I’ve recently fallen head first into a love affair with shopping on Etsy. I spent over 10 years with an Etsy store, but never shopped on Etsy for myself during those years. Probably because I never had extra money to spend on shopping outside of necessities.

Since we’ve been social distancing, I realized that now more than ever, it’s important to support small shops and so many of them are on Etsy. For me, every single sale on Etsy made a huge difference. Sometimes it meant if I was able to pay a bill on time or not. For this reason, I have a special place in my heart for shop owners on there and want to help them as much as possible! For me, that means shopping on there when I can and sharing shops with you all.

I’ve shared some Etsy finds over on Reserve Home a lot over the last few weeks, and you all seem to love them! So I thought I would fill you in on what I’m favoriting right now. Hope you enjoy!

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1 — Alabaster fruit! I just got my own set, and love them so much.

2 — This shop has so many incredible vintage and collectible posters. Some are art posters, and some are vintage advertisements. All work beautifully as artwork for your walls.

3 — In an attempt to cozy up our place, I’ve been on the hunt for table lamps. I absolutely love this cutie.

4 — This shop has a ton of unique ceramic vase options. I have the beige option above in my cart right now!

5 — A more affordable poster shop and one with many incredible prints like this Matisse exhibition poster. The colors are right up my alley.

6 — I’m currently on the hunt for an antique pier mirror for our living room, and in my search I’ve come across some truly beautiful pieces like these.

7 — My new favorite Etsy search terms behind “marble fruit” is “lamp to lay” … how pretty is this delicate fixture?!

8 — My beloved donut vases are currently sold out from H&M, but this handmade spin on them is even better!

9 — I cannot believe I’m sharing this, since there’s only one and I want it. Badly.

10 — Etsy is THE place to find handmade ceramics. This shop has a variety of dinnerware and drinkware to choose from, all in beautiful colors.

11 — No explanation necessary, right?! WANT.

12 — While the wooden fixture in our dining room is discontinued, there are so many similar options on Etsy. I particularly love this shape, but this shop has a ton of options!

13 — This shop is so beautifully curated, I can hardly handle it. The texture on this vintage vessel is gorgeous.

14 — Decor that doubles as art.

15 — The cutest little ceramic shell trinket box.

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Excited to put together another list for you soon! xoxo

Collecting and making paintings is David’s (for the lack of a better word) passion. Before I met him 9 years ago, I could enjoy art, but I didn’t know much about it and certainly didn’t own any of my own. This quickly changed after we met and moved in together. All of a sudden, most of my new friends were artists and as they were only a year or two out of college, they would trade in art ALL of the time. I say all of this to explain that while we have bought some of our art, a lot of it was traded for one of David’s paintings years ago.

I get a lot of questions about where our art is from, so I wanted to share who made the pieces we have, as well as share where I like to look for artworks now. Original art can be pricey, but I think having even one or two original pieces of art and then mostly prints (or photos or wall hangings, etc..) is important to create your own unique home style and also for supporting independent artists.

I get asked about certain pieces often, so I thought I would walk through our most asked-about pieces and give you the info on each. If there is something I missed that you want to know about, comment below!

No. 1 / David, my fiance, found this large frame abandoned on the street (jackpot!) so he came home and painted a large scale watercolor based on this Matisse painting.

No. 2 / people often think this is a print, but our Happy Birthday piece is actually a painting! It’s by Kansas City-based artist, Amy Kligman, and yes, David did gift it to me on my birthday. Though it just happened to say “Happy Birthday” aka it wasn’t a commissioned piece.

note: the print behind the hanging chair is from my friend Jan’s shop.

No. 3 / the silver foil piece behind the hanging chair here is by Mike Erickson. We just framed it and moved it to where Happy Birthday has been for years. It’s allowed us to see more of our wall moldings!

No. 4 / David bought this from his friend and old classmate, Brook Hsu when we first started dating. He had it professionally framed (so adult for a 21-year-old! ha) and we’ve had it on display ever since. I never see us putting it in storage, we love it that much.

No. 5 / you can see our newest painting on the left! “Pinkie” is by one of our closest friends here in Brooklyn, Carly Wilhelm. Her work fits our aesthetic to a T.

No. 6 / the yellow number on the left is a collage by our pal, Madeline Gallucci. On the right, two small paintings by Matt Jacobs.

