DIY Farmhouse Decor On A Budget

My tip for everybody, if you’re gonna do wood ceiling in your bathroom, is instead of using an indoor polyurethane, use an exterior polyurethane. Otherwise it bubbles a little bit or it stains, you can see little water. But if you use the exterior, it’s the best solution. If I could say anything that you do when you remodel your bathroom, Put in a towel warmer. Welcome to the Imperfectly Empowered Podcast with DIY Healthy Lifestyle Blogger Annana, former empowering you to transform your life one imperfect day at a time. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Imperfectly Empowered Podcast. I’m your host Anna Fulmer feature featured in American Farmhouse Style Magazine, Brooke Fed. Is a lifestyle blogger@farmhouseeighteentwenty.com where she shares home decor inspiration and before and after remodeling ideas based on her 200 year old farmhouse. I cannot wait for you guys to see and hear about the things that she has done. You will be so inspired if you love farmhouse style decor, you will not wanna miss this episode. She’s got some amazing ideas. Brooke, welcome to the show. It’s so fun to have you here. Thank you for having me. You bet. And remind me where you’re located. I completely forgot where. That’s okay. I’m in a Hudson Valley, so I’m about an hour north of New York City. Okay. Okay. I’m in Dutch, so we’re not too far then. Yeah. Cause we’re in Lancaster. Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Yeah. Yeah, I love your beautiful home at your website and all the inspiration. I’m excited to touch on some of the things that you’ve done because they’re just beautiful. But I like pressing the rewind button because a lot of times people are like, how did you get into blogging full-time? Like it’s still a very abstract concept for so many people. I’m shocked the amount of people that don’t even understand it. Like when you. . I write a blog and they’re like, what is that? Or Yeah, why would you do that? You know, . Yes. Yeah. I would’ve been one of those. And that was only what, four years ago. Like I would’ve had, well, I didn’t , I didn’t, I had no clue. Yeah. So it give us a little bit of your backstory in how you even started blogging. And again, her website is a farmhouse 18 twenty.com, but tell us a little bit of your, Well, we moved into this house in 2010 and my dream really was to always live in an old farmhouse. And way back when Martha Stewart, like in the late nineties or whatever, and she had the house on Turkey Hill, I was obsessed and I would record all of her shows on V H s. You know, and I love that. I like someday to have a farmhouse. I just would love it. And so when we needed to move school districts, my husband was like, I want a little bit of land. And I was like, I want an old farmhouse. And so luckily this one came on the market and it was a for sale by owner, which was a bit of a nightmare, but. We finally got it and we’re in it and I just thought it would be interesting. People were really interested in how old our house was and what we were doing to it and what needed to be done and if it was haunted, all of that stuff, and So I decided it’s haunted and is it, now we have to ask, is it haunted? Yeah, I don’t think it is, but there’s been like a couple weird things and so I just was like, Hey, you’re welcome to live here. Just don’t let me know you are here . You know, like, I’m like, my kids are i’ll, I’ll share this space with you, but that’s hilarious. My house is surrounded by my myself. I’m excited to write a blog and Yeah. And hopefully inspire people and let, just show people the projects that we’re working on, the ins and outs, the ups and downs of living in such an old home and Yes. Yeah, so far we just, we still love it even after everything. Mm. Yeah, what do you have any history on your house? Because that area that you’re in would have some pretty significant historical. Yeah, well there’s a lot of older homes right around. Yeah. I mean, we’re kind of in our farm, like originally in the 18 hundreds had like acres and acres I think maybe a hundred acres. And so now we’re down to three acres. This house and new ones have come up around, our house is now 203 years old and there’s a lot of homes just right two houses down. There’s a house that’s from the 17 hundreds, so our. , the 17 hundreds, and then there’s a house down the street that is our sister house that was built first, and then once the farm was established, it was always kind of stature to move and live on a hill. And so that’s interesting. Our house was built. Huh? That is really interesting. It makes sense. Mm-hmm. , I guess, to pick up and move to higher. , huh? Yeah. Yeah, that’s common. I feel like that’s true of a lot of the East Coast, cuz Lancaster’s very similar. You’ll see one old farmhouse, so both