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August 18, 2021

Let's Meet Stacy Harvie

August 18, 2021/ Meryl

Stacy G. Harvie

Stacy G. Harvie of Capitol Vintage Charm is a self proclaimed vintage hoarder living in Alexandria, VA with her husband Bruce, 5 year old son Grayson, 1 year old daughter Adeline and Hemingway their 9 year old Havanese pup.

Stacy between your family, longtime work as a Government Affairs Advisor helping clients navigate the ins and outs of Washington DC, your Charish Shop and Etsy Shop, the very informative IGTV series Capitol Vintage Charm School and thrifting you are one incredibly busy lady - I really appreciate you taking the time to be here! Oh my gosh Meryl you are so sweet to ask. I am happy to be here! I know I mentioned to you my maiden name is Golleher and I was always called Gallagher - I feel like we’re practically twins and so meant to be!

Tell us a bit about your youth: I grew up in Louisiana. My mom Fran is Cajun and my dad Bill is Irish. Growing up surrounded by family heirlooms and a deep French/Spanish influence really had an impact on me. Everyone’s furniture had a story and every grandmother had a china set.

I always like to ask my interviews - did you decorate your bedroom while you were growing up: I absolutely loved rearranging my room growing up. I remember being incredibly young and cutting out and taping flowers made of construction paper to my walls and furniture to make it look like wallpaper. I have always enjoyed that rush when you walk into a room that has a new and fresh feeling that comes from a new bedspread or rearranged shelves.

I love hearing you created your own custom wallpaper - fun!!!

Stacy what did you study in college: I went to Louisiana State University and majored in Journalism with a minor in History. I moved to DC after I graduated and began a career lobbying for entities in Louisiana. I was here in Washington DC in 2005 when hurricane Katrina hit and was able to assist in the Federal efforts to assist the state. It was the most rewarding experience I have or will have professionally…to be able to do something to assist a place I love and continue to love so fiercely.

How long you’ve been in your home and how has its décor unfolded: We have been in our home for about 3 years and the décor has been a slow evolution. This house has a different vibe from our previous place…very open and lighter…so I am replacing things slowly. I am so naturally impetuous that I am trying so hard to be more thoughtful. We are using our house as it was intended but, I am not entirely sure it is what is best for us. For example, we have a large “great room” with a kitchen on the entrance floor of our split level home. And I am playing around the idea of moving our living room portion to another room and turning that entire floor into a dining room. It would be completely unconventional but, it might actually work better for what we need out of this room.

Oh Stacy, I agree making your home work for your needs is vital.

Please share your thrifting philosophy - what do you look for: When I am thrifting, I love finding the unusual or sentimental. Few things bring me more joy than seeing things family members had in their homes when I was growing up. I even saw the coasters we had growing up recently in a thrift store. They were made of cane and adorned with butterflies - so vintage 70s, it made me smile. For me, items evoke feelings. Yes, it may just be just a needlepoint pillow to one person but, for another it may evoke a feeling of comfort from when their aunt took care of them when they were sick and snuggled with that needlepoint pillow. That is what I love about this thing thrifting… As I mentioned, I am completely impetuous. When I am on the hunt, I can get so excited when I spot something, I can often miss flaws. I am trying to move past my blind excitement and really spend time examining the piece.

I also get so sentimental about pieces when I am hunting. I get lost in stories in my head about these people’s homes at Estate Sales. I envision birthday parties and them using the fine china at Christmas. I truly think it is a privilege and an honor to keep these traditions alive and put them into a new buyer’s hand and even my own home. One day I want my kids to grow up and pass white lusterware plates and think “Mom always brought those out for our birthdays.” One of the things I love about Washington DC is all the international travel people do here. It makes the estate sales and thrift markets so full of world treasures.

How much of the items in your home are thrifted: I would say about 75% of my home is second hand. The remaining 25% feels like it is all Fisher Price! Ha! I love when people come in and point to something and ask where I got it...their face always tickles me when I respond "Goodwill".

Stacy my friend you are looking for memories and history! I totally appreciate this. I have brought small items into the Chalet I fondly remember from my childhood home but, didn’t think to hang on to.

Stacy and I share a passion for vintage lamps - this green one in her livingroom is stunning!

“I firmly believe that every single room could use a ginger jar. You can use them to store laundry pods in your laundry room and store cotton balls in your bathroom. ”

— Stacy G. Harvie

I know this story but, please will you share the London Flea Market story: Sure! About two years ago we went to London and of course I dragged my husband and then toddler son to a flea market where I found these gorgeous vintage soldier prints. They were heavy and it was raining but I was determined to get them back home with me. I about broke my arms carrying those darn things all around London that day but, when I look at them now on my son's wall and think back to them in his nursery, it just makes me smile.