No. 7 / The Marx Bros poster here was a vintage find at River Market Antiques in Kansas City, Missouri… my hometown. : )

No. 8 / a print from Fy! — all of their prints come framed (you can opt to order just the print as well), so we like to get prints from them so they are already framed and ready to go. The frame quality is top notch.

No. 9 / The painting on the left is by Brandon Dean, a good friend of ours and incredibly talented architect!

No. 10 / from left to right: the small piece on the shelf by Dennis Helsel, yellow collage by Madeline Gallucci, painting on the wall above plant by me (!), “I’m Tryin” from Brooklyn-based artist, Nathan Schultz, and framed painting on the far wall is by Kansas City-based artists, Max Crutcher.

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Alright, that’s everything we have out right now. We have quite a few pieces tucked away in storage. Hopefully, we’ll own a bigger place someday that will allow us to show them off!

When looking for art to buy now, I love looking at Tappan Collective, as well as Etsy for unique pieces. If you live in a smaller town, I recommend heading to some local art openings to see what artists in your city have to offer! I realize they may be on pause right now, but it’s a good thought to keep in mind for the future.

We’re living in incredibly uncertain and quite frankly, scary, times. I’ve been a small business owner my entire adult life, and I have many friends worried about their own financial future. With that in mind, I wanted to start putting together lists of some of my favorite small businesses for home decor.

I know we may not all have extra $$ to spend shopping right now, but regardless, recognizing the hard work that goes into every single one of these shops is worth sharing.

Etsy is one of the best sources for shopping small. I’ve included a few shops below from Etsy, and I recommend searching there first for any decor items, vintage or new.

Tamar Mogendorff — the source for my shell cushions! Tamar is an artist based in Brooklyn, and her shop has many treasures including, of course, her shell cushions.

Hudson and Oak Shop — Vancouver based shop for the prettiest hand painted planters. We have a large one and love how lightweight is is!

PurxiousbySQ — where I like to order my dried palm leaves from! They also offer pampas and other dried blooms.

Pampa — Aussie based shop that makes our beloved pom pom cushions! They offer way more than cushions, including gorgeous handwoven rugs, photographic prints, and many other decor and lifestyle goods.

Carly Wilhelm — it’s so important to support artists when you can, as nothing beats an original work of art! We have one of Carly’s paintings hanging in our dining room, and she has many paintings, big and small, available for sale. See her up-to-date offerings on her IG account!

Year & Day — we have a pink and white set from here, and use them every single day. I especially love the quality, modern design, and curated color offerings.

Drift Home Collection — Moroccan textiles galore! I connected with Nat on Instagram and absolutely love following her to see the treasures she finds when she’s in Morocco. In addition to selling rugs and decor on her site, she also leads retreats in Morocco. BUCKET LIST.

Just for My Little Love — another Etsy shop with so many beautiful dried bouquets, it will have your head spinning! Marketed with wedding bouquets in mind, but perfect for every day decor IMHO. This bouquet is in my cart as I type this.

Adaptations NY — this shop here in Greenpoint recently closed to focus on online and IG sales. It was where I first laid eyes on Tamar’s Shell pillows, where we got all of our fun shape pillows, and their vintage furniture collection is to die for.

LE Harvest — a vintage shop with an aesthetic that’s right up my alley. Lots of gorgeous vintage clothing, decor, apothecary, and handmade items to be found here.

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Stay safe out there, my friends! xo

Little known fact, I’ve had an Etsy shop for over 10 years. My main gig for the past 15 years has been selling vintage goods on Etsy, mostly leather shoes and bags. Eventually, I transitioned to textiles for the home and opened a shop on a standalone website, but I still manage a small inventory over on my Etsy shop. Etsy was my world for so long, that I know to go there when shopping for unique and stylish home decor that you cannot find anywhere else. Not to mention, it feels damn good to support small businesses where each sale really does make a difference.

With that said, I thought it would be fun to start a series sharing my favorite Etsy shops. Shops that I’ve discovered over the years, as a fellow Etsy shop owner. I’m beginning the series by rounding up my favorite stops for home decor on Etsy, both vintage and new alike. There are so many treasures to be found, I wish I had a second home just to decorate it with everything below! Enjoy. : )

SINDstudio — there are so many great ceramics shops on Etsy, SINDstudio being one of them. They should be your go-to for colorful ceramic pieces, functional art, and playful mugs.