of my grandparents, I grew up at their properties in very old farm houses and that’s really where my love, especially my mom’s parents had a beautiful old. Stone farmhouse that my grandfather, he was like way ahead of his time. Beautiful white farmhouse that he renovated years and years ago, and that’s really where my love for old world charm really came in. Just the history and especially in America, like 17 hundreds is about as old as it gets . Yeah. No joke from a, I should say from a structural standpoint in terms of housing. So, and really what’s, what you gotta think about too is your house, like the houses are from late 17 hundreds, 18 hundreds, but the wood that they used to build, it was 50, 60 years older. Mm-hmm. . That is interesting. So yeah. Yeah. It’s It’s almost like petrified at this point. . Yeah. And the stone. And the brick and just all the materials. Yeah. I love it. Yeah. What so far, we’re gonna dive into some of my favorite renovations that you did. I was taking a deep dive in, into your blog. But tell me what has been one of the greatest challenges. So somebody’s thinking, yeah, that’s my dream too. Cuz this is a popular movement thanks to Joanna Gaines. Right. You know, the farmhouse style is now a very sort of mainstream for many people. But what are some of the real life challenges of living? in an actual old farmhouse , right. Well, for starters, there’s no insulation. We’ve slowly added insulation room by room, and windows are really thin, so if you look at ’em wrong, they crack. They’re all custom. So if we wanted to replace a whole window, it would be custom. But that’s the biggest challenge really, is the insulation part, and I guess the wood down by the foundation. Has been rotten. So we’ve had to take care of that. And those are the big things that, those are kind of the behind the scenes things. Mm-hmm. , you don’t really write about much, but they’re there and they’re just not pleasant. You just have to get used to it, you know? Yeah. Up here in the northeast we use oil, heat. Okay. Oh, interesting. Here and, and so, and it gets expensive, especially now. So it’s just all about layering. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you have horse hair? Pla. . In some rooms we do. Okay. In other rooms it’s just plaster and then lath and mm-hmm. , but it’s wooden lath. In the bathrooms it’s the wire grid. Yeah. So there’s just kind of a mixture. And then they’ve kind of tried to pot patch some holes and there might be some drywall patches. Yes. So it’s just like a mishmash of character, I guess. I don’t, for lack of a better word, history. Yeah, it’s history. I mean, that was our very first house was a old Victorian here in Litt, Pennsylvania. And the other thing that you don’t appreciate is, . Unlike, for example, tearing down drywall, which comes off in a sheet and it’s still messy. But a lot of these older homes, that plaster is just a mess. Like it’s dust. It is a, and like you said, we had too, that skinny laugh. Mm-hmm. . And then that plaster is basically smoothed over these tiny, tiny, thin pieces of wood. It is. It is just . We have pictures. It is, it is a mess. It is a massive undertaking. and we were hoping the rooms that we’ve gutted, that we’d find something in the walls. Yeah. No. Get in treasures? No. Yeah. Like the newspaper or, oh, that is interesting. They must not have done a lot of renovating then, like actually taken the walls apart. Right? Or when they were building it, even if they were like, One of my friends, she lives in an old farmhouse and they were redoing their mudroom and they took it apart, you know, gutted it, and there was an old bottle in the walls and I just was like, oh, that would’ve been fun. We won treasures. Yeah. Oh yeah. The only thing I specifically remember from our Victorian that was a surprise that we hadn’t thought about is, . When we exposed the one wall around a window, we saw the whole mechanism for the old pulley system for the windows. Mm-hmm. . And for those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about, our first home was 1890. Wow. So, I don’t know when this started, but basically to open and close old windows, they had a pulley system that was weighted. So like within the wall. There was a weight, and then on the inside of the window frame, there were ropes that looked like a pooley, so you could pull the window open with the ropes, and then the weight inside the wall is what kept it open and closed. That was kind of cool. We took a picture of that. That was interesting. Yeah. To see that weight in the wall. But yeah, no treasures. All of our windows, when we have ’em open, they’re just propped open by a wooden spoon. Yes. Stick . That’s . That’s how my grandparents is. Yeah. You do what you gotta do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What