I surprised my husband with an adult-only road trip around New England for his birthday. To say I am excited is an understatement! I have been thinking a lot about some of my favorite souvenirs from traveling and hardly any of them depict a famous monument or a popular artifact from the location. These vintage soldier prints are among my favorite. Looking at them makes me think of Windsor Castle and Westminster Abbey. And I didn’t even need a cheesy coffee mug to jog the memory. Shop around and find what makes you happy - in non-traditional places!

How did you come up with the name Capitol Vintage Charm: It was the first name that popped into my head…another example of me being impetuous.

Tell us about the creation of your shops: My Chairish and Etsy shops contain all the furnishings for my dream house. It is everything I would want if my house were bigger and I had room. Just like my taste, it is always evolving as I learn more about objects. I have a Toby Jug in the Etsy shop now and a year ago I would never have picked that up but, after I did a Capitol Vintage Charm School episode about them, I have completely fallen in love.

When Thrifting are you keeping an eye out for yourself or customers or both: My shop is full of everything I would want if my home were bigger. I love every single thing I find, even if I do add it to my shop. What's the old adage - "If you love it, set it free"

What gave you the hubris to start your brilliant Capitol Vintage Charm School segments? Charm School has turned into my favorite thing I do. I would often stand in a thrift store and think “what is this?” or “why did they make it this color?” or “I wonder if this is real?” I got the idea to start asking collectors these questions so we could be better educated on our own hunts. Having the opportunity to sit and chat with these collectors is such a blessing. To have them give me their time and talent is just such a privilege, I always hope my enthusiasm for the topics come through on the videos. I am endlessly curious and love having this opportunity to not only learn but to get to know the collector better.

Stacy you’ve included so much useful information in these blog posts!

Top 5 Most Important Things to Bring With You When Thrifting/Scouting

Rummaging 101: Complete Guide to Scoring Great Finds at Flea Markets

I know you spend a lot of time thrifting with your dear friend Anna Weaver - who I interviewed last month - you two met thanks to the wonderful world of Instagram. I adore Instagram! I can’t tell you how many good friends I have made through this app. I met my Vintage BFF, Anna Weaver. I don’t even remember how I found her on Instagram but, we started chatting and met for lunch and a real friendship was born. She is not only a huge inspiration for me design-wise but, has been such a great sounding board and just a really good friend. We just click and I positively adore her and her crazy sense of humor. I have always loved going to Estate Sales but, I never had a strategy to it until I met Anna. Now, I always start my hunts in the basement as Anna suggests!

Stacy Harvie with her Vintage BFF Anna Weaver

And Sarah Lloyd Stevenson lives down the street from me and is just sunshine. My favorite vintage store and owner Willow from Urban Redeux I randomly met Willow online before she opened her store and have loved watching her totally kill it. She has the best eye and I am constantly loosing my mind when I visit her store.

An unexpected way to display family heirlooms. Click the image for link.

So what are your plans for the rest of 2021: To stop shopping. I am going to take a break and really study what we (my family) need and how to best achieve it. For instance, I had a vintage drop leaf table in my kid’s playroom for a while and recently replaced it with an IKEA activity table. Sure, it went against everything that I believe in design-wise but, the table didn’t make sense and wasn’t working! This IKEA table is a perfect height and has a drawer for the collection of Legos my son has. At the end of the day, we all have to do what works for us.

Stacy I can’t say thank you enough for saying yes when I asked!

You can find Stacy on Facebook, Instagram, Website and YouTube.

Til next time friends be well!

Images: Stacy Harvie

July 28, 2021

Let's Meet Anna Weaver

July 28, 2021/ Meryl

Friends this week I’m sharing a lady you may remember from my piece Treasure Hunting who has made it her mission to teach everyone the many joys, hard-work and especially the exhilaration of Estate Sales; Anna Weaver is a wife to Jared, mom of three daughters ages 7, 11 & 13, a resident of Capitol Hill in Washington DC, an avid curator and seller of vintage treasures, a decorator and proprietor of the AirBnB Maison DC a terrace level one bedroom with den apartment in the middle of historic Capitol Hill. Anna is one busy momma!

Anna welcome! Can you tell the readers a bit about your youth: Sure Meryl I grew up in Atlanta, GA, my mother Janet is from Chattanooga TN and my father Carl is from Long Island, NY - so I had exposure to both ends of the East Coast visiting family. I made the decision to spend part of my junior year in high school in France, which my mother indulged and found a way at the last minute to send me over for several months alone. While there I fell in love with France and have remained attached emotionally to the country. I have gone back and go back whenever possible. After college I took a year to volunteer in Burkina Faso, West Africa which was valuable exposure to the French language and other cultures outside of France. All the traveling done at a young age really formed my aesthetic and values when it comes to decorating a home.

