Create the Look: A Small, Sustainable, Multipurpose Corner
Sharing tips regarding interiors feels pretty ridiculous at this moment in time, but I think there is something important to it.
There are so many ways to approach our homes mindfully. We can make the most of our interiors by being deliberate about what we acquire, curiously exploring items we can reuse and repurpose, and getting creative with the space we have. Embracing smaller spaces, repurposing, choosing local, handmade and/or used goods, and sharing resources are all ways to look out for each other and out one shared home.
While used finds like the ones pictured here in our home and those curated below are such gems, there are plenty out there. Remember that homes have only ballooned in square-footage within more recent years, and that newly manufactured “apartment” furnishings are by no means novel concepts. There are so many clever designs that have long been circulating out there - let’s find and use them.
Please note that I sometimes earn a small commission from sales of secondhand pieces.
Create the Look: Upcycled Spice Rack Wall
Little adjustments within a home can save a surprising amount of space— like this secondhand spice rack, fixed up a bit, painted, and now living out its new life in the kitchen of our 900 sqft cottage. (When pressed for space, go vertical if it’s safe. The best, untapped storage options are often UP.)
By request, here’s the latest Create the Look… but I don’t want everything I publish to be shoppable. I don’t wan’t to earn income by constantly encouraging people to buy more, when I know that most of us can (and should, for environmental reasons,) live with less. What I do want is for folks to be comfortable, confident and content in their small homes or apartments. And I want to be a resource for reliable ideas that can help you spend less time searching for your stuff, and more time with the ones you love.
So when people ask where I got something that’s in our home, I usually point them to similar handmade and vintage designs. As such, for folks who inquired about this little cabinet: here are some secondhand items and independent online storefronts with handmade goods that can help you recreate this look in a sustainable way that suits YOUR needs and YOUR style.
Create the Look: Mini Mending Cabinet
It’s the little things that can save so much space— like this secondhand shelf, now living out its new life as a mini mending cabinet in our combination bathroom and laundry room. (When in doubt, go vertical if it’s safe. The best, untapped storage spaces are often UP.)
While Adam and I are no experts at patching and darning, our little ones are certainly experts at wearing holes in everything.
For our 7 year-old, it’s the knees of every pair of pants he has. For our 2 year year-old it’s the tips of her sleeves. And for our pups, it’s every dog bed, fitted sheet and plush cushion in the house.
So we simply try our best. Because as we’ve learned through our journey over at the Tiny French Farmhouse, restoration and repair don’t have to be carried out perfectly in order to be not only effective, but also absolutely delightful.
By request, here’s the latest Get the Look… but I don’t want everything I publish to be shoppable. I don’t wan’t to earn income by constantly encouraging people to buy more, when I know that most of us can (and should, for environmental reasons,) live with less. What I do want is for folks to be comfortable, confident and content in their small homes or apartments. And I want to be a resource for reliable ideas that can help you spend less time searching for your stuff, and more time with the ones you love.
So when people ask where I got something that’s in our home, I usually point them to similar handmade and vintage designs. As such, for folks who inquired about this little cabinet: here are some secondhand items and independent online storefronts with handmade goods that can help you recreate this look in a sustainable way that suits YOUR needs and YOUR style.
Rightsized Vintage - A Collection of Secondhand Goods for Sustainable Small Spaces
By request, I’m resuming my Rightsized Vintage posts for all subscribers of my newsletter.
These weekly posts will highlight and link to nine secondhand pieces that are well designed for small spaces, or areas in need of enhanced utility or creative storage solutions. This is a way to add character to our homes, source more responsibly, and shop small. (Plus you can always message a seller to request used packing materials if they’ve got them.)
Repurposing Project: Boot Rack Turned Stemware Storage
We don’t need a bigger space — we just need to creatively enjoy the space we have.
One of our little repurposing / upcycling projects for the Rightsizing in Real Time series in my newsletter was this secondhand boot rack turned stemware storage:
For me, this is a great reminder that most of the time we don’t need a bigger space — we just need to creatively enjoy the space we have.
Rightsized Furnishings via Small Sized Businesses
In this post: Celebrating Small Business Saturday, as well as updates & milestones in the cottage.
This month we approached the one year anniversary of moving into our little guest cottage in the southeast. Our architect and I designed this ~900 sqft structure with great care, as it’s an essential component of the part-time, multigenerational arrangement that allows us to slowly restore the Tiny French Farmhouse abroad as time and budget allow.
Overall we’ve been pleasantly surprised with the efficiency of the cottage, which really does function as we’d hoped and envisioned it would. But when we moved in one year ago there were still several construction tasks left unfinished, as timelines and budgets ran dry (as they presumably do for the majority of folks, despite the highly polished interiors we often see online that can lead us to believe otherwise).
For example, there’s a 4’-long utility “hallway” that connects the main room (living space / kitchen / dining room / entry) to the bathroom / laundry room combo, and that tiny space was left largely undone. The HVAC concealment door that we’d sliced in half and turned into double panel (so we could still fit into the hall when opening the door) was missing hardware and paint. The flooring behind the door was never installed for some mystifying reason. And the opposite wall, which offers a closet-sized nook where the breaker panel is located, was meant to contain a built-in cabinet system that never came to fruition.
The utility alcove connecting the main room on the right with the bathroom / laundry room on the left (as seen using wide angle photography while standing within the HVAC closet across the walkway).
