Episode 135 | How the Farmhouse Style is Changing | Liz Quick of The Quick Journey
Over the last decade, the modern farmhouse style has become extremely popular in home decor. The all white paint and minimal aesthetic is easy to achieve, which is part of why it has become so popular. However, many homemakers are beginning to trade in the all white look for warmth, coziness, color, pattern. We want our spaces to feel elevated and timeless and unique. Liz Quick of The Quick Journey joins me to discuss the good elements that came out of the modern farmhouse trend and how to achieve a more classic decor foundation in your home. I know that my own personal home decor style has evolved over the years, and I hope that this conversation will inspire you as you consider building a timeless foundation of beautiful decor in your own home.
In this episode, we cover:
- Why people are moving away from the commercialized farmhouse style
- How to create a timeless foundation in your home decor
- Simple, affordable decor pieces to swap out for the seasons
- Best places to source art and frames
- Creating a cohesive, classic gallery wall
- Tips for creating a beautifully decorated home on a shoestring budget
- Liz’s favorite DIY projects in her own home
- How to find quality antiques and incorporate them into your decor
- Simple ways to achieve the classic, old world style
About Liz
Liz Quick is the blogger behind The Quick Journey, where you will find simple tips and tricks for the modern homemaker, homemade recipes you’ll love, home decor inspiration, and even a few posts on classic style for the chic homemaker.
Liz is married to her high school sweetheart, Mark, and they have four amazing children: Ella, Liam, Guinnyth, and Julia.
Resources Mentioned
Farmhouse on Boone Amazon Storefront
How to Make a Gallery Wall with Vintage Art
Rub ‘n Buff Wax Metallic Finish
She Holds Dearly Piano Makeover Hack
How to Install Vertical Shiplap in Kitchen
Design books by Gil Schafer III
12 Old World Interior Design Tips
Connect
Liz Quick of The Quick Journey | Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Pinterest
Lisa Bass of Farmhouse on Boone | Blog | YouTube | Instagram | TikTok | Facebook | Pinterest
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YouTube Success Academy
I have spent the past five years building a YouTube channel that allows me to share my passions all while contributing to my family’s income, and I’m sharing with you everything I’ve learned along the way. Visit bit.ly/farmhouseyoutube and enter your email address to find out more about the course!
Transcript
Lisa Bass Welcome back to the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast. Today I am chatting with Liz Quick from The Quick Journey. She shares homemaking, motherhood. She also shares her beautiful home. Lots of recipes. Today we’re going to focus on decor. Every once in a while, you all like a good decor episode where a friend of mine and I just sit and chat about our homes and what we like to do to keep them fresh and decorated. We like to talk old world design and antiques. Some of my favorite topics. And today, Liz is going to be sharing some of her expertise. She has been making her home very beautiful. Her style has been evolving over the last several years as she’s been a homemaker. And so we’re going to talk a little bit about that. I have created over on my Amazon shop a resource list for books because a lot of times I mention design books, and we’re talking about that in this one as well. And so if you go over to Amazon.com/shop/farmhouseonboone, there will be a section where some of the best design books that I have in my home are going to be listed. There’s also a section for shopping our home. So if you want to check out some of the items that we are talking about and that we have in our home that will be there as well. All right. Let’s dive in to the interview.
Lisa Bass Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join me. I know you have little ones and a lot going on, so I am looking forward to chatting decor. My listeners really appreciate a farmhouse design chat every once in a while. They really like that, and so I’m glad to have you on to do that. So welcome.
Liz Quick Well, thank you so much. I have been really excited about it.
Lisa Bass So start by telling us a little bit about you and your family and your home. Just a little introduction.
Liz Quick I am Liz and I live in the Midwest. I married my high school sweetheart. We have four kids. I homeschool and I really just spend most of my day just serving my family in the kitchen and just making our house a home. We have had several moves and finally feel like we’re settled here and like this house is our forever home. So I’ve just been enjoying making it kind of our own.