Bespoke Glass Tile and Stained Glass — I LOVE the stained glass offerings of this shop. Some of the designs are so unique and the color combinations are dreamy to say the least.

CreaReDesign — I’ll never look at paper mache the same again. That’s right, folks. These pendants are made of paper mache.

anewall — a company that is extremely popular for large scale wall murals, prints, and tapestries for good reason. They have SO many breathtaking options, many of which make me wish I was designing a nursery or kids room right now, only because they would look particularly good in one.

Yield Design Co. — a company that has a product lineup spanning home decor, kitchen wares, leather goods, and accessories. I’ve had my eye on this french press for quite some time.

IUMIDESIGN — no joke, I love all every. single. one. of the wooden lights offered in this shop.

Loom & Field — not only a gorgeous selection of vintage textiles, but they also design their own line of rugs in partnership with cooperatives of weavers in both Mexico and Morocco. Yes, please.

Magic Linen — Etsy is a gold mine for quality linen goods. This shop has so many vivid hues not often seen in linen bedding, but I have to say that I’m quite partial to the classically neutral situation above.

George and Willy — I’ve always loved this and wish I had a practical use for it in our home. I like the idea of having one of these in the kitchen, in a play room, or used in a cafe.

SHKOON — Moroccan textiles galore. There are many shops for Moroccan rugs and poufs on Etsy (ahem, I’m I own one of them). Still, my favorites are always Morocco-based.

BootsNGus — I have this chandelier linked in my Home Picks shop because I just love it that much! This shop has a bevy of gorgeous lighting fixtures to choose from, including the above.

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I’ll stop there for now! I plan to do a deeper dive into specific categories in the future. I might even share my secret resources for the most affordable and delectable rugs on Etsy. ; )

Welp, turns out procrastination is my middle name. I’ve been meaning to sit down and write this post for a while, but as with many of the important tasks on my to-do list, I either forgot about it most days or put it off. Still, since there’s no time like the present (and all that), I’ve finally decided I need to sit my butt down and just DO it.

Okay now that’s out of the way, I’m so excited to share the fully completed kitchen! Sure, I’ve shared many images of it on my social platforms, but I haven’t shared a few of these detail shots, nor have I shared the full story about how we came to renovate a kitchen in an apartment we do not own. I’ll get into everything below!

We moved into our one-bedroom floor thru apartment 4.5 years ago. It was the first and only place we looked at in our search. This is far from ordinary, and we had expected to look at many apartments over the week we allotted ourselves to find a place.

I’ll never forget the first time we saw the place, the ceilings were so much taller than I was used to, the windows were large and let in a ton of light, and there were beautiful historical details like original wood floors and moldings on the walls. It was our dream apartment. Well, mostly.

The only space that really didn’t fit in with the rest of the apartment was the kitchen. It had very clearly been updated last in the 1990s. Meaning it had blue-green vinyl floors, with matching blue backsplash tile, and a not-so-matching green marble effect laminate countertop. Oh, and the range and range hood were old, white, and looked as if they had SEEN THINGS. Not to mention the refrigerator was so big, it covered up a good chunk of the window and its pretty trim. Basically it wasn’t cute by any stretch of the imagination. It was fine, and everything worked properly, but it was the reason that I’ve spent the last 4.5 casually hunting for apartments.

Here’s a view of the beauty that was. We removed the upper cabinet fronts a few years in an attempt to up the cute-factor in here. The jury is still out on whether it helped. Make sure to check out that exhaust fan….yummy.

After our first few years here, it became apparent that we had awesome landlords that wanted us to stay here as long as we wanted (our neighbors have lived in the building for over 10 years!) Anytime we asked them if we could make small changes to the apartment, they would respond with a resounding yes, and added that in their eyes, the apartment is ours and they trust us to make any changes we want. JACKPOT.

Still, we didn’t think a kitchen renovation was in the stars (or was logical given we don’t own the place), but we felt that if not for the kitchen, we would want to stay here for many more years. Especially after all of the work we had already put into the place.

Things shifted this summer when I realized that I was willing to invest some of my own money to make our kitchen a bit nicer. Now I know we don’t own the place, but the investment would be in the work potential that it opened up to me if I can take on work with brand partners that are kitchen focused. Something I had never been able to do before. Not to mention, it would just make me feel better to have a kitchen I wanted to spend time in.

