Vintage Gems for Sale!

Over the last few weeks, we have been featuring fabulous bloggers who have graciously agreed to contribute to our dear blog, Live. Love. Roost. While the topics have been straying from what’s near and dear to our heart, Madison real estate, they are all in line with our deep love for great design ideas and all things homey. Please enjoy our final featured blogger in this series, Sarah Mullins, co-owner of the fabulous Monona-based vintage, reclaimed and custom rental warehouse A La Crate! Sarah knows her stuff when it comes to vintage chic and talks about a great opportunity for you (and a great charity) to benefit from her impeccable taste! Are you ready?! Garage sale season is FAST approaching. Mark your calendar for Friday, May 15 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and be prepared to rummage out on our loading dock located at 2619 Industrial Drive, Monona, WI 53713.

We're selling some gems of pieces that we know you'll love at killer prices and all for a great cause. All of the proceeds will benefit Artworking, a local non-profit that is near and dear to our hearts. Artworking provides professional art mentorship and training for adult artists with cognitive disabilities in our community. As an added bonus, they will be selling some of their artwork at the sale as well!

Three other local businesses will be adding to the sale: Oak + Olive, the owner of which was recently featured in this very guest blogger series, The Cozy Home and The Ironstone Nest!

Here are some examples of pieces that could be yours:

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[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Beads.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/BlueChest.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Chair.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Chairs.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Chest.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Cloth.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Compact.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Coquet.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Fireplace.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/FoldingChairs.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/IroningBoard.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Lace.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Leg.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Picture.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Pinecones.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Rings.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/RollingChair.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/SPShakers.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Table.jpg[/slide]

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[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Tea.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/TennisRackets.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/TinBucket.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Tray.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="250" image_height="166.5" alt_text="Vintage Sale Items" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Tripod.jpg[/slide]

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Vintage Elementary School Chairs: Use one in a child's room for a reading area!

Materials: Pinecones, barn wood, lace, beads, fabric, you name it! Use the pinecones to make a wreath for your home; the beads to make a necklace; lace for garland and vintage fabrics for table settings or sewn together for pillows! I varnished and suspended large embroidery hoops to create a light fixture in our home. You could too!

Furniture: A bar cart in your home could be used to hide beverages and a variety of chairs/tables. The andirons could house a stack of books or an ironing board could be used as a console table behind your sofa. It’s the perfect height!

Trunks: They make great coffee tables and can hold keepsakes.

Odds and Ends: Sometimes these are the best finds! Take for example our stack of burgundy lunch trays! Imagine taking them and making a pattern on the wall. A tripod would make an awesome lamp base! Now that would be cool and I would be jealous!

The sky is the limit, friends, for what you can do with vintage found objects in your home. Get creative and have fun! We’re here to help with ideas.

See you at the sale!

Listing a home? Net more with Roost Realty! We’ll market your home with style, vision and boundless energy. Looking to buy? Let us be your property matchmakers! We’ll get you in the community, lifestyle and home of your dreams – because we know a home is so much more than a house.

Affordable DIY Ways to Decorate Your Space

Over the next few weeks, we will be featuring three fabulous bloggers who have graciously agreed to contribute to our dear blog, Live. Love. Roost. While these upcoming topics stray from what’s near and dear to our heart, Madison real estate, they are all in line with our deep love for great design ideas and all things homey. Please enjoy this week’s featured blogger, Jane Blanchard, from the fabulous Austin, Texas blog Modernize! We think this post will especially appeal to those venturing to decorate their new accessory dwelling unit or Airbnb space. Whether you just bought a home or are looking to furnish your newly constructed accessory dwelling unit, you could be flat broke when it comes time to decorate. Luckily, we have some ideas for you that make use of basic items to decorate your space DIY style.

Make that Firewood Useful

Some properties are chock-full of firewood just decorating the backyard. Bring some choice pieces inside to use as decorative accents. Cut small branches lengthwise to hang on the wall. Add fasteners for a makeshift coat rack or even connect four branches into a framed piece of art.

Create an Office...Out of the Closet

If you lack the space for a completely separate office or the supplies to fill it, try filling a closet with shelves and a desk, allowing a compact chair to slide right underneath. You can remove or keep the closet doors as needed. Hiding the space may be preferable in a studio apartment, for instance.

Sand and Finish an Old Wood Table

If you salivate every time you pass by a designer wood table, you are a traditionalist at heart. From the 1950s to 1970s, everyone wanted that smooth wood table. Step it up for the 21st century and make your own wood design. Search for large pieces of wood sold at thrift shops and other outlets. Sand it down, add legs and place it where you like!

Brighten up that Firebox

Fireplaces can look lonely for most of the year, so fill yours up with candles. Use different candles with various heights and sizes to fill the space. Turn them on throughout the year to lend a gorgeous glow to the room without the added heat.

Make old items brand new again with some creative ideas. Your decorative prowess may persuade people into thinking the items are chic designer products. Keep your decorative secret to yourself to impress everyone with a shoestring budget.