Lisa Bass Yeah. And I love following along with you as you do that because you share a lot of recipes and homemaking and then also your home is very beautiful. And so that’s what I really want to focus on today. She didn’t mention it, but she can be found @TheQuickJourney on Instagram. And then you also have your blog, The Quick Journey, and then you also do have a YouTube channel as well. Where do you feel like people can best— like where do you show up the most?
Liz Quick I am on my blog, TheQuickJourney.com. I post there at least twice a week. I try to do three if I’m feeling super ambitious. And I show up in Instagram stories periodically too. And YouTube is kind of a side thing that I started because I like being able to tell kind of a bigger story behind things that we do here in our house. And I feel like YouTube is really great for that. So I’ve been trying to slowly incorporate that into my online life.
Lisa Bass Yeah, yeah. It’s definitely something that takes some effort. I find that I can either show up really well on Instagram stories or YouTube, but not both. So one topic that I thought would be fun to focus on is how the style of farmhouse—because I think both you and I consider our homes a farmhouse, which really just makes you think of gardening and homesteading in that homespun life where you make things from scratch, and so I think that’s why so many of us love to bring that style—but how it’s changing. It seems that people are abandoning the style that it started out as where everything was all white, all minimal. The thing that Joanna Gaines sort of made popular. Have you noticed that?
Liz Quick Yeah, it’s definitely been changing. And Joanna Gaines did a really good job because she stuck with some basic elements. She had white paint, she had shiplap, and then she would throw in greenery, you know, faux green plants or something. And what she did was she made this attainable, beautiful, easy style that like every homemaker can make happen. You pair that with how commercial it is. You can find it in the aisles at Target. You can find it online. You can see her on TV or see her on social media. And it’s one of those things where we find that we’re inundated with it and we love it and it’s easy. But then we look around and our house looks like everybody else’s. And I think where we’re coming now is that everybody wants to have a space that feels like their own. They want it to be original to them. They want a collected home that when they walk in the doors, they’re like, “This is cozy and inviting, and it really shows who I am as a homemaker and as a decorator.” And so you have people adding in color, and now I’m seeing wallpaper show up. And as a girl who was raised by a wallpapering mom—our whole house was wallpapered; she wallpapered homes in town—I am just really loving it. I’m loving the antique and vintage like patterns and colors that they’re showing on the wallpaper. And I think it’s a really great way to take what Joanna Gaines started— of course, shiplap is always going to be in style. It’s this simple line, but you can really update it and make it your own and make it original to you. Maybe like shiplap on the ceiling or different kinds of shiplap. And I think people are just starting to feel like they’ve outgrown it a little bit and they would like something a little more elevated and sophisticated.
Lisa Bass Yeah, I really like what you said about making it attainable for everyone because I feel like the style that was really popular whenever I first became a homemaker—which was like 13 years ago, actually probably more like ten years ago that I started actually caring about decor—was this modern farmhouse style with Joanna Gaines. And it, like you said, it felt very attainable. If I just painted everything white, added some plants, it looked good. I felt confident. And then now I think you’re right. People want to start branching into something that makes their house stand out, be a little bit more unique. I love in your house how you incorporate art and pattern and wood tones throughout it. It’s really warm and inviting. How would you describe your home style or how has it evolved over the years?
Liz Quick It definitely has evolved, and I think where I’ve landed is just this old world European French cottage type look. You have the sophistication of velvet. I love velvet. I have several velvet sofas in my house. And then you can marry it with the simplicity of wicker. Or you see these like plaster busts, like these heads everywhere. And those are very old world and European and I just love them. So you can have like concrete urns sitting on your coffee table full of these beautiful cottage roses, and yet you have a velvet sofa. And I just love how you can have this great, timeless, concrete foundation to your decor and then also add in other even trendy elements. So I just love the old world look, because I feel like it is a good foundation that just is enduring and it gives us the opportunity to build upon it.
