Richmond Related
Junk in the Trunk
A couple of weeks ago, Young House Love reader (and former Richmonder) Jennifer W. tipped us off to a great local source for junk – er, architectural salvage. She described Caravati’s as a paradise for old windows, doors and other historic home goodies. With our curiosity sufficiently piqued, we paid Caravati’s a visit as soon as we got the chance.
Their huge warehouse is in a quiet, industrial part of town- you could miss it if it weren’t for the crowd of cars outside. And the inside is just as crowded… with rows and rows of any and every type of architectural detail: fireplaces, mantles, doors, archways, stained glass inserts, toilets, windows, railings, columns, metal grates, etc.
And we’re not talking shiny, new IKEA style stuff. This “junk” looks as old as it probably is, which means it has Character with a capital C. Chipped paint, broken glass, rusted parts. Sherry summed it up as “authentic shabby chic”. Overall, really cool and really inspirational.
Here’s a sampling of the architectural eye-candy we saw:
We hoped to walk out with an old window that we could turn into a four-photo picture frame (by taping pics behind the glass of a four-paned window), but we didn’t find the right size this time. Even though we left with a junkless trunk, we still have some window DIY to share courtesy of our new friend Jennifer W.
Here’s a kitchen pot rack she made with an old window she snagged at Caravati’s. Clever, eh?
And for all you non-Richmonders, Caravati’s runs an eBay store so you can get your hands on some incredible architectural salvage too. Happy hunting.
Conventional Wisdom
John and I went to a gigantic home and garden show at Richmond’s downtown convention center last night. And boy were we stimulated. The combined Home Show Richmond and The Maymont Flower & Garden Show was bursting with local and national companies showcasing a staggeringly wide range of wares. And while it was chock full of really fabulous things, like these amazing seltzer bottles…
…it also had its fair share of unbelievably insane things, like this airbrushed bathtub:
But somehow, whether we were playing Where’s Waldo among the iron garden ornaments (can you find John?)…
… or checking out all things home & garden related (and a lot of things that were neither, actually) – we had a great time!
The show will be open to the public through Sunday the 24th at the Greater Richmond Convention Center, so stop by for what’s sure to be a wild ride. Oh and if you arrive after 5pm (it goes til 9) admission is only five bucks.
Sunday in the Park
When this Sunday lived up to its name (and brought us beautiful weather in the mid 60s) we contemplated several parks that we could visit to take little Burger for a long walk. In the end, our love for Richmond’s old neighborhoods won out and we ended up hitting up Park Ave instead.
Richmond’s Park Avenue slices right through The Fan, one of the coolest and most historic parts of the city (and former home to our cousin Erin). There’s no shortage of homes to admire, so we’re glad we remembered the camera.
Here’s a sense of what the colorful streetscapes look like:
Did you see Burger and me in action in that last shot?
Sherry was especially enamored with a lot of door designs that we spotted. She’s planning to repaint our yellow door sometime soon and is “in the mood for red” at the moment. Here are a couple of entryways that were especially inspiring to her (there were also a lot with elaborate glasswork and cool house numbers- but we were doing our best not to get arrested while taking photos on people’s porches):
And if you’re interested in making Park Ave your home, we saw plenty of “For Sale” signs and even got a chance to pop into an Open House – a gorgeous home with 2000+ sq. ft, 10′ ceilings and lots of historic details for $399. It was definitely a nice place, but there’s no way we’re leaving our home sweet home anytime soon.
Blast From The Past: Part 3
We’ve returned from our Christmas in West Virginia just in time to grace you with the third and final part of our “Places We Used to Live” video series. This time it’s a new city (Richmond, VA) and a new arrangement (cohabitation). Ooh la la.
Our First Apartment Together in Richmond was a pretty cookie-cutter one-bedroom in a pretty cookie-cutter suburban apartment complex. That didn’t stop us from being over the moon about finally sharing a home together AND getting way more space for less than half of our combined rent in NYC.
Here are the goodies to watch for this time:
The giddiness in Sherry’s voice as she excitedly points out features we’d probably yawn about these days- Our rag-tag collection of free / donated furniture (give us a break – we moved from NYC in a minivan)
- The high ceilings (the reason we opted for the 3rd floor)
- A much more fully stocked kitchen than in Sherry’s NYC apartment
- More album cover artwork thanks to the band OK Go
-
Our DIY version of these bird wall decals from blik (we cut birds out of blue manila folders and taped them to the wall).
Click HERE to enjoy the tour on YouTube
Ok, we now promise to return our attention to the present day. Some fun posts to look forward to: gifts we gave each other, booty we received from others, and stuff we scored during all those fabulous post-holiday sales.
