Category Archives: Decor

702 Archives: The ABC’s of Vintage Shopping

July 22, 2014Categories: Decor, Furniture, ShopSarah @ 702 Park Project

You may remember this guest post from the Spring, and today I thought I’d bring it to my home page for a little more love. (Be sure to scroll to the end for more updates!)

People tend to clean out in the spring and summer, and that means that the antique, thrift, and second hand shops are booming with new items! When it comes to shopping for antique or thrifted items, I’ve learned some lessons that I’d like to pass on to you. Here are a few tips I’ve learned along the way, with a few of my favorite finds lately.

1. Have a list. It always helps to know what you’re looking for. It’s easy to walk into a shop (especially antique “malls” with tons of vendors) and get overwhelmed. Having a list will help keep you on track. On my list right now? A round table for our foyer and two upholstered dining chairs.

2. Do your homework. Just because a piece is beautiful doesn’t mean it’s “worth it.” Early on, I made the mistake of buying a settee that had great bones, but needed some work. I bought it without doing any research, and have found that having it reupholstered will make it unreasonably expensive. Also, if you are buying pieces to sell, browse a few other online shops to see what you could reasonably expect someone to pay for the item.

3. Always look up, and down! Some of my favorite finds have been ceiling lights and rugs. Don’t just look at the items in front of you.

4. Everything is negotiable. My dad taught me this and it is so true. Whether you are shopping at an antique or thrift shop or an estate or yard sale, there is always room for negotiating. When I’m in an antique shop, I always ask if I can get a discount on items. Most of the time, they’ll say yes. Just like Oprah said, “You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.” The same goes for shopping. Don’t be afraid to play a little hard ball.

5. Be practical. How much will it cost to repair, paint, upgrade, or reupholster the item? Do you have a way to transport it? I fell in love with a pink vintage sofa at an estate sale and it was an absolute steal, but figuring out a way to get it home was no picnic. (Let’s just say the hubs was less than pleased!) These are all things to think about.

6. Never buy new dishes. Why would you buy new dishes when you can get tons of gorgeous, vintage sets at a fraction of the cost?! Plus, they always make a great conversation starter at parties! And on that note, the same goes for jewelry.

If you live in NC, here are a few places I would suggest you try:

1. B&S Auction Gallery – Goldsboro

2. The Trove – Morehead City

3. Emily & Co. – Raleigh

4. Goldsboro Antique Mall – Goldsboro

5. Appalachian Antique Mall – Boone

I also troll Craigslist constantly, and check in weekly with the local Habitat ReStore, Salvation Army, and Goodwill. So there you have it. This spring, get out and test your negotiating skills and support your local economy. You’ll have some fun, and you might even score a few great pieces for your home!

Update: I’ve done a lot more shopping since this post, and have discovered a few more local favorites…

6. Ocean Isle Beach Habitat ReStore – think rich people remodeling beach houses…they get rid of a lot!

7. Sanford Antique Mall – I grew up in this small town and never knew what great finds were right under my nose.

8. Reid’s Country Sampler – located in Selma, NC. With a name like that, need I say more?

And though I’ve never visited, these are a few shops that have some seriously yummy Instagram accounts!

Where is your favorite place to shop for antiques and vintage?

Click here for my best haggling tips!

Art Prints And Gallery Walls

July 21, 2014Categories: DecorSarah @ 702 Park Project

I haven’t totally decided on the formal living room layout yet, but I know that the pink sofa is moving to where the piano is currently to serve as one side of the seating area centered around the fireplace. I’ve also decided that I want to do a gallery wall above the couch.

I’ve never been a huge fan of gallery walls, but for some reason I’m really feeling it for this room. Plus, it will fill the large wall nicely until we can afford bigger pieces of art.

Here’s the feel I’m going for, but maybe a little more soft and a little less edgy.

I know I will start with my grandmother’s framed scarf as the center focal point and move outward from there. But that’s about as far as I’ve gotten.

Here are a few of my favorite prints that I think would go well in the room.

Hint: click on the pictures for the source.

You can see all of my favorites here!

Which are your favorites? Do you have a gallery wall in your home?

A Sneak Peek & A Scheduling Update

July 15, 2014Categories: DecorSarah @ 702 Park Project

Late Saturday night, Charles and I decided to finally throw some samples up on our dining room walls and pick a color. We narrowed the choices down to green, purple, cream, and orange.

The orange was Charles’ “wild card” pick, and it actually complemented the green tile in a very pretty way, but in a room this size with such high ceilings, it would have just been too much. The greens were both gorgeous, but we were worried we would lose the fireplace in all that green. So, surprisingly (especially to us), we chose purple!

I’m a neutral lover, so this was a big step for me. We chose Classic Violet by Valspar in a semi-gloss. It is a little grayed out, which flows nicely with the grays in the butler’s pantry and kitchen. Here’s a little sneak peek of the first coat (keep in mind that we still need at least one more coat, and maybe two).

We painted below the chair rail Kitten White to match the foyer. I know that anytime you pick a bold color, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but Charles and I really love it and that’s what matters, right?!