Lisa Bass Yeah, I definitely agree. It’s something that gets better over time as you layer things in. So you mentioned wicker, you mentioned concrete. What are some of your other favorite textures to layer in? On your blog, I took a little thing from your blog that, with classic design, that layering pieces makes it to where you can take them away, put things in to bring it back to life. So it’s not constantly— like you have to constantly redo a room. Waste time and money. Let’s explore that a bit. Like, what are some of your favorite textures and how do you create this base that you can bring things in seasonally, take things out, edit but never actually completely redo something and spend been a whole bunch of money?
Liz Quick You know, it really started out out of necessity. Like when you’re first starting your home, you have a tight budget and you’re trying to make this beautiful space on a minimal income, and so you can’t afford to just go the way of the trends and change it every couple of years. So I like to stick to a few basic textures. I love to bring in warmth. Maybe that’s just with rich colors. Blankets, those are easy to change in and out. I love plaid wool blankets in the winter, and then I love kind of the oatmeal colored linen blankets, the waffle texture in the spring and summer. Those are easy ways to change and transition your home without breaking the budget. One element that I think is really important with old world European cottage design would be the lighting. You don’t have a bunch of harsh overhead lighting. You have beautiful lamps with warm lighting, and that can really change the whole feel of the room. During the day, you see the lamps, but at night you see the lighting and it really can impact the feel of a room. I love wicker. Wicker baskets. You can have wicker wall hangings. I recently had a really great score on Facebook Marketplace. It’s a wicker wingback chair, and I love the juxtaposition of my velvet sofas with the wicker wingback chair. And copper is another one. It reflects the light. It brings in that rich color, but it also has patina that keeps the room charming and just inviting. So you have these different little elements that you can bring in and out and even move around your space that can have a big impact. And that’s what I love about having your traditional foundation, is that you can have these small changes that make a big impact and even bring in some trendier items, these small things that can make your home feel like it’s with the times, but also have this great traditional foundation so that you don’t have to spend— buy huge investment pieces all the time.
Lisa Bass Yeah, I really like that idea of buying the classic pieces and then layering in anything that’s maybe trendy or seasonal. Yeah, you did score if you got something wicker on Facebook Marketplace because I’ve been looking for some wicker for outside and I didn’t realize how expensive wicker is. I mean, it makes sense because it’s very nice and it looks like it would be difficult to make. I’ve been on the hunt for some wicker pieces as well. You also mentioned lighting, which I feel like I’ve really just discovered the importance of how much of an impact good lighting makes in the last year or so in my home. And I’ve been collecting lamps. I’m on the hunt at antique shops. What are some of your best tips for decorating seasonally with this type of decor? Are you the type of person who has a lot of seasonal things or just small swaps that you make when the seasons change?
Liz Quick I love classic decor because it gives this great foundation. And for seasonal, I’m not someone that decorates for all the holidays. You give me Christmas and I go all out, but other than that, I keep it pretty pared back. But I do love, especially as a homemaker, bringing your home in and out of the seasons. I think it’s important. I think it feels fresh. And I do it with simple little things, maybe a vase behind my kitchen sink that has some greens in it in the spring. Maybe a bowl of lemons on the kitchen table in the summer. Whenever the trees are changing, snipping a few branches and bringing those in in the fall, and then doing some evergreen on my mantel in the winter. I just think adding the small things can make a huge impact. I’m really big at changing out pillows and I highly recommend, if you are someone who loves changing your home and making it feel fresh, buying some really good down pillow inserts. I get mine off Amazon for a pretty good price and then swapping out pillow covers. They’re easy to store, so it doesn’t take up a bunch of space. They’re relatively cost effective, and then you can freshen your home without having to spend the money every single season on buying brand new pillows. So those are a few things I like to do. Obviously the blankets. And I always like to get new hand towels because as you know, when you have little hands, like wiping their hands on hand towels. So every season, I like to buy a couple new hand towels just to freshen up our bathroom and our kitchen. And those are a few fun things I do that don’t cost a lot.