has been, on the flip side then, what is one of the things that has surprised you the most that you love about being in an old home? . The one thing I didn’t realize that I would love, I thought was kind of a cool thing, but I didn’t realize how much I would love it, is we have a fireplace in our kitchen. Mm. And I absolutely love it. It’s one of our main heat sources and it does crank out the heat. It’s got the old arm that they used to cook on. And, but I love to cook and especially on Sundays during the winter, I’ll, I’ll spend the day cooking, but I’ll put a fire on in the, it’s just nice to have a fire going Yeah. In the kitchen while you’re cooking. I love that. That makes me so happy inside. That was one of the things that I dreamed of designing for when we build, but I couldn’t quite . It was so impractical. I couldn’t quite get it into the design. But I love, is it in the. It’s right on the exterior. So the kitchen is right at the end of our house. Okay. And so it’s, it’s directly across from our stove, so yeah, it’s, it’s right in the wall. It’s, oh, it’s not a freestanding wood stove, right? Yeah, no, it’s into the, wow. Yeah. And then is it, you said it has like, is it an open fireplace for some reason? I didn’t see this when I was looking at your kitchen. Is it like the arm that goes into an open fireplace or like the cast iron door that opens? No, it’s a, it was for cooking, so it’s inside the fireplace and then you can swing it out and put the pot on there. Yeah. You know, and then it goes back in. Yeah. I love that. That is so cool. We’ll have to look for, it’s my favorite picture of that. For those of you watching on YouTube, we’ll see if we can get a picture of that. I believe it’s in my home tour. Okay. I looked through that and I didn’t, I. Must not have seen that. Well, there’s, I love that. That’s so cool. There’s the fireplace, but then there’s a bookcase on the on the left and Okay. A table. So I think it is. Do you use that cast iron arm for cooking at all? Do you cook over that fireplace? I used it one time. I made some chili and I scorched it. So I think there’s kind of an art to figuring out the meat and yeah, that would be challenging. That was one of my favorite memories growing up as we were at a camp as kids and they had a big open fireplace with a cast iron. Arm that had like a big. Round tray that they could swing over the fire. And I swear food tasted better. To your point though, it has to be an art, but like pancakes and french toast and he would do hotdogs and hamburgers and all kinds of stuff. And I’ve always thought like, how can I incorporate that? pizzas, they’re so good. Oh, I love, yeah. But you know, however far it has to be from the flame and how big the flame would be, all of that. Yeah. Yeah. Clearly I was too close and the flame was too big. girl, I probably would’ve caught the whole thing on fire. You did better than I probably would’ve. Yeah. Oh, okay. Well I’m really excited to dive in with some of your renovations and these remodeling ideas. We are gonna take a quick break, but when we come back, stay tuned for a speed round of this or that with Brooke and we are going to chat some of her top renovation tips and ideas from her 1820 farmhouse right when we come back. You have tried it all, worried you will never lose the extra weight or reclaim the energy you once enjoyed. Want to achieve fat loss without spending hours in a gym or eliminating entire food groups from your diet. Well, now you can in the virtual faster way to fat loss with Anna Mice. Six week Fitness Nutrition program. You will learn how to pair effective 30 minute workouts with all natural evidence-based nutritional strategies to leverage what you eat and when you eat, to reset your metabolism and burn fat fast. Even that stubborn belly fat. I am a dual certified nurse practitioner, passionate about teaching sustainable strategies to promote fat loss and prevent disease. I have cheered on thousands of clients who have done just that with the Faster Way program. In my six week program, the average client currently sheds seven inches of body fat, 93% report more energy. 89% state that their mental health has improved. 