The Barn.
Broke ground in May of 2018.
Opened for our first event in November of 2018.
This is so much more than a barn for me. It is a dream come true. 3 years ago I started teaching pallet painting classes at JP McGuire's in Taylor. The banquet room was great and we are very grateful to have been able to use it. We also traveled to many homes, churches, halls and restaurants. While traveling around was not always easy, it sure did teach us many valuable lessons. Having a place to call home for our business was always something Danny and I talked and dreamed about, but life gets busy and well, we have other jobs and kids and all the things! In early 2018, we started to get serious about building the barn. We started drawing, talking with builders, planning pinterest boards, shopping flea markets, antique shops, and garage sales.
The barn has come together better than I could have ever imagined. With the help of friends, family and my super talented husband this dream has taken shape! I love how so many people can share in our creation. We have had hundreds of people come through these barn doors since we opened, and I truly hope they have enjoyed their time here.
This barn is about creating an experience. My hope is that guests will enjoy their time here and want to come back.
I will never forget the comment from a guest not too long ago. She came into the barn and said, "Wow, this is awesome, you must be so happy when you come out here?" That comment stopped me in my tracks. The barn is a lot of things. It is a side business that helps support our family, it is a great place for our family and friends to gather, it is also a lot of work. BUT, happy? Yep, that is exactly what it is. My happy place. I truly enjoy being out in the barn. So, thank you to the guest who brought that to my attention and made me even more grateful to be where I am at.
I am so excited to see what the future holds for the barn.
I want to share some photos and updates on the progress:
I love this wall. Creating a spot for our guests to snap a picture was important to me. I love the fact that our logo is on the wall in lights! There are 2 comfy chairs in front of this wall where many selfies have been snapped!
The front wall of the barn has lots of fun things happening! I just love the decorative shelf above the door that holds a collection of flea market finds. It also includes a "picker" license plate that I found at the American Picker store in Nashville, TN! There are also a few signs displayed. Guests love to see examples and often will use the same color choices that they see used in these signs. Finally, the aprons! Ok, this may seem strange, but the fact that those puppies have a resting spot makes me smile. Not only did they have to travel with us to every event...they had to be folded just right so that they fit in the bag. Believe me....the folding was crucial. I could not wait to hang those up on hooks!
P.S. If you are looking for hooks of any kind, Hobby Lobby has an entire aisle devoted to hooks. Who knew?!
I LOVE bringing "old" and "new" together! Last summer, my mom (aka..my garage sale buddy) and I were out looking for wood chairs for the barn when we stumbled upon this awesome door. It cost $10 and I was told it came out of an old church in Carleton! My super talented hubby has taken that old door and fancied it up with a really cool barn door track from Menards.
Speaking of old, the red barn wood you see came from an actual barn from my husband's family farm. This provides a really great pop of color!
This part of the barn is a work in progress! I have some pretty big plans for this corner, but I wanted to share the importance of the items that are already there!
This is a sink. BUT, when I see these 2 galvanized buckets, they mean WAY more to me than just a sink! You see.....these tubs were purchased at THE largest outdoor flea market in Michigan last summer on a day of shopping with my two besties, Lauren and Katie. I will never forget the memories we made that day. You know....the kind of things that make you laugh so hard you pee a little;) Then they sat in our unfinished barn for months in my pile of "stuff" to go in The Painting Barn. BUT, you see these tubs looked horrible. They were old and rusty. My husband's cousin, Luke, knew my vision for them...and one day he dropped them off to me all pretty and new!!!! Wow! I was shocked! At that point they were close! Our friend, Miles, took them back to his workshop and did some amazing welding work to make these puppies functional! And now, thanks to my super talented hubby, I do not have to carry all my paint brushes in the house to clean them! It's the little things, I tell ya...
The light in the photo was an old industrial style light purchased at the same flea market as the tubs. Again, insert the super talented hubby... and voila......an old green industrial light made new! P.S. …..I should tell you, I don't think "super talented hubby" was really excited when I pulled in the driveway after that awesome flea market day! Picture the truck from the Sanford & Son show! Yep, that was me;)
When I say that this barn would not be possible without my family and friends, I am not kidding! This little shelf is made from a tree that a family friend, Walt Sisler, actually cut down himself. He showed up at the barn one day with a truck load of it!!!!!! Can you believe it?? I felt like I won the lottery! Stay tuned, because I have lots of plans for this really cool stuff!
When we built the barn, I knew I wanted a statement centerpiece light. The problem was I didn't know what I wanted. So we waited for a while. I walked around the lighting section at Mendards more often than is probably healthy. I was there a lot. The employees started to recognize me, and I am pretty sure they started to wonder what in the world I was doing. If you haven't been to the new Mendards in Taylor, you need to. They have 2 floors of lighting options. I started to really like a large metal orb chandelier on the second floor. One problem.....it was very expensive. So we waited some more. And, I REALLY DO NOT LIKE waiting.
About this time, my parents too a weekend trip to Traverse City. My garage sale partner mom sent me a picture from a restaurant they were eating at which I proceeded to send to my super talented hubby! To which he said, "Oh, I have that barn beam from my great grandpa's original barn in the shed." I'm sorry, what???!!!!! Yes, please! That barn beam is over 100 years old.
My next trip was to Menards (aisle 2 not level 2) to purchase the Edison bulb light fixture bunch...$80 bucks! The rest is history! Glad I waited;)
Speaking of history, this wall has sparked quite a few conversations in the barn! My garage sale buddy and I searched high and low for these frames and then spent an afternoon spray painting them. The photos are of our grandparents and great grandparents. I have many more photos and my plan is to have the collage wall keep growing! I think my favorite guest comment on this wall came from Danielle Duffy who told me at the end of the event, "I think my grandma is on your wall!" Turns out her grandmother was in my husband's grandparents' wedding. I love it!
This next one I will cherish forever. My favorite part about this business is it's location...our backyard. No matter what is happening in the barn, there is a good chance a kiddo or 2 will be running through. The odds are pretty great because we are lucky enough to live next to family. There are 13 cousins to be exact between our 4 homes. This is Jack and our nephew Cayden. They had just stopped in the barn between whiffle ball games to see what was going on. And, ironically, the tin awning that they are pointed to was purchased on a shopping trip to Shipshewana that they joined me on! I am not sure what they remember more, buying the tin that day or the intense game of red light, green light we played in the parking lot waiting for the tin.
The lights were purchased at the world's greatest flea market! (remember...Sanford & Son)
Super talented hubby understood my vision for the coffee/snack bar! This is the latest and greatest addition to the barn! Isn't it great?!
Thank you for taking the time to read all about our "dream come true" and we hope you will come visit us soon!