Lisa Bass Yeah, those are all really, really good tips.
Lisa Bass I want to take a quick break from this podcast episode to tell you about YouTube Success Academy. So five years ago this summer, I started a YouTube channel. It’s a place where I’m able to make a living sharing my passions like food from scratch, natural living, handmade home. And I put together a course— actually “put together” is a casual way to say that I spent countless hours making videos, making a workbook and a comprehensive planner. Everything from camera settings to professional style videos, what gear you need, to keyword research on YouTube, to coming up with video content ideas, and packed that all into a course that I call YouTube Success Academy. And I am launching it right now. The doors actually closed on it in just a few days. I’m doing a live webinar tomorrow night, Friday. So if you have any interest in getting in on the free live webinar or checking out more on the course, YouTube Success Academy, you can go to bit.ly/farmhouseyoutube where you can enter your email address and then I will send you all the details so you can get in on it before the doors close. If you’ve ever wanted to start your own YouTube channel, this will definitely be the right course and community for you. We have a whole community of people who are also starting their own channels. You can grow together, learn from each other, and then learn from all of the things that I’ve learned over the past five years to make my Farmhouse on Boone YouTube channel a huge part of our family’s income.
Lisa Bass Let’s talk a little bit about your vintage art gallery wall that’s so popular over on your blog. What are some of your favorite sources for art? What about frames? Do you do a lot of thrift shop frames that you make over?
Liz Quick Okay, the vintage art gallery wall was something that I have loved and long admired. Like ten years ago, people used to do the big plate walls where they’d have like 20 or 30 plates on their wall. And I thought it was so pretty. And I tried it and it looked like my toddler had just like hot glued them up on the wall. It just wasn’t cute. So gallery walls are something that can either be done really well or really poorly. And one of the important things is to have good art. And a great place to source art if you’re on a budget, is through the public domain. It’s kind of like this little secret that people don’t talk about, but you can get amazing antique vintage prints and print them off and go have them framed. And when you look, a lot of shops actually sell those prints on Etsy and other places. So it’s a great place to source, and it’s a good budget item for if you’re wanting to do gallery wall. Antique stores are a great place to find art as well. You know, small Etsy shops have great art. And then as far as frames, if you go to thrift stores, you can buy some really great frames, use Rub ‘n Buff to update them. Rub ‘n Buff is just like an amazing little paint that you can just paint your whole house with Rub ‘n Buff. Not really, but like it is so great at updating a piece. As far as new, I really look to Hobby Lobby for new frames because you can use a coupon, and I think IKEA has great frames too, but I don’t get there very often.
Lisa Bass Yeah, me neither. One tip that I have because I’ve noticed that a lot of times I find a really cool frame at the thrift shop and it’s very odd shaped and then none of the art pieces that I find match the size of the frame. And so one thing I’ve started doing is I measure the frame and then I go over to Canva.com—this is all free—and I make custom dimensions and I make it the inches that the frame is. Then I drag my art piece in and just resize it and then have it printed off custom at this local print shop that we have. It’s very cheap. It’s like $5 to get— I’ve even gotten this really large print in our bathroom because I had a really large antique frame that I had nothing that I could figure out what to do with it. And I just resized it. I think it was less than $10 and it’s very large. So that’s one of my tips. Rub ‘n Buff, I’ve never used. So that seems like something that I definitely need to try. What are your tips for mixing and matching? So different sized frames? Are you someone who likes to do something that’s very uniform or are you collecting these from all over the place, stashing them in your basement, and then eventually putting it up? I feel like that’s kind of the thing that ends up happening to me is I have this plan, but then it takes so long to collect the frames that I want that it just doesn’t come together very quickly. Or maybe that’s just how it is.