100% of clients report. They feel this program is sustainable. Curious to try the program, but not sure if the strategies will work for you. Try the faster way strategies for free. Head to www.hammersandhugs.com and sign up for my free seven day fat loss accelerator course today and start your own transformation. . We are back here with Brooke. Okay, Brooke. This or that? Okay. Get two questions. No stress, whatever comes to mind first. Chocolate or vanilla? Vanilla. Do you have a favorite vanilla dessert? Like when you think of vanilla, what’s the instant dessert that comes to mind? A vanilla milkshake. . There you go. That’s, that would be my husband’s answer. Okay. Very important question. Where’s the best vanilla m? There’s a place called In the City, I forget the name of it, that doesn’t help you much. I think it’s called the Black Tap Bar Grill, and they’ve got black. Black Tap. Is this New York City I made as City, New York? Yeah, in Manhattan. I think it’s down in the Village, New York City. Black Cap Bar and Grill. . Yes. And they’ve got really, really good milkshake. All right guys. Black Cap Bar Grill Mall about Food . Believe so. Don’t Vanilla Milkshakes. Yeah, I hope so. I hope that that’s the name. But my editors are amazing. They often find these things on their own. Okay. Candy or baked goods. Speaking of food candy, what’s your favorite candy? . I would say Starburst. . Ooh. That you and my husband have very similar taste. That would be up there for him too. Yeah. Okay. Would you rather decorate for fall or for Christmas? Christmas. Would you rather wear flats or heels? Ooh, flats. . Oh hundred percent. Girl, that’s not even question. I’m so klutzy. I can’t . Yeah, . Hey, you know yourself Well. That’s step number one. Stone or brick? Stone. That’s a very hard one. I myself would’ve really hard. I’m answering that. Okay, last one. Because you have an incredible garden, so would you rather grow flowers or vegetables? Vegetables. What’s your favorite vegetable? Like what’s the one vegetable? Everybody should be growing cuz it’s. Well, actually it’s a fruit, but, uh, tomatoes. Yeah. I mean, I love to grow tomatoes. They’re easy, they’re pretty fool. Proofy could grow them in a pot and there’s, the varieties are so good and yeah, they’re not fickle, they’re not hard to grow. Yeah. And that is a good point. You could grow them. Whether you’re in a city and you just have a little back porch, a big city. If even if you have like a little balcony, you can just put a pot out there and you can grow tomatoes. That’s one of my goals. One day, once we’re out of this rental house and actually have a property, I really want a garden. It’s so rewarding. It’s, it is rewarding. And there’s, yeah, there’s something about gardening that brings such solace, I think. Mm. And there is something about getting your hands dirty. Ladies, if you’re afraid to get dirt under your nail, don’t be. You might find yourself. I love it. A happier, I call it wisdom. Mm, yeah. Yeah. Okay. My favorite room in your entire house, and this is partly because I am obsessed with the French country farmhouse style, and to me this is like, Very, very French country looking with maybe a slightly modern twist, but your dining room is gorgeous. Oh, thank So you have exposed, you’ve got this beautiful exposed brick wall and then what I love that you did, so I’m looking at the picture right now. I have it on my show notes. And am I seeing correctly, is the ceiling painted the same as the trim and the walls? Same. Yeah. So I’m gonna suggest the reason that this works is we’re gonna get this image up on YouTube. We’re gonna make sure that gets, for those of you watching, and for those of you listening, all of these will be just visit the show notes on the blog post. But I think it works because the way you offset it with that brick. I think so too. I had to, originally, when I first painted the dining room, it was ivory, okay. And I installed that brick ball myself. Oh, did you? That wasn’t expos. I put expos. Oh. I put the brick in and I, I believe it was orig, it was there way back. Because where that closet is. Yeah. Behind the brick. That was a fireplace and they removed the fireplace and put a closet in and I veed that at one time that was brick. So, and I wanted an exposed brick wall. Anyway, so I installed it was probably, to date still the hardest project I’ve ever. That’s a lot of work. Yeah. Why Project Beautiful though? Like you could definitely convince me that that is exposed. Original brick. Where’d you get your brick from? I got it. It’s a brick veneer and I collaborated with a company that, I think it was called like Northeast Bricks or something. I don’t quote me, but Yeah. Yeah. But, and then Montford brothers. sponsored it and okay, so I got a lot of the veneer from there, and that is a local place here in Fishkill, New York, but I love the tone of it. Thank you. Like it’s always hard to see. This is a tip for any of you listening, that sometimes you have to be wary of pictures because depending on the light, depending on the filter that we use, mm-hmm. it can sometimes slightly distort the actual real life color. So that’s just. Hack, always make sure you look at the product images as well, but what is the overall tone of it? Like? Is it as true in the picture? It’s like It is. It is absolutely is true. I love it and I got it. It’s not super red. No. Yeah, no. And how I did that because they were