Since a huge part of my job is creating content for home decor and lifestyle brands, having an updated kitchen was something that felt necessary. Believe me, if I had a different job, we would have never renovated this kitchen. I just felt like I should make that abundantly clear!

Once I knew that I really wanted this to happen, we knew we needed to figure out a way to ask our landlords. First, I wanted to see if I could bring on a few brand partners to help offset the costs associated with a kitchen reno (we are in no way rollin’ in the dough). If we had to pay for everything ourselves, it would have drastically changed the plan. We still would have gone for it, but we probably would have just changed a few things, and we would have DIY’d most things instead of bringing in new product.

The first big partner I brought on, and the one that inspired the vision for the room, was Fireclay Tile. I wrote up a post about their role in our kitchen here. Once they agreed to take part in the project, I was ELATED. Elated and shocked that this could actually happen. After they agreed, I added semihandmade, AJ Madison (the stove had to go), Delta Faucet, and a partner I had worked with before, Mitzi. Nothing had been ordered yet, but I knew it would be important to outline what we planned to do to the kitchen before approaching our landlords about it.

(you can read the post about semihandmade here, AJ Madison here, and Delta Faucet here)

Once we knew the brands we wanted were interested, we spent a good amount of time planning out what we wanted the kitchen to look like. I spent many hours on IKEA’s website using their Kitchen Planning Tool. David and I also spent many hours pouring over the Fireclay Tile samples, comparing them to the semihandmade doors for IKEA Cabinets we were going with. When we had our final product picks ready, we worked out a plan of action for how to approach the landlords.

We didn’t want to just text them, “Hey can we completely tear apart the kitchen and put it back together? K. THANKS!” So we opened up a trusty Google Doc Proposal Template and filled it out with everything they would want to know. We started by thanking them for being so incredible all of these years, and wrote about how much we love the apartment. Before breaking down costs, we also explained that we believed that such an update to the kitchen would be a wonderful investment for them, because well, it’s true. They own the place, so any kitchen update immediately ups the property value, and cuts the need to do so in the near future.

We then went on to outline all of the materials we planned to use and their cost, either out of pocket for us or their value if they were to be gifted. We listed in detail everything we knew we would have to pay for ourselves, including the IKEA cabinet bases, the materials used to male the GLAM custom shelving, Smeg Fridge, IKEA countertop, hardware, crown moldings, ceiling medallion, and the myriad of supplies we would need to do everything ourselves. I made a mock up of how the kitchen would look after the renovation, and added it to the proposal, along with images and links to every design element we planned to bring in.

Then came the hard part — figuring out how to ask them if they would help pay for this. Sure, it may seem crazy that they wouldn’t pay for it since it’s their property, but at the end of the day, they didn’t ask for a kitchen renovation — we did. Still, even though we were beyond fortunate to have some of the priciest bits gifted, we were still going to have to shell out thousands for everything else. Money we really didn’t have considering we already live in one of the most expensive cities in the world, and our rent (which, fun fact, is actually the lowest out of every single one of our friends), already eats a huge chunk of our income every month. NYC is a whole different $$ world, y’all. •cries•

We proposed a few different reimbursement options while making sure they knew it was ultimately their decision if they wanted to help monetarily or not. They ended up opting to give us free rent 1 month and 1/2 rent for the following 3 months. That ended up almost covering most of what we put into the project! Hallelujah

After they gave us the go-ahead, we ordered the materials, waited for them to arrive, and went to what I like to call “YouTube School” to learn how to properly install tile, counters, faucets, you name it.

The entire thing was a blur. Once everything arrived, we managed to get the kitchen done within 3.5 weeks. WEEKS, people. David took off 10 days of work to commit entirely to the kitchen, and after he returned to work, he would come home in the evenings and keep going on the kitchen. I kept joking that he needed his own HGTV show.

Yes, I helped too. I could build an IKEA cabinet in my sleep at this point. I have to admit that I made a few ordering blunders on IKEA’s website, and we had to drive hours to New Jersey twice in one week because I didn’t triple check everything before ordering. It was definitely not smooth sailing throughout.

I go into more detail on installation specifics in the few posts I’ve linked above. I can’t explain how wonderfully strange it is to see my kitchen dreams come to fruition. We love hanging in here now, and plan to add some stools soon, so we can even entertain in here a bit.

New kitchen, I LOVE YOU.