Liz Quick No, I definitely collected it over time. And a few mistakes that I think are easy to make is to get it too cluttered, to make it too busy, too much color, the spacing is wrong. So I found when I was studying these gallery walls that there were a few main things. All of the ones I really loved, I noticed they had two frame colors. I use black and gold on mine. But you know, if you get in a habit of using too many different colored frames, that can make it look really busy. My mom taught me when I was younger that you should always use an odd number of things, that your eye prefers that. So having an odd number of photos and pieces of art on your wall is better than an even number. Starting with a big piece and then building around it is a great way to do a gallery wall. Another thing is to only have one or two pieces that are matted. Like you think that matting is going to look better. But when you get it up on a wall and there’s a lot of pieces, it ends up looking super busy. So having it simple— and mine is more like eclectic. It’s not super uniform, which is kind of what I was wanting. But when you space everything two inches apart—two to four inches is what they recommend—and when they’re all spaced the same distance apart, it ends up just coming together. So those are a few tips that I have. Those are the things that I saw made a difference whenever I did my gallery wall.
Lisa Bass Okay. So with that public domain, where do you find that? I believe I’ve heard of this before, but what’s the actual website?
Liz Quick Well, there are several different places. You can go and Google “public domain”. There are— like the Smithsonian has a public domain and then like the Metropolitan Museum has a public domain. So you just kind of have to search around. I’m trying to think of some other places, but I can’t remember them off the top of my head. But if you do a Google search for “public domain art images”, you should be able to find it.
Lisa Bass Okay. So on yours, did you do a mix of people and still life or landscape?
Liz Quick Yeah, I tried to keep the main— like I wanted all the colors in the pictures to be similar so it had a cohesive look to it. But then I would mix and match— you know, some were of flowers, some were of vintage stores, and some were of landscape. But they all had the same basic color scheme which kind of brought them all together.
Lisa Bass Yeah, yeah. I love how it looks. You can find pictures of that over on TheQuickJourney.com and then just search “gallery wall”. I’m sure it’s like the top one. Also, we’ll have links for everything we talk about in the show notes. What are some of your other tips? If someone has a super small budget? Like I’m thinking back when we first got married, I took my husband’s furniture that came out of his parents basement when he lived there. And I covered that and we painted everything. There was just literally no budget for decor. What are some of your top tips for your home looking beautiful with no budget or is it even possible?
Liz Quick No, it totally is possible. And I think, you know, Mark and I were in a very similar place whenever we first got married. Really, for the first ten years of our marriage, there wasn’t much of a budget for that. And so I learned how to thrift really well. And a tip for that is to always go with a list because you get in there and there’s so much stuff to sift through and then you end up spending and buying things you didn’t really want or you end up just feeling overwhelmed and you can’t even think about what it was you wanted in the first place. So always go to the thrift store with a list. And you know, even if you’re at the thrift store, have some standards. Like buy things that are timeless, that are quality, things that you actually, really, really love. I am very picky. I don’t like bringing things into my house that I don’t love. So I am willing to be patient and to just go often and look and sift through things. And I have found a lot of hidden gems by doing that. And you don’t have to spend a lot. So I think thrift stores is a great place to do that at. And recently, Facebook Marketplace. It’s like it opened up this whole new world of thrifting and buying secondhand. So I love Facebook Marketplace because you can search for exactly what you’re wanting. And every single day I go on there, I have a few pieces I’m looking for and you can find it for really great prices because some people don’t realize what they have. Other people do. But you can find—if you look long enough and you look every single day—you can find what you’re looking for.
Lisa Bass That’s so true. Whenever I was first married, there was no Facebook Marketplace. There was Craigslist. But still, I don’t even— like when we first got married, we didn’t even have Internet in our house at all. So there was— the Facebook Marketplace is such a new way that people can definitely get really awesome looking homes without spending a lot of money. Now, do you—on Facebook Marketplace—do you set the searches so that they can send you—? I have a couple of searches set where if certain thing with a certain keyword pops up, they’re going to send it to me.