just, Regular brick, like newish. And how I got it to look kind of weathered was when I put the mortar in between the bricks. Mm-hmm. , I was kind of sloppy. I couldn’t get the Yeah. You know, that little angle that they do in between. Yeah. So I just took a brush and I just started. Brushing it in and that’s how it happened. And it was a happy accident and I was like, oh gosh, I think I like that now. I was really did it out of frustration. I was like, good. And I was like, oh, that’s quite a nice, I’m gonna keep doing it. And di iy at its finest people. Yeah. Is how it works. So then I really, I was, I used a pastry bag to put the mortar in. Yes. . Yes. So another way for you guys listening, if you’re really, because brick is something a lot of people, this is one of the number one things people come to my blog looking for as well. So what Brooke did, for those of you recapping, you’re basically putting the mortar or the grout in between the bricks with the pastry bag. Mm-hmm. . But then she took like a, you can get like a masonry type of brush. It’s like a really thick brist. . And then she just was brushing it, right? You were just brushing over, brushing it in the edge just to take out the ear bubbles and if one brick got a little bit too much mortar or concrete on it, I wiped it. Mm-hmm. to however much I wanted to be left on there, whatever, and it turned out really well. And it really softens the overall look. So another for those of you interested in different techniques, another technique, I did this in our third house, in the kitchen, in the brick wall, is like she just said, it’s really hard to get the straight blind. And when you’re doing something that looks old, you don’t really want to, that’s a very modern look. You kind of want that messier. So one of the things that I did is I took a glove and I took one finger and I just ran. along all of the mortar cracks in between the bricks, so I didn’t smear it over. , but it made it very messy. Yeah. And looked old. Right. Do you ha, would you be able to find the link for the brick that you used? Yes. And I even, there’s a, do you want me to send it to you? Yeah. It doesn’t have to happen right now. Well, it’s, um, you are on my blog and you search a brick wall. It’s on there and there’s a Oh, okay. A YouTube video. I did a time lapse on there of how I did it, and yeah, you can see the light change and everything. It, it took all day. Yeah. That’s awesome. Well, we’ll make sure that the link to the renovation is in the post. But yeah, if you want us, cuz I know people will ask if you wanna also just send me the exact link to the brick, we’ll make sure that’s also okay in the show notes cuz people are always looking for good. Brick video. I will. I’ll, okay. One of the other renovations that I love that you did, I love your master bathroom. Totally different. Look you guys, and this is the beauty of doing your own design and renovation, this one’s much more modern. The white and black, she did white tile, but I also love the top of the shower is wood, tongue and groove board. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. Tongue and groove. Now, tell me a little bit about one. Let’s talk a little bit about wood ceilings for showers. Because there’s some things I’m guessing you probably did with that. And then the other thing that I love is if you did like a window, half wall walk-in, shower, right. It’s just, and that’s really pretty. I like that. Thank you. Thank you. That was our last bathroom to remodel and. So we gutted that and started over, and my dream was, I saw this picture, I think it was on Instagram of my inspiration, and it was a white tile with blackout and it had the window pane panel and mm-hmm. . But it had a, it didn’t have a wood ceiling, but it had wood trim. Mm. And I just thought, well, I wanna take it a step further and do the whole ceiling cuz the room’s too small to really have big trim. So I thought, well, I’m just gonna do the whole ceiling and my tip for everybody, if you’re gonna do a wood ceiling in your bathroom, instead of using an indoor polyurethane, you use an exterior polyurethane. Yes. Otherwise it bubbles a little bit or it stains, you can see little water. But if you use the exterior, It’s the best solution. So for those of you not sure what polyurethane is, that’s basically the clear top coat that you use to help seal the wood and protect it from what Brook was just talking about. Water damage or Yeah, moisture, anything like that. And then, do you remember the kind of finish that you used? Did you use like a, I used a mean wax. I think it was called American Farmhouse. The stain. The stain, yeah. It’s very pretty. And it’s definitely very in line with the. Oh, thank you. And then the finish of the poly was just a. Yeah. Is that a heated towel rack? Oh, game