Home//Best of Flea Market Style/2018/In This Issue
Best of Flea Market Style|2018Editor’s noteMy favorite thing about homes infused with flea market finds is that they have heart. Scores you have uncovered yourself have meaning—whether it’s a small accessory such as the Haeger ceramic planter featured on our cover or a larger item like this ladder, which we repurposed into a plant stand. Living with what you love and finding creative ways to craft your own decor are what Best of Flea Market Style is all about. We’ve packed our pages with take-it-home lessons inspired by fellow homeowners as well as collectibles we see trending. See one couple’s take on how to mix modern and traditional styles in “Exuberant Energy,” page 8. Check out our “Hot Collectibles” for 2018, page 60. And embrace a farmhouse look by turning industrial finds into chic decor…1 min
Best of Flea Market Style|2018SCHOOLHOUSErocksMost people check Craigslist for a sofa or concert tickets, but a house? Leanne Ford’s unorthodox search reflects herfreewheeling, buck-the-status-quo design style. She found just what she was looking for: a one-room schoolhouse that had been converted to a home in the 1960s and not touched since. In other words, a budget-friendly relic just waiting for her touch. Leanne was working in the fashion industry in Los Angeles as a stylist and creative director and was on the hunt for a getaway in her home state of Pennsylvania when she found the schoolhouse. She’d never renovated a home before, but she didn’t let that get in her way. “I wanted a place where I could come home and be quiet,” she says. The house’s location on three acres of woods…6 min
Best of Flea Market Style|2018LEAP OF FAITHTypically, land with a house on it is priced above an empty lot. But as testament to the sorry state of this 1880s cottagein Breckenridge, Colorado, the opposite was true when Allison and Bruce Dodge found it. The couple bought the house and land for less than the bare lot for sale next door. However, the “bargain” came with a unique set of challenges. The cottage was a former pastor’s house, but decades earlier, the associated church was moved, and the home remained, falling into disrepair. Governed by a historic designation, the house required approvals from a preservation board for any changes. Allison and Bruce hired architect Janet Sutterley to help them navigate the process. Her solutions to make the 700-square-foot home inhabitable required the Dodges to dig deep—literally. “I…3 min
Best of Flea Market Style|2018CHARACTER IN THE makingWith a hodgepodge of faux finishes, a mishmash of flooring, and random Mediterranean touches,actress Lucy Hale’s California home suffered from a serious identity crisis. “The home was really all over the place,” interior designer Michelle Niday says. “Stylewise, it had no idea what it wanted to be.” Creating a singular style statement was priority number one for Lucy and Niday—and the pair looked to flea market finds as their muse. “I knew I wanted a home with a mix of vintage and modern, something that felt like it had evolved over time,” Lucy says. Together the two set out on a floor-to-ceiling overhaul where no surface went untouched. First, they created cohesion by replacing the chaotic flooring with surfaces that jibed in both tone and texture—painted brick pavers in the…4 min
Best of Flea Market Style|2018PLAYING WITH COLORMoody purples, vivid greens, shy pinks, and regal blues—pick your hue. All are welcome in this century-old cottage. “No one dreams in beige,” interior designer Suzanne Caldwell says, so why bother spending your awake time surrounded by it? Suzanne has fostered a “come one, come all” invitation in her 1880s Hamptons home that extends beyond colors to include grown children returning to the nest with friends in tow and puppies rescued from the local animal shelter. Her attitude applies equally to home furnishings: blankets, pillows, dishes, silverware, couches, chairs, and paintings gathered from all over—Paris flea markets and Stockholm antiques shops, local estate and garage sales, neighbors’ basem*nts, and resale shops. “Our home is filled with an eclectic collection of things I love,” Suzanne says. “It’s not about having everything…4 min