Liz Quick I don’t do that, but I do save things that I like. So I think that kind of tells Facebook Marketplace what to show me. So if I have something and I see it and maybe it’s out of my price range or it’s too far away, I will still save that so that it flags it and Facebook Marketplace will show me more of that kind of item.
Lisa Bass Yeah, I do the same thing. I’m constantly saving things, even though a lot of times I’m not going to be able to go get it. One more tip. I always—whenever you have the option for shipped and local— I always choose local. Now unless it’s something where, say it’s like something small, where you know it’s not a big deal to ship. But I have found that so many people accidentally include shipping in their listing when they didn’t mean to and they never had any intention of shipping it. So you’re seeing a whole bunch of results for things that you can’t even get. And so I almost always— like if it’s a bed or something large like that, I’m choosing local.
Liz Quick Yeah, I do the same thing.
Lisa Bass So do you have any DIY projects that have been really inexpensive but impactful in your home? One thing I’m thinking about is your DIY Anthro mirror. You could tell us a little bit about that or any others.
Liz Quick Yeah, that Anthro mirror. I don’t know if your audience knows what I’m talking about. It’s this beautiful gold vintage looking Anthro mirror and it is very expensive. And I have loved it for years and I’ve seen it online and it’s just the perfect mirror, but it was never going to be in my price range. So I finally decided to make this mirror that I had— it’s a $50 Target mirror. And I painted it with Rub ‘n Buff and I bought some cheap appliqués from Amazon and painted those and hot glued them on there. And I’m telling you, it really looks pretty original to the Anthro mirror. And it was maybe $15, buying the Rub ‘n Buff and the appliqués. So it’s like my favorite DIY ever because it took literally an hour to put everything together and maybe $15. So if you can just be creative, you can take something that’s really expensive and somehow make it work in your own home for a lot less.
Lisa Bass Yeah, definitely. I’m looking at your Anthro mirror now. I pulled it up. And it really is very convincing. A lot of times I feel like projects can either go really right or they can go really wrong when you think you’re going to make something. I’ve definitely had projects like this where I’ve spent countless hours on it and then I’m like, well, nope, that did not turn out how I was expecting it to go. I’m sure you have this all linked in here, but where did you find some of these appliqués?
Liz Quick Yeah, they were just on Amazon and I just searched like “French corner appliqués”. And some of these, they’re intended to be put on a dresser to have like a French inspired dresser. But I just put them on the corner of the mirror and then put one on the top of the mirror. So I just found them on Amazon.
Lisa Bass Wow. That project right there really gets my wheels turning for a lot more ideas, like thinking about where else I could put those kind of appliqués. It really just opens up the door to— that there are all of these pieces exist. So before, I wouldn’t have thought to go search for even something like that. But these custom little woodworking pieces, I’ve noticed they exist. And like you said, you just have to be creative. Study it and think, how could I create something like this?
Liz Quick I actually got the idea for the appliqués from watching Sarah from She Holds Dearly. She was updating her piano and she was using these little wooden appliqués on her piano. And I thought, oh, I can use those to make this mirror. And so that’s where I got the idea from originally, was from Sarah.
Lisa Bass Yes. Yeah. She has so many great ideas. I actually— we made a vanity out of a dresser that I saw on Sarah’s blog, and I actually saw it at Sarah’s house because I’ve been to her house. And yeah, I totally got that idea from her as well. She has a lot of creative ideas for things that you wouldn’t think you could even make, and then you totally can.
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Lisa Bass Are there any other DIYs throughout your home? Maybe even something you haven’t blogged, but that you feel like it made a really big impact, but it wasn’t that expensive?
Liz Quick I’m not the biggest DIYer because typically it doesn’t always end up the way I want it to end up. And it’s not a budget DIY, but our kitchen, we redid our backsplash and took off the tile backsplash and added vertical shiplap and it’s one of the most impactful things that we’ve done in our kitchen, and it just brought so much charm and it brightened everything up. And that has been my favorite DIY for sure, because it just completely changed the whole look of the space.