changer. What I just realized, I’m like, wait a second. Yes, that’s just a towel rack. So she has a heat, a towel rack in her shower, and I have radiant heat flooring. Genius. Yeah. Wait, so how does the, okay, but it’s actually in your shower. This is the first I’ve ever, it’s right on the wall, so, It’s on the back wall. You guys, it’s opposite of the shower head. Yeah. The pictures make the bathroom look so much bigger. Our bathroom is really small. Yeah. And so rather than we had to have a walk-in shower because we, there just wasn’t enough room for a door. So there’s just the panel. But on the wall, this isn’t an excellent hack you guys for making a bathroom look bigger. By the way, what Brooke just did is she opened the entire room with this window. Panel door. Thank you. And that is, the towel warmer is on the opposite end of the shower head. Is it weird having it in the shower? There’s been no issues. Like it doesn’t sizzle or anything when the water hits? No. I mean, it’s far enough away in our, yeah, we have a rain head so it comes straight down the shower. Yeah. But. . Yeah. So it’s, it’s kind of far enough away. And right below the towel warmer. I have a little bench too, a little teeth bench that we pull out. If you wanna just sit in the shower for a moment or, yeah. Yeah. Guys, if I could say anything that you do when you remodel your bathroom is put in a towel warmer. That sounds amazing. Mm-hmm. , that’s like a little high end hack right there on a budget. It’s just how warmer. Yeah. How much does a towel warmer cost? Um, it varies. Does a plug. Plug plugin. So my husband’s an electrician, so he had to run power there, but they vary in price and you can get one for a free standing one for a little over a hundred dollars. Or you can go as high as way out of my budget when, or $800. It just depends. I think ours was right around $300. . Okay. It’s big too. I’m looking at, it’s big. It’s also a size. Yeah. It’s 36 inches. Yeah, that’s, I love, is such a great idea. Nice. It just, it’s lovely. And it, it really is. The whole thing looks lovely. There’s so many great ideas, thank you, of that renovation. And I also wanted to point out another design hack that she mentioned that I’ll touch on quick. She talked about the room was too small to do big trim. If you are renovating a small space and you want it to look bigger, either do no trim, or you can also use quarter round as your. So you can do that around the ceiling. You can do it around the baseboard instead of baseboard, you would just do cord around to help hide where the drywall meets the flooring or the ceiling. And hers looks wonderful. She, I don’t think you did any trim, right? It’s just the wood paneling against the mm-hmm. Yeah. And it works. So that’s another hack. You guys make that room look, look bigger is forego the traditional trim. Oh, thank you. Yep. That looks great. Yeah. Okay. One of my other, there’s a couple others that I absolutely love, but in terms of your house, the back porch is super cool. Thank you. I love this back porch. And there’s a couple things that I wanna highlight here. And remember, she’s in New York, so we’re on the East coast, so our weather elements would be very similar. One of the things that I love that you did back here is you put sheer curtains on Rod. all around the perimeter of the porch, which makes it look really high end, especially with all the greenery. Around it. Talk to me about the sheer curtains and do you recommend that? Are they not practical? Do they actually work? How do you use them? Decor than anything, but I loved them because I love the flow. I love, I tied them so they wouldn’t be flopping all over. Yeah. But it does provide a little bit of shades. Right? When the sun starts to set is blinding and it’s nice to just pull them. It’s also nice. Over by the table if we’re eating outside, if we pull them and it kind of hinders the mosquitoes coming in. Yeah. But other than that, they’re really just decor and they were a budget. They were from ikea. I think a pack of two is $8 or something like that. So it makes it kind of affordable and it it does look high end. Yeah. It really. . That’s like a cabana. It gives it a cabana feel. Yes. I think of our back porch as another room, and I wanted to design it a little bit like an open living room. I like the looks, so she just installed from what I see, just rods on the inside of the mm-hmm. soffit. You guys that drops? Mm-hmm. your ceiling. Mm-hmm. . And how often do you have to wash them? Like practically, how long does it take a white shear outside to. You know what? I don’t wash ’em as often. I probably, yeah, I put them up right before Memorial Day, and I think I, I washed ’em in mid-July and then mm-hmm. when I took them down, I took, I washed them. Yeah. So they don’t get that dirty really. Not