Need more home design inspiration? Check out Modernize.com!

Listing a home? Net more with Roost Realty! We’ll market your home with style, vision and boundless energy. Looking to buy? Let us be your property matchmakers! We’ll get you in the community, lifestyle and home of your dreams – because we know a home is so much more than a house.

Where and How to Buy Good Vintage Pieces

Over the next few weeks, we will be featuring three fabulous bloggers who have graciously agreed to contribute to our dear blog, Live. Love. Roost. While these upcoming topics stray from what’s near and dear to our heart, Madison real estate, they are all in line with our deep love for great design ideas and all things homey. Please enjoy this week’s featured blogger, Madison’s own kick-butt furniture refinishing extraordinaire, Krizia Villanueva from Oak+Olive! Do you love thrifting? Do you love cruising Craigslist? Do you love going to antique stores and markets? I think most of us do, and how could you not? It's fun, it's energizing, and it spurs creativity to no end! But, how do you know where to go?  Will you find what you're actually looking for? Will it be the right piece for you? Don't go rushing to the nearest big box retailer because you might be frustrated! Of course there are items that you need at these larger establishments, but it's really wonderful to be able to mix and match your decor. It's interesting, it has a story, and it feels more welcome for both you and your guests. Blending new, vintage, and handmade is the perfect recipe for a cozy home, I promise.

I'm Krizia, the owner of Oak+Olive. I paint and refinish furniture. I find a piece of furniture that needs some love and turn it into a modern and sophisticated (sometimes whimsical) piece that you can add to your home. I like to use color, but I also want my pieces to have a warm and earthy feeling to them because I value a comfortable and stylish home. My other goal is to provide you with inspiration on style and decor as evidenced by the addition of House Tours on my blog. I show homes that are creative and stylish. Homes that blend those three important pieces: new, vintage, and handmade.

Today, I wanted to share with you some tips on where to find good vintage furniture and decor as well as some thought processes on how you can determine that the item(s) will be the right purchase for you.

The first thing to consider is where to shop:

Well… Shop local, of course! See what kind of cool vintage shops and antique stores are around you. I promise there are many. Sometimes I think these stores are a little harder to find with basic searches - like “vintage shops (+your city),” “thrift shops,” “antique stores/malls,” etc. - but it is possible to find them this way with a little effort.

A REALLY great resource to find shops in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin is the Vintage Shop Hop. I don't know a lot about who's behind this magnificent idea, but it's an excellent way to plan a weekend, hit the road with your friends and stop at all of the participating stores in the area. This year's annual Shop Hop just happened; however, they leave the names of 200+ participating shops on their website for you to check out. You can easily plan your own road trip anytime to visit these unique places. They make it so easy to figure out your route with their handy map of shop locations too.

Also, if you’re into sourcing even more vintage, the folks behind the Vintage Shop Hop have put together a photo album of places all throughout the midwest. Click on “Photos,” then “Albums,” then “Road Trips” on Nellie’s Barn Sale Facebook page for all sorts of flyers for  flea markets, pop up shops, and barn sales in the Midwest.

Etsy is another great way to shop local believe it or not! I think so many people think Etsy is this unmanageable sea of stuff (which it can be), but if you know what you are looking for or have an idea, then this is an excellent resource for vintage and handmade. On their homepage you can choose “Shop Local,” type in the city you're looking to shop and also what you are looking for. For instance, you could type in "vintage" or "furniture" or you can be more specific and type in "ceramics" or "jewelry.” I think the great thing about this is that you can find small businesses who are really passionate about what they do but don't have a brick and mortar shops. You can write the shop owners directly, ask questions, meet them and pick up your order without the hassle of paying for shipping.

Along with local shops, go to vintage and handmade markets to find great pieces. You can search the internet easily for flea markets, pop up shops, indie craft fairs, or urban outdoor vintage markets in your area. Many times, you'll find out about local shops because they are the vendors at these markets along with other regional shops who travel to be in the shows.

How to shop:

Now that you know where to shop, it's time to think about how you are going to choose the right item to add to your collection. Decor purchases are generally easier, but be careful about going overboard with those smalls! It's easy to buy small $5-$20 purchases just to get home and wonder where the heck you’re going to put it all and does it actually match your style/decor?! Try not to let it get out of control because if you're like me, it'll just make you feel uncomfortable and your space will be cluttered.

Buying Furniture:

When buying larger items like furniture, that's always a little harder. Prices tend to be a little higher than you were hoping, yet you know you really want something fun and unique to add to your house. Here are some things to consider when you're choosing a piece of furniture for your collection.

Consider the structure/assess damage:

Is the piece of furniture well built? Is it solid wood? Are there broken pieces like missing veneer, cracks, and/or water damage? Sometimes these aren’t always reasons to say no to the piece and it’s important to ask yourself if it’s fixable. A lot of times broken or missing pieces of wood can be fixed with wood filler if you are going to paint it. If you aren’t going to paint it, occasionally that missing piece is not that big of a deal.