Lisa Bass Yeah. And I’m sure that probably wasn’t too expensive. Just a lot of labor that went into it.
Liz Quick Yeah, definitely a lot more labor intensive than I thought. I didn’t realize taking tile down was going to be such a big undertaking.
Lisa Bass Yeah, definitely. So let’s talk a little bit about decorating with antiques. I feel like we’re all a little bit tired of just like going into Hobby Lobby and buying out a whole aisle and calling it a day. I think we’re all looking for something that’s a little bit more layered. Something that tells a story, makes your home more meaningful and inviting. Do you have any tips for decorating with antiques?
Liz Quick My first tip would be to grab a book and really explore how antiques look and how to use them. And I have a few really great authors. First of all, I love looking at images from Ralph Lauren. He does a really great job incorporating antiques and things like that. I love Gil Schafer. He has a few really great books that you can buy on Amazon. And then I’m sure— I think you’ve mentioned her before, but Ros Byam Shaw. I don’t even know if I’m saying her name right. But she has really great books that just show you how to use antiques in a way that brings a lot of charm to your house. So I love getting books and flipping through them and finding what really makes an impact in a room. And then finding pieces that have good classic lines. And if you can find a piece that has the old casters on the bottom or has beautiful spindled legs, those things are going to say so much in a room and speak so loudly without you even knowing it. It just brings in so much beauty to a space just with those simple things. I am someone that I don’t like a lot of clutter, so I prefer to have these bigger statement pieces. And that’s where I invest most of my money is to make these big— like a dresser. And I found on Facebook Marketplace this big hutch that I have in my kitchen, and it was only like $100, but it has the old wavy glass, which little things like that can just make a big impact as well. Just having those old world elements. And then if you’re looking for smaller things, just finding lamps with wicker shade or those old needlework pillows and just bringing in little things like that that don’t feel overwhelming to space, but that add to the layering and that tell a story and just add to the interest. And those are a few things. Just get a book and flip through it and see what was beautiful years ago and what’s still beautiful today. And if you can find those things, then you’re pretty good to know that if you invest in those pieces, they’re going to be timeless.
Lisa Bass Yeah, I agree. I was telling my husband the other day that I feel like I always think that we have everything in our home. Every place— everything has a spot, every room has— it’s filled out. And then I always–when I’m at an antique shop–I always come up with something else to layer it and make it cozier, which I’m not really sure is a bad thing. But just the other day we actually found a couple of– they’re not antique beds, but they were solid oak handmade beds for the boys’ room because eventually we’re going to moving our toddler in with the big boys and then we’re going to be moving the baby up to where the toddler is. And so I needed some beds and I really love having pairs of beds. So we now have three different pairs of beds throughout the house that we found all on Facebook Marketplace, which you can’t find that kind of quality. I was telling Luke the beds were not that cheap, but if we’d gone to IKEA and bought them, we probably would have spent about the same. But yet they would be IKEA.
Liz Quick They would be. And I think that’s the great thing about antiques is they’re one of a kind pieces, handmade pieces, and they’re exclusive to your home. Like you’re not going to walk into someone else’s house and see the same thing. It’s exclusive to you. It really creates a look that only your home can have. And that’s why I love antiques so much, is because they tell a story. It’s easy to layer with them and they’re probably more well-made than anything else you’re going to find.
Lisa Bass Yeah, definitely. But you do have to be picky because we’ve definitely bought our fair share of antiques that—after a while—we wish we wouldn’t have because they don’t close right or something’s falling apart. So you can find really solid ones that they’re just going to be here 100 more years and then you can find ones that probably should be done. So you have to know what you’re looking for there. So do you have any decorating secret weapons? So things that you’re always going to time and time again to freshen up a space. Just your go-tos. Like when in doubt, I always bring in this.