really, you know, I mean, not visibly at least. Right. And who wants like stark white anyway outside if it doesn’t have Right. You know, but they’re not filthy, dirty or gray or, or anything like that. But when I go to wash them, but, um, I really, really like that. That’s a great idea for any of you looking for a way to sort of elevate your back porch and then with all your greens and your, and it’s not that expensive. It’s really pretty. It really, that’s such a budget friendly. , yes. High-end. So pretty well. Speaking of French country love, you know where I’m going the, it’s not actually in her house, but this is where I would live. When Brook sees some random woman on her property, lounging, this is where I’ll be . You have a, what you call your garden house and it is a beautiful herringbone brick floor. I’m looking at it right now. It is, is the whole thing. Windows. on the wall. The whole thing is windows, and they’re all reclaimed windows that Wow. Were being thrown out from a warehouse. Did you build this? Yes. Yeah. My husband built it with a builder friend of ours and right during, during lockdown, so I had been wanting a garden house and I had design boards, and I had been collecting things for years, but right around eight years and. , the time was right and I had these windows in the garage just sitting there. So, and it was right before there was like a supply chain, so all of our beams and everything we were able to just order and have delivered. But the bricks we had right up in that area that we had gotten for free off of Facebook marketplace. And so I knew I wanted a brick floor. It’s so pretty. Now, did you, are they just dry laid or is there grout between them? They’re dry, laid. Well, they’re. Talk to people about dry laid. , well, dry Lake. I didn’t know what that is. Just to make sure, you have to put like a fine layer of gravel below them and just make sure that the flooring or the ground is level, like pounded. And then you can just lay your bricks in, however, whatever pattern that you want, and then just get playground sand and you sweep it into all of the crack. All of in between every single brick. And you’re gonna have to, and once that settles, you’ll have to add more sand. But, and I probably do that at the beginning of every season. I’ll add more sand or if we’re having a wedding in there, then I’ll add more sand then too, just to make everything more polished. But, and then how do you keep them from moving? So if somebody’s trying to picture this, you basically have a perimeter. What did you guys use to. They’re butted up to the walls. Yeah. So the bricks, they end all the way at the wall. See what I’m saying? So, yeah. So I’m assuming that was just like a concrete footer. Yes. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And, and basically you’re like digging a trench and then pouring concrete Yes. Ultimately, right? For your mm-hmm. wall footers. Okay. Yes, yes. It’s so pretty. And then you there, but the sand keeps ’em in place. Right. So they’re not moving like mm-hmm. right in between. It gives a very natural look. I’ve always liked that look, I’ve always wondered how they do around pools. Dry laid makes sense to me. Cuz if one cracks you just pull it right out. Right. Makes sense to me around pools. But I wonder if the sand is annoying. I probably would use concrete or something around a pool. Yeah. What were the windows all from the same. All from the same place. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so a warehouse. And so the great thing about that is my husband’s uncle owns a huge warehouse facility and it’s storage and they store a lot of Broadway shows there, and there’s public store. But anyway, he was, he changed out all of his windows and he was throwing out, The windows. And so I just made a few trips and just started collecting these windows and we have more in the, our garage in case, uh, window pane breaks or Right. Or something that we can replace, but yeah, that’s such a great idea. Yeah, that’s a really, really great idea. I love the repurpose thing. I mean it’s just, oh, me too. Like from one man’s trash can to another woman’s treasure trove. I mean, it’s just so pretty. Yeah. Yeah. And Facebook marketplace, you guys, Brooke mentioned it, , it’s, I’ve mentioned it many, many times. We should do a whole podcast honestly on how to leverage Facebook marketplace cuz there’s tips and tricks for sure. Cuz a lot of people are scared of Facebook marketplace . There are definitely some, I’ve gotten some gems off of Facebook marketplace. Yes, 100%. But it can be dangerous too, because if you go on there just to look around and then you see something you don’t need, but you’re like, oh, all of a sudden I do need, that’s exactly. Right. I’ve stopped looking for right now cause I have no