Best of Flea Market Style|2018ResourcesCOVER White pot—Found Things; foundthingsdsm.com. EDITOR’S NOTE PAGE 4 Ladder, white pot, picnic basket, pink pot—Found Things; foundthingsdsm.com. White gravy boat—The Brass Armadillo; brassarmadillo.com.Pot on top of ladder, pot on second rung, green vase—Porch Light; porchlightshop.com. HOW TO SCORE A DEAL PAGES 6–7 Professionals quoted in story, listed in alphabetical order: Store owner: Kim Leggett, City Farmhouse, 230 Franklin Rd., Franklin, TN 37064; 615/268-0216; cityfarmhousefranklin.com. Stylist: Page Mullins, Natchez, Mississippi; 601/431-2574; pagemullins.com. Antiques dealer: Joe Reichter, Martin and Reichter Antiques, Design, and Estate Sales, Fort Lauderdale, Florida; 305/304-1347; toddnjoe@aol.com. Bag—The Painted Porch Co.; thepaintedporch.co. EXUBERANT ENERGY PAGES 8–17 Interior designers: Lucy Penfield and Stephanie Lalley, Lucy Interior Design, Minneapolis and Phoenix; 612/339-2225; lucyinteriordesign.com. Contractor: Clairmont Design + Build, 275 Market St., Ste. 284, Minneapolis, MN 55405; 612/961-5692; clairmontbuildes.com. PAGE 8…19 min
Best of Flea Market Style|2018HOW TO SCORE A DEALFLEA MARKETS • Scoop the loop. Kim Leggett, a veteran picker, owner of the Franklin, Tennessee, shop City Farmhouse and author of City Farmhouse Style, likes to circle a flea market’s wares at least twice. She makes an initial run for furniture and large artwork, and then an additional loop for smaller items such as dishware, linens, and tchotchkes. “This will help you take better stock of what’s there,” she says, because it’s easy to get overwhelmed—and miss great pieces—when looking for too many things at one time. “This strategy also helps you to make more apples-to-apples price comparisons.” • Make it a group affair. “Buying more items often results in better prices,” says Page Mullins, a photo and prop stylist based in Natchez, Mississippi. So it can pay to…5 min
Best of Flea Market Style|2018walls THAT TALKNEAT THREADS String together spools of leftover thread to form a colorful garland. Collect wooden spools in various sizes with and without thread. Lay out the spools to determine your pattern, interspersing wooden beads between spools to add interest. Then thread a thin wire through the center of the spools and beads, stringing the top layer of the garland before adding a second layer below. Use cup hooks to hang the garland on the underside of a shelf or mantel. CUTE AS A BUTTON Curate a gallery wall using vintage buttons as your muse. Gather stray buttons with intriguing colors and textures and secondhand frames in various shapes and sizes. Photograph each button straight down on a white piece of paper. For best results, snap the photos near a window…3 min
Best of Flea Market Style|2018IT’S WHAT’S inside THAT COUNTSWhat do you get when a farmhouse-loving Midwesterner moves to a builder-grade home in the Tucson suburbs? “You get busy,” says Natalie Kolter, speaking from firsthand experience. “In an old farmhouse, you can pull up the rug to find original wood or rip off walls to reveal shiplap or brick. But in our builder home, there’s no natural good stuff underneath. When we pulled up our carpet, we found pressed board. It wasn’t even real wood.” Undeterred, Natalie and her husband, Travis, started layering in texture with shiplap and weathered woods, then painted nearly every surface in versatile neutrals and whites. The finishes help a mix of thrifty finds feel fresh, even if Natalie admits the look is not exactly historically accurate. “When you look up farmhouse style online, you’ll…6 min
Best of Flea Market Style|2018SIMPLEgoodnessAge discrimination can flow both ways, which is why this Southern belle would rather keep her true years a secret. At three years old, Mary and Chris Good’s house—located just steps from downtown Roswell, Georgia, a historic community roughly 25 miles north of Atlanta—is the toddler on the block. But its youth is well disguised by design features that draw inspiration from a 1940s structure that burned down on the wooded property. “We didn’t want to be homeowners who just handed over the key and the checkbook to the professionals,” Mary says, “so we assembled a great team who worked with us—not for us—and shared our vision and passion for the project.” That vision included salvaging what they could from the original property, such as wood floors and shutters, and…5 min
Best of Flea Market Style|2018this GOES WITH thatCome on in and sit right down! Whether Tracy and Rodney Frye are welcoming home their three growndaughters or playing with neighborhood kids on their wraparound porch, their 1876 McKinney, Texas, home is ready to entertain. Decades of treasures gathered from flea markets and antiques stores complement the home’s original wavy glass windows, shiplap walls, high ceilings, weighty built-ins, and substantial woodwork. Yet the house is far from a museum. Tracy, who is an interior designer, has created a look that combines coastal, vintage, classic, and contemporary influences reflective of her childhood and her and Rodney’s affinity for displaying standout and meaningful pieces in every room. “I am super attracted to old stuff,” Tracy says. “My childhood on the Texas coast was spent wandering through antiques stores with my parents.…5 min