For example, to the left is a Mid Century Modern dresser that I refinished earlier this year. You can see where there’s a small chunk of wood that’s missing on the bottom right of the third drawer. To me, that was no big deal and I thought it added to the uniqueness of it. Plus it’s old! Letting some character show is OK in my book.

Style:

What’s the style you’re going for? Is your home mostly modern, cottage chic, industrial, bohemian? Many times these different styles can work together, but sometimes they don’t. I’ve always loved a more modern look with some industrial and bohemian thrown in. But, occasionally I’m drawn towards a vintage farmhouse look. I found that when I bought furniture and decor with a farmhouse look and tried to mix it in, it just didn’t quite fit. There have been a lot of  times where I’ve spent money on things that just don’t go, leaving me with more clutter than I know what to do with. (Good thing for Craigslist!) So, I think it’s always a good idea to keep in mind the overall look you are trying to achieve before buying a piece of furniture.

Function:

What are you going to use the furniture for? Dressers, for example, have become very versatile with people thinking of other ways to use them. Changing tables in nurseries, credenzas in the dining room or living room, or entryway storage are the most popular. It’s great that one piece of furniture can be so multifunctional.

Below are three pieces I worked on that speak to the power of versatile furniture. The first one is a MCM dresser that I painted for Sarah and Jeff of A LA CRATE Vintage Rentals to use as changing table in their little one’s nursery (image courtesy of Twig & Olive Photography; dresser painted by Oak+Olive). The second one is an antique buffet retrofitted as a bathroom vanity (image courtesy of Oak+Olive). The last one features a MCM dresser used for storage in a kitchen (image courtesy Beth Skogen Photography; dresser painted and refinished by Oak+Olive featured on this house tour).

[slider] [slide image_width="500" image_height="333" alt_text="Dresser changing table" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/DresserChangingTable.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="500" image_height="333" alt_text="Dresser vanity" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/DresserVanity.jpg[/slide]

[slide image_width="500" image_height="333" alt_text="Dresser kitchen storage" auto_resize="true"]http://www.roostinmadison.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/DresserStorage.jpg[/slide]

[/slider] So when you start planning your trips and getting out there, try to keep in mind function, style, and the structure of your vintage furniture (and decor)! There’s an incredible amount out there along with reclaimed and handmade, so why not fill your home with all of these gems? Spring and summer are the perfect times to plan your trips. Good luck and happy hunting!

Listing a home? Net more with Roost Realty! We'll market your home with style, vision and boundless energy. Looking to buy? Let us be your property matchmakers! We'll get you in the community, lifestyle and home of your dreams - because we know a home is so much more than a house.

Mid-Century Modern Homes in Madison

We get a lot of calls from home buyers who are looking for unique or mid-century modern homes in Madison. And we understand why! We love unique properties -- homes with extra charm, mid-century modern lines, and other special details that make them truly stand out.

Often, homes like this don't regularly show up in the MLS property search. But we're not deterred! We take matters into our own hands, turning into Madison real estate sleuths, working hard to track down the unique, mid-century modern homes in Madison that meet our buyers' needs.

Part of this involves turning to you. If you, or someone you know, owns a unique, mid-century modern home, and you're contemplating a move, we'd love to talk. We know you need a listing agent who understands your home's uniqueness, and who knows how to market its features properly to secure the best possible offer. That's where we come in. We know the Madison real estate market inside and out -- and our passion for vintage, unique, and mid-century modern homes means we're perfectly suited to help.

Here are a few tips for selling your unique or mid century modern home for the highest dollar possible:

1. 1950s and 60s home decor trends are back in a big way. We can work with you to turn your home’s “dated” features into today's trends that appeal to the buyers who are looking for something unique and vintage. (Here's an example of how to do that with dated bathroom tiles.)

2. Leverage your color palette! Let's identify the colors that work best with your home’s original features, then use that color palette to determine complementary wall and accessory colors that buyers will love.

3. For an instant facelift, consider painting your brick or stone fireplace.

4. Wood paneling can date a home and make a space feel heavy and dark. Refresh your space with paint and/or punchy wall art.

5. Vintage wallpaper can be beautiful! But it's very taste-specific. Consider toning it down with the neutral drapes and contemporary accessories.

6. Educate your buyers. If your home is unique, tell them how and why! From the type of materials used, to the history of your home’s design, or the credentials of it’s architect -- don’t leave anything out when selling buyers on your home's charm. 

7. Make sure that your Realtor “gets it”, too. Your ideal Realtor will not only appreciate all that your home has to offer, but will be able to articulate its value to potential buyers. While it’s unlikely that every original feature in your home will be a mid-century gem worth saving, your Realtor should have an eye for vintage chic, and be able to help your home for sale reach the appropriate audience.

Just remember -- buyers are craving unique and mid-century modern homes. But not only do you need to know how to market your home to them, you need to show them why your home is special.