place to put anything. I know anyway. Yeah, me too. It’s so pretty though. You painted again, you guys need to check this out and look at it. You’ll be very inspired. You’ll wanna create your own garden, garden house, but you painted all of the trim and the walls again, one color and then you did a lighter shade on the ceiling. Mm-hmm. , which I think is really pretty. To thank you, but I, Brooks Brooke’s rooms are a really good example of, I think, how to leverage the all over paint look where there’s not different color for trim. I think you’ve done it well. A lot of people I would argue have not done it well actually, and I think you did a good job with your, thank you. Thank you. Firm believer in, in keeping the ceilings and the, the ceilings and the walls and the trim, all one color. But the way you can differentiate it also is if you just do the trim and a different She. . Oh, that’s a great, yeah, that’s a great point. So talk to people about how Sheen changes. Sheen changes everything. The overall tone of. , right. I’m a firm believer that walls should be painted in a matte finish. Mm-hmm. , but the trim looks so great in a semi-gloss or a satin it, and it almost looks like a different color, but it just amps up that pizzazz in a room and it brings an extra glow and extra life to the walls. Mm-hmm. and. Just kind of differentiates. It shows that the trim is there, but just to paint it like a satin or a semigloss, just ups the ante so much in a room. Yeah. And there’s different ways to leverage the sheen. If you have a small room, a higher sheen will make it feel bigger. Only just cuz it reflects more light. Mm-hmm. . So like a bathroom might be a good place if you guys are renovating to go with a like gloss or a semi-gloss at a minimum, probably satin will help cuz it does reflect more light. They’re also easier to wipe down, much easier moisture, especially with moisture, if anything. Yeah, any room that has moisture or grease or anything. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And I personally only do semi glasss in bathrooms just because they tend to be smaller, and I’m looking for more light reflection. The only other thing I’ll say about better moisture barrier also. Yes, right. It would be a better protection. Mm-hmm. , I would, my own experience, and maybe you haven’t experienced this now, I also tend to go with slightly lighter colors, so it might make a difference for me as a mom with young kids, I have found that. Light colors are a little harder to clean. Scuffs and stuff off of the walls for me has been the only downside to matte finishes with lighter shades. Yeah. Have you tried Magic Eraser? Yes. . Oh, yes, . Okay. I live by Magic erasers. Oh. My daughter has drawn so many landscapes on our walls. Oh my gosh. Oh gosh. Yeah. . Yeah, but you’re That’s a great point though. For any of you who do have Matt and you really like the look of Matt, A Magic Eraser. Is that clean? What is it called? It’s by Mr. Clean, right? The, I think it’s just called The Magic Eraser. Yeah. Yeah. Magic Erasers are wonderful for getting scuffs and stuff off of walls. I love your house, Brooke. It’s just so beautiful. You’ve done such an amazing job. So many great ideas from, thank you so much. Her website, where can people follow you and you do more than just home decor and sharing your remodel. So just give us a quick rundown of the things that people can find at Farmhouse 1820 and all the different places they can find you at. Okay. Well my blog is obviously, it’s about my farmhouse and the projects that we work on. I. To inspire people with high design on a budget. That’s my motto, and which we’ve shared several amazing ideas already. Jot them down. Oh, thank you, thank you. But I also, I find so much solace in cooking, so I also share a lot of recipes that I create and I share garden tips and tricks also. So, and then I share a lot of entertaining ideas, and I showcase the garden house in that. So that’s a perfect entertaining room right there. You can find me on YouTube under Brooke Fed again. and you can also find me on Instagram at Farmhouse 1820 and Facebook two. Farmhouse 1820. Look for Brooke Farmhouse, 1820. Her YouTube channel is Brooke Fegan, her name. All these links will be on the show notes. Brooke, it’s so fun having you here, I pray. God bless. Thank you so much for having you family. It’s just beautiful as are you. It’s so fun to have you. I appreciate it. It’s an honor to be here. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Imperfectly Empowered Podcast. I would love to hear your thoughts from today, head to your preferred podcasting platform, and give the show an honest review and let me know what you think. Remember, you cannot be redefined, only redeveloped, one imperfect day at a time. Your story matters and you are loved.