the same property and it actually is a barn (or was, more accurately) but for some reason we still call our place The Barn too.

Setting foot in The Barn is like stepping into an interior decorating time warp. It is a repository for old and unwanted furniture and as such is a special blend of interesting antiques and slightly horrifying relics of the 1970s. The carpet is orange & avocado shag, which nicely sets off the orange wicker furniture. Yes, orange wicker. Yes, I know--YIKES. The kitchen countertop is Formica patterned to look like ye olde time advertisements, kind of like they used to have at Wendy's and Subway, back in the day. The refrigerator is brown and very small, and has a tiny freezer inside the larger fridge compartment. The decor could accurately be summed up by that old bon mot, "Late Attic, Early Garage Sale."

Really though, part of the charm of The Barn is the whole "Land That Time Forgot" aesthetic and it's somewhat comforting to see the same yugly furniture, year after year. All of the crazy decor is strangely friendly and welcoming. While I was at The Barn a couple of weeks ago I took a few photos of some of my favorite things to share with you.

Acrylic grapes, fetchingly lit by the afternoon sun. Probably made by my Grammy at a church function sometime in the 1970s. (Note the stack of woven placemats in harvest gold, orange and avocado)

Pretty pillow-ticking from one of the bed pillows; there was also one with lavender flowers. Why don't they make pillows from pretty ticking like this any more?

Very cool 1950s-ish floor lamp and shade. If you look close you can spy a glimpse of the orange wicker desk on the left side, the orange & green shag carpet at the bottom, and the strange orange and yellow Lucite-look artwork on the wall behind.

I have no idea where this goofy sign or the old metal lantern hanging above it came from. All I know is that they've been there as long as I can remember and may well have hung in that exact spot longer than I've been alive. You can also see the old glass doorknob on the bottom left and the big dark shape on the right is the antique player piano.

This is the old wood stove in the kitchen. There is also a new cooktop (well, not new by today's standards but electric) and on the left you can spy a microwave, but this stove cooks the best darn breakfasts you've ever eaten. If you squint, you can also see a couple of orange & green mushroom plaques, an antique ice tongs-turned-paper-towel-holder, and a set of salt & pepper shakers and large bowl in the Jewel Tea "Autumn Leaf" pattern.

For some unknown reason there are numerous sets of salt & pepper shakers in the kitchen at The Barn. My favorites are the Autumn Leaf set in the background, this adorable spun aluminum set with the red tops, and this year I discovered the Hazel Atlas New Dot salt shaker lurking in a cupboard. I never noticed it before but that doesn't mean it wasn't there--it just means I didn't know as much about Hazel Atlas as I do now. That little beauty just might have *sneaked* home with me in my suitcase and be sitting on my kitchen windowsill right this very moment. Maybe. I'm not confirming or denying anything without my lawyer present.

So there you have a few of the highlights of The Barn. I wish you all could come and stay for a week--it's charming and quaint and relaxing and very orange, but I know you'd like it anyway!