Note: The full version of this post also contains a Q&A with Lyonella Cook of Sandpaper and Wax Design, the artist who restored the newest vintage piece in the cottage, pictured here. A preview of the questions and responses is below:
QUESTION: Sourcing secondhand and vintage are a great way to combat the “fast furniture” trend that is so taxing on the planet. But some older pieces have toxic finishes, making them less healthy for households— particularly homes with young children. What is your approach to addressing this issue?
REPLY: I have made it a personal business standard to test EVERY SINGLE piece of furniture for heavy metals using FDA/OSHA approved testing kits. Yes it is absolutely more expensive but I believe in guaranteeing a safe product for families. The expectation of safety I have for my own family is the same expectation I have for my clients family. My background is in construction, if there is one thing they drilled home in college and on the job site...safety first!
Vintage French Reusable Shopping List
A recent post featuring our vintage, French, wall-mounted reusable shopping list garnered so many questions that I’m sharing a (recently updated!) shoppable collection of some of my favorite similar designs below. Here’s to shopping small, sourcing secondhand + sustainable, and warming our homes with unique goods that make our spaces all our own.
From left to right, top to bottom:
1. Commissions (1)
2. Commissions (2)
3. Epicerie Fine
4. Cats
5. Wooden shelf
6. Perrier
7. Liste with peppers
8. Hen
9. Cuisine, galvanized
Note: I earn a (very small) commission from secondhand items sold from this post. Photos are © the individual shop owners.
Before & After: Adding Character to Furniture
I’m a fan of working with what we’ve already got. It’s usually better for our wallets, better for the planet, and a way of making our homes look and feel our own.
A wobbly vintage rolling cart might just need a replacement wheel to be functional.
A broken planter might be useful when transformed into the perfect frog (or fairy) house on the stoop.
And a bland piece of furniture might just need a few reclaimed and repurposed accents to achieve its true character.
Our fold-away storage desk was one such piece:
This desk is perfect for our needs here in the cottage. It functions as an ample workspace when open, a narrow and unobtrusive console with storage when closed, it offers a standing-height tabletop when desired, and it’s almost the perfect width for this pocket-door frame-filled wall, which can’t support any substantial weight on its own.
But there was just no getting around the fact that it looked new and stale compared to pretty much anything else in our little home. The most obvious way to add character would be to paint it, but not a day has gone by since we installed this piece when it hasn’t been a heavily relied-upon workhorse for my small business. So rather than paint it — at least for now — I opted to work with materials we already had here at home in order to give the desk a beating heart.
The brushed nickel nobs got a (hastily applied) coat of leftover textured bronze spray paint. The interior cubby received a remnant piece of peel + stick wallpaper from Rebel Walls, a scrap from our closet makeover. The exterior became a touch of extra book storage thanks to a clever, made-to-order suspended system that we were gifted upon moving in. Lastly, we layered the top shelf with a reclaimed wood board that was once the tabletop of narrow kitchen island from one of our previous homes.
While the end result isn’t the century-aged, eco-friendliest antique of my dreams, it is a highly usable, purposefully chosen, and mindfully modified desk that I plan to use for years to come.
If you already have newer furnishings for one reason or another, consider adding a dash of reclaimed materials to them in one or more ways. Vintage hinges, door knobs and pulls can work wonders. Similarly, consoles, countertop segments, accent pieces, and more can be enhanced when securely topped with a layer of repurposed or reclaimed materials, sized to your specifications. Additionally, paint, wallpaper, and secondhand accents can further transform a flavorless piece into a story-rich heirloom.
Roundup: Secondhand Gems for Versatile Small Spaces
As my family advances into experiencing the first spring in our new cottage, we’re noticing the small ways in which our daily routines are shifting. For example, the tiny wood stove that was the backdrop of much of our daily activity since moving during the fall is now rarely in use. By contrast, the vintage rolling cart in which we stored the firewood is now in high demand for various gardening activities. As such, a spring shuffle was in order.
I usually don’t enjoy shopping, but I do delight in exploring vintage finds on ETSY, where I recently stumbled across a listing on Our Vintage Bungalow that was perfect for the update we had in mind. The piece for sale was an old metal + wood half-barrel divided into two compartments and outfitted with worn legs.
I thought it’d be the perfect size and shape for holding the firewood and displaying a plant in a tight space during the warmer seasons:
Fun side note: After discovering the piece, I noticed that the vendor also has a blog that communicates ways to successfully host and shop garage sales for a sustainable, vintage lifestyle… plus she shares her experiences with tackling a home renovation with young kids in tow. This is one of the reasons why I love shopping secondhand + small — there’s almost always an interesting story behind the storefront!
Over the years, countless folks have told me that they don’t know “how” to shop vintage or handmade on sites such as Etsy. For me, the key is to search for the general function I need an item to serve, rather than search by an item’s dedicated name directly.
By searching for goods via detail and function descriptors, I discover creative and unique homewares that serve the purposes my family needs, in formats I might not have previously considered. This is one of the traits that makes our little home so personal and special to us.
So here’s this week’s roundup of beautiful and functional one-of-a-kind vintage items that I favorited from the same shop that carried the half-barrel piece. My hope is that this sort of post helps readers find pre-loved homewares (rather than newly manufactured goods) offered by small businesses.