Liz Quick Well, I would say depending upon the season, if it’s in the winter season, I’m always going to have plaid blankets. I love the old Pendleton type blankets. You can throw them over a chair, throw them over your sofa, and they instantly bring in that cozy feel. I love faux greens whenever it’s brown outside, like in the spring before things have started to bloom. I always have some faux greens that I bring in. In the summer I will go cut fresh flowers and those are my go-to that I always have. I have them in my bathroom. I’ll put them in the kitchen and just scatter them all over the place just to have some of the beauty of the fresh flowers in there. And then baskets. I don’t feel like I can have enough baskets. I love them. I love how you can have different colors with baskets. You can have the different weave. I just think they’re subtle, but they also make a statement. So baskets are definitely something that I gravitate towards.
Lisa Bass Yeah, those are definitely mine too. I feel like that’s sort of a joke in my family because every time we’re at a shop of any kind, I’m always instantly drawn to baskets and I have them stacked up. I have them on top of hutches, on top of the refrigerator. They’re pretty much everywhere. All throughout my house.
Liz Quick Yes, me too.
Lisa Bass So you were sharing on a recent blog post, some of your old world design tips. I really love the tips that you shared. Can you maybe just mention a few of them from your recent blog post to some of your best old world design tips?
Liz Quick Yeah, sure. Okay. Layered rugs. It seems like it’s a trend right now, but this is a very old world trend. If you go back to a time when they didn’t have carpet on the floors and they didn’t have heat throughout their house, you would have layered rugs to bring warmth to your space. So layered rugs is a really great old world style to have and bring into your home. You should look for wool rugs or hand knotted rugs. And if if it’s not in your budget, look for smaller ones that you can layer on top of modern rugs just to kind of get started. Wall sconces are a very old world thing, if you think about how they had candles and how they had candle sconces and candelabras. That is a very old world thing. It’s also a great way to bring in and like mix metals if you’re wanting to do that. Velvet is very old world. You have plaids and paisleys that are great textures and textiles to bring in. And then if you’re wanting more of like the rustic old world, you would go with more like a wicker or a copper, you know, concrete urns or a plaster bust, like I mentioned before. Those are really great ways to kind of bring in a simple side of old world. And then we kind of have left the painting everything white and like rubbing the corners and making it look super chippy on our furniture. We’ve kind of left that phase. And old world is all about having these natural wood elements that never go out of style. So those are a few of the main old world signature looks that you will get.
Lisa Bass Yeah, I do. I love all those tips and I’ve definitely been experimenting with a lot of them. With the light fixtures, I’ve been experimenting with adding—I’m looking at them right now—pleated lampshades and more texture and more pattern throughout. That’s been something I’ve really been enjoying doing and bringing in lots of art. And like you said, with the layered rugs, a good tip for that is to get something really inexpensive, like a large jute rug or what’s the other texture I have? I have one in my living room. It’s white. I don’t know that it’s jute and I’m not sure what the word I’m looking for is, but it’s really large. It goes underneath all my furniture, but then I have a patterned hand-knotted rug layered on top of it. So I have that texture in there and that pattern and that very old— I don’t really know if it’s antique. But that pattern that I’m looking for, but yet without paying for like a 10×14 vintage rug because that can cost thousands and thousands of dollars. Awesome. Will, tell us where to best find you.
Liz Quick Okay. Yeah, you can find me at TheQuickJourney.com or @TheQuickJourney on Instagram. That’s where I hang out daily.
Lisa Bass All right. Awesome. Well, thank you.
Lisa Bass All right, well thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast. Liz and I had some technical difficulties there at the end. Nobody could hear me for some reason. And so, I mean, obviously it’s my Internet, that’s why. So we had very poor Internet today. So hopefully that all came across there at the end. We could have and I wish we could have chatted longer despite that. But I encourage you to go check out all of the resources down in the show notes that Liz mentioned, some of her really awesome blog posts on her Anthro mirror, and some of her DIYs, decorating tips. She has a whole blog post recently on old world design tips, which is really worth exploring. As always, thank you so much for listening and I’ll see you in the next episode of The Simple Farmhouse Life podcast.
