We recently acquired what technically is a third location for us. It is tiny and our other two locations serve very specific purposes (and at many times multi-purposes like our flagship store that is also our office and where we do most of the behind the scenes web work - this will likely change soon too though). So this third location, while not a huge storefront in Brooklyn, it is still a huge milestone for us! I call it the little shed that could, but it is really the mini ONH photo studio, designed specifically to do what our full size barn studio does on a smaller scale - to store many of our rugs but also have the ability to photograph them within it.

While the transformation of our guest room is not complete, I will take what I can get with any updates I can achieve amidst a crazy work schedule. We removed clutter and simplified what was inside the room, and then went for an eclectic and colorful bedspread to add that pop of bohemian.

Frequently asked questions answered! Find out a little more about our philosophies on this business and what vintage/antique means for these rugs and more!

Kicking off 2018 home decorating projects with a more refined shared kid's room.

When we started our Instagram account a couple of years back, we had maybe 8 followers. "We have to start somewhere", I remember everyone telling me, and as it grew, very slowly, I was constantly saying this to myself to keep the motivation going. It is exactly the same story with starting our business in general (which was in 2011 on Etsy) -- the interest in what we were doing and what rugs we were sourcing was there but it had such a slow launch there were days where you could just FEEL the crickets as well as hear them. There were those other days when we would get one or maybe even two orders after days of nothing, and Dave and I would spring up and out to go package it/them up (this was and is always so exciting), and it made the radio silence, amidst all of our efforts, worth it. It brought such joy to source, photograph, describe, and ultimately provide someone (a stranger who would become a friend) with the exact piece they had coveted and been searching for for months. This is still the process 7 years later but on a bigger scale.

Now, we find ourselves starting somewhere new yet again, with a few different projects and objectives. It is hard to say at this point which one will be the one with the real legs, the one that we stick with even as the crickets chirp in the background. But one of them is sharing them all with you as they are happening, and that feels very exciting! We have blogged before but we are now committing to blogging more regularly so that we can really share more of ourselves and our ONH world with you!

One of the elements of this new content will be sharing our own personal home projects as they evolve week by week. If you've followed us closely, you have likely deduced that we do once and a while share these kinds of projects, but not consistently. Also, though we consider ourselves to have a strong interior design sense, we have not been able to carve out time for projects that really allow for that sense to be fully activated. So here we are ready to go at last! Time management has not always been my personal strong suit but I am getting such joy from putting on my creative design cap on over here, that it feels like a necessity to roll with it and do my best at fitting it in.

So where do we start? Well, in our own mid century home there is a TON of work to do. We have poured so much of ourselves into our business over the past seven years, that we have let our own personal sanctuary slip to the waist side. I would go as far as to say that every single room in our home is in need of some decor TLC, even when it comes to the rugs if you can believe it. So, we could start big or we could start small, and I am really into the "let's get our feet wet" type of approach at the moment so the first project up is going to be our children's shared bedroom as I have taken some efforts to source for this space but have not successfully tied together all of the elements yet. I will begin posting about getting started with this project on Thursday evening so stay tuned!

In the meantime, here is a glance at what I will be posting somewhat regularly and if you have suggestions for posts or subjects you would love to hear about, please e-mail us at md@oldnewhouse.com!

-Behind the scenes during Photo Shoots and ONH work weeks

-First Pick Faves (as new rugs get posted, I will be delving more into my absolute favorites + why I am so smitten)

-Mood Boards/Design Tips/Collaborative Posts about my own home projects

-Shop Findings (our Katonah flagship store is chalk full of handmade items from Etsy Sellers, and I would love to share more about these)

-Furniture Building -- this has always been something Dave has wanted to do more of and I am personally very excited to see these projects come to light

-Projects we are working on as they are happening

-Local Interior Design Projects and Collaborations (we are so lucky to work with a ton of designers who are doing amazing things and cannot wait to share more of these!)

And because I am a visual person, here is a little look at my blogging calendar so you can get a sense of when you might like to check in on us:

xo,

Melissa

Me and Dave are very much into being a part of our local Westchester NY community and especially love visiting the farms of our county as it feels like such a privilege to have them so close just at our fingertips. One of our favorites to visit is Stone Barns Farm right around the corner of Pleasantville, New York and in the spirit of giving back, I decided that one thing I could donate to them was my time and photography. They invited me to capture their Harvest Fest on October 5th and it was such a pleasure. Even in college when I first started honing in on my photography interests, I knew that people would always be my primary focus. I love freezing in time the moments of human interaction that sweep past the periphery faster than you can blink the eye. Childhood, family, the Fall season, the joy of taking a day off from work, being with animals -- these were all my primary focus at Harvest Fest and it felt so good to truly connect with what I first loved about photography as well as to connect the dots to what I am enjoying now with Old New House. Everything we sell is handmade, from a long time ago or today by me + Dave, and my initial connection is with the idea of who made it and how they intended it to be enjoyed, with the second connection being who will have it in their home and how they will enjoy it. It is a beautiful process to me and Harvest Fest has gotten me especially excited to photograph our new line of tables and to share them with the world!!

xoxo,

Melissa