Best of Flea Market Style|2018EXUBERANT energyHe digs midcentury furniture and graphic artwork with attitude and some edge. She has a penchant for historic housesand likes a little romance—hello, ornately carved frames and old oil paintings. But for John and Sarah Biondi, the age-old adage that opposites attract holds true. “I’m the person who likes to go into an antiques shop and find a treasure,” Sarah says. “John would rather go into a retail store and get something hip and now.” Melding their two aesthetics in a circa-1900 Victorian home required some skillful maneuvering by interior designers Lucy Penfield and Stephanie Lalley. But they were able to show the couple they agree on plenty of points. They both adore art, for example, so paintings and drawings galore—both new and old—perk up walls. Cacophonous color is another…5 min
Best of Flea Market Style|2018CREATIVE CONTRASTBorn to serial renovators, Andy Newcom is as happy reading architectural blueprints as he is a novel. “I went to three junior highs,” he says, describing life as the child of a librarian mom and art director dad who have built or remodeled 16 homes. “Once Dad built a lake cabin wall by wall in our garage, and we’d move pieces to the lake on the weekend. The funny thing was that we weren’t even lake people. He did it for the creative challenge.” When Andy left home to begin work—first as a teacher and then as a photo stylist for Hallmark—the redo bug followed. His suburban Kansas City, Kansas, ranch house is his fifth project with his parents, Barney and Jean. “I don’t buy to flip but to fulfill…4 min
Best of Flea Market Style|2018HOT CollectiblesScientific Materials WHY THEY’RE HOT Industrial style—and now its gadget-loving design cousin, steampunk�celebrates raw materials and exposed inner workings, and reflects nostalgia for the machine age. Now collectors are experimenting with vintage accessories that fit naturally into the aesthetic: scientific instruments. Burnished brass microscopes, balance scales, geological maps—these tools that explore the natural world have our creative gears turning. Upcycle them into functional objects (think telescope and tripod floor lamps), or leave them be as handcrafted works of art. Their natural counterparts—anatomy models, quirky taxidermy, insect collections—are also surefire conversation starters. HINT Look for pieces that are innately artful or that celebrate earthy wonders. These types of items are prized by collectors for their ease in moving from the lab to the living room. COST Antique microscopes, telescopes, and survey…9 min
Best of Flea Market Style|2018cream ofTHE CROPOLD-FASHIONED FLAVOR Whip up a bookend from an antique butter churn and reclaimed wood. Start by removing the lid of the churn from its glass jar. Use a rotary tool with a metal-cutting blade to remove the metal dowel and attached wood paddle piece (cut 2 inches below where they meet the lid). Discard the paddle and repurpose the jar as a vase. Drill a ¼-inch hole in the center of a piece of reclaimed wood, add a dollop of glue, and slip the top of the churn in place. RAKE IT IN Use a vintage wood rake to gather accessories in a bedroom, entry, or kitchen. Lop off part of the handle (we cut about 10 inches above the highest metal supports), sand, and suspend on a wall, teeth…4 min
Best of Flea Market Style|2018READY, SET,MAKEOVERFLOWER POWER Make a string of indoor-outdoor lights blossom with a gathering of tarnished spoons. Bend each spoon’s head to a 30-degree angle, then hot-glue the handles around the exterior of each light socket to create a flower shape. Wrap twine around the outside of the spoons for a decorative finish. COLOR BOOST Put a fresh face on a cast-off wood folding chair with a soaring bird design. Look to wallpaper or wrapping paper for ready-made patterns, or go online and print copyright-free image. Adhere your design to the chair’s back and seat using decoupage medium. Apply multiple coats of the medium, allowing it to dry in between, to form a hard-wearing surface. CHARACTER STUDY Shed new light on a stack of old books by converting the tomes into a…2 min