On another note, I’m off for a little R&R, but I’m super excited about the fabulous guest bloggers I have coming up this week. They come from 3 of my favorite blogs, so you are in for a real treat! Here’s the line up:

Wednesday – Southland Avenue
Thursday – Lacquered Life
Friday – Simply Lowcountry

Enjoy the rest of your week, lovelies! :)

PS- in case you’re wondering, the paint samples (minus the orange, which I can’t remember for the life of me!) from left to right, top to bottom are Simply Plum, Classic Violet, Blue Grass Mood, and Redstone Osgood Green. All are by Valspar.

Closet On A Budget

July 14, 2014Categories: Decor, RenoSarah @ 702 Park Project

It’s no secret that when you’re doing any renovation you have to pick and choose where to spend your money. If you’re like most of us, the budget is NOT endless and some things must be put on hold.

For us, one of those things was our master closet. We took our closet from a 2′ x 3′ reach in to a 7′ x 13′ walk in, and we absolutely love it! But when it came to installing an organization system, we chose to go the inexpensive route.

We started with two of the Seville Classics expandable closet organizers from casa.com (on sale now!). These expanded to about 7 feet long, and gave each of us two hanging racks and eight shelves. I love that these come with shelf liners so you don’t have to worry about anything falling through.

I had a couple of old canvas cubes from Target, but I decided to pick up 8 small rugby stripe bins from The Container Store. On my side, I’ve stored scarves, hats, swimwear, and sweats in mine. Charles’ hold his t-shirts. These bins are a nice way to keep everything looking uniform, even if what’s inside gets messy.

We each had old shoe racks that we decided to keep, and the laundry basket was a wedding gift. I also picked up this cute striped bin from TJ Maxx to nestle in the corner for our dry cleaning pile.

Lastly, we needed a little color in the closet, so I hung two of my sun hats on the wall. It’s a really cute, inexpensive way to add a little “art” to a small space. All you need are a couple of 3M hooks!

Eventually we’d love to have gorgeous built ins, but for now, we’re really happy with the way this closet came together…under budget!

Dining Room Drama

July 10, 2014Categories: Decor, RenoSarah @ 702 Park Project

The other night I decided to play around with a few different “virtual paint” applications on the web. I’ve always gone with Sherwin-William’s Paint Visualizer (especially for our front door), but I have to say that I’ve officially converted to Benjamin Moore’s Personal Color Viewer. It really is the best if you have a picture that isn’t absolutely clear on where you want to paint. A few ~~minutes~~ hours later, I had about 29,837,876 options for our dining room. (Warning: this site is totally addicting!)

I’m just gonna put this out there: I want drama! Our house is pretty mellow for the most part, but the dining room is what you really see when you walk in the front door with the crystal chandelier, extra large windows, and massive pocket doors, and I want it to be a show stopper!

Here’s what we know:

We have already decided that we want to do a stencil above the chair rail to add a little excitement in the room. We’ve chosen the Antoinette damask stencil and the Smoked Oyster stencil creme from Royal Design Studio, which we think will give a similar look to the wallpaper that we picked out and then realized we’d be crazy to spend that money right now!
We want two different colors above and below the chair rail.
The trim is staying glossy white to match the rest of the house.
We don’t want anything too pastel.

Here’s what we’re undecided on:

The wall color in general.
We know we want two different colors above and below the chair rail, but haven’t decided if we want to do two colors that are a shade or two off of each other, or keep below the chair rail Kitten White to tie in to the foyer and mud room.

I chose to use a picture with the fireplace since that’s really the only non-changeable thing in the room. Below the chair rail is stark white primer, which we will certainly be changing.

There are lots of blues that I like, but Charles really isn’t a fan of blue, and since we’ve used it in several other rooms, I thought I’d skip the blue in here. So here are a few greens I like, in no particular order.

1. Mystic Lake

2. Yorktowne Green

3. Webster Green

4. Antiqued Aqua

5. Tropical Oasis

When I was playing around, out of nowhere, I decided that I really love purple with the green tiles and dark fireplace trim too. A couple of favorites:

1. Wild Mulberry

2. Carter Plum

So yeah, the possibilities really are endless.

Which one is your favorite?

Knobs & Pulls

June 25, 2014Categories: Decor, FurnitureSarah @ 702 Park Project

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen the new glass we had installed for our shower in the master bathroom. I’m absolutely in love with it, and it’s got me thinking about our hardware options for the vanity in this bathroom.

We loved the built in cabinets we had made for the den bathroom so much that we decided to have our vanity in the master bathroom custom made as well. When we priced out how much it would be to get something that was big enough for the space from Lowe’s, Home Depot, etc. we found that we really weren’t spending too much more for a custom piece.

This is the inspiration photo we gave the builder:

And this is how it turned out:

Overall, we were very happy with it! Right now it is just primer white, but we have plans to add a couple coats of high gloss white soon. We are still trying to decide between a few light gray options for the walls.

So that brings us to the hardware. I’m feeling torn between going with the more modern feel of this bathroom and sticking with the traditional notes that are found throughout the house.

If we go the modern route, I’d like to install sleek rods on both the drawers and doors. Here’s what I imagine with this option…

For the more traditional route, I envision glass knobs on both the drawers and doors. Maybe something like this…

And just when I think I’ve got it narrowed down to two options, I see this:

Lucite and nickel? Yes please! Not sure it would fit in, but I kind of love it.

You can see more of the inspiration for our master bathroom here. What’s your favorite hardware style? Which would you choose?

Don’t forget to enter the Modern Masters paint giveaway! You can enter daily here.

**note: click on images for source.