The Dining Room showcases a Tom Greene Brutalist Chandelier and vintage Art Deco Chinese Rug

Please tell us about how you learned to thrift: As with all good things, my love of second hand began with my mother. When we were growing up we lived in a neighborhood where all the neighbors were restoring their houses slowly and thoughtfully. My mother would go with a friend to an old hotel being torn down to salvage doorknobs, corbels, lights, anything. She added them all to our home and could tell you where certain pieces came from. I always thought that was so amazing to be able to take something from a building and continue its story.

At the same time, she and a friend would throw us kids in the station wagon and go “junkin’” which was a tour of all the junk stores near our house. For a kid it was hot and boring but, I still remember those stores being packed to the gills and have a sort of buried treasure story that went a long with them. Junk stores are very rare to find these days, especially in cities- I think of them as coffee shops now ;-)

We also went to a large flea market and that was where I really fell in love with the hunt. I would go every month flush with babysitting money and find the same vendors where I honed my bargaining skills. It was thrilling to see what they had new and to also catch up with them and see familiar faces.

As I got older and moved to DC, I tried to find some local haunts that captured the same spirit as the ones I grew up with. I hadn’t quite hit the places with the same conviviality as what I grew up with. After a few years, I think I read in a book about the website (this was pre-app) www.EstateSales.net and I never looked back. For over a decade, I’ve used the skills from my youth to bargain my away across this region and have found some lovely treasures along the way. But the best part is I have also found that conviviality I once experienced at the monthly flea market with the estate sale agents and other people waiting in line.

I think if memory serves… there was a place your mom’s décor was featured: You have such a good memory Meryl! My mother took great pains to restore a 1905 duplex in a town neighborhood as I was growing up. She would go to salvage places, find out what old building was being torn down in downtown Atlanta and salvage the architectural details, lights etc. to be re-used in our own house. She had a staircase installed that she had bought on a trip to visit her sister in Richmond, VA. She was a realtor in the same neighborhood and would often times buy pieces from the houses she sold. My favorite, I was able to have, a chifforobe found in an attic. She also inherited a lot of our furniture from her aunt which she either restored herself or had restored. I don’t remember a single new piece of furniture in our house.

At the same time she and a friend began a decorative painting business together. They stenciled, made floor cloths, did paint techniques walls and floors. For my room she painted faux lattice work complete with vines and flowers. When she redid a side porch to be my bedroom she had a carpenter build a built in bed b/c the room was so small. She painted a faux marble on the bed and trim.

So because of all that work she was interviewed in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution about her salvage efforts. And the very un-kitchen she created, was published in Better Homes and Gardens. She was also interviewed about her decorative painting business.

I get my creativity from her, but my perfectionist nature makes me stop short of the decorative painting part!

Anna painted the scalloped detailed walls in her youngest daughters bedroom

I love to ask all my interviews did you decorate your bedroom while growing up: Yes! My first bedrooms were the brainchildren of my mom. However, when we moved out to the suburbs, I decorated it with my mom. I was (and frankly still am) obsessed with Art Deco, so we ragged the walls and did a cool art déco stencil around the windows and baseboard. Then we went off to our flea market and found an art deco waterfall bedroom set for $100. I loved that room.

Anna’s middle daughter’s glam boho bedroom — Anna’s middle daughters bedroom

Anna please tell us what you studied in College: Remember that trip to France in high school? Well that guided my educational journey – I wanted to soak up as much of France as possible. So I majored in French. Instead of grad school, I went to Burkina Faso for a year while my now husband Jared volunteered in Haiti. He came back to work on Capitol Hill and loving him and DC, I came back too. I decided I didn’t want to spend the money on grad school, so hopped from one odd job to the next: cold calling French investment firms to ask them about their strategy at a start up, did the visual merchandising in a JCrew store, worked in a small women’s boutique. But when my husband decided to go to law school, I knew I needed to get a steady paycheck and benefits! I applied to a public school with a magnet program of full French immersion K-5. Since it isn’t easy to find elementary teachers fluent in French, I got the job despite not having a teaching degree. I spent the next 4 years teaching while getting my degree on the side – I am the proud recipient of a Master’s Equivalency – ha! It was a special school and some of my proudest moments was as a teacher.

I always had in the back of my mind that I would go to design school but it was never a good time. Then teaching just seemed like the perfect job in so many ways! Once I had my first baby, I quit to stay home because I knew given my personality I couldn’t be the teacher and the mom I wanted to be if I did both at the same time.

a peek at Anna’s oldest daughters bedroom

How long you’ve been in your home: We moved in almost 4 years ago. It’s a house built in 1933 in the middle of many grand Victorian row-homes she sticks out in the best way and was meant to be given my love of Art Deco.

Can you share what your decorating process is? How you shop for the items you want: I didn’t begin married life decorating with only second hand, but I have always had a champagne taste with a beer wallet so to speak. So in that vein, I would hit the sales at furniture showrooms, or big box stores. However, once Craigslist began, I scored a pair of twin beds and dresser for as much as chair at one of those sales – and the twin bed set was so much prettier and better quality.

Now my décor is 90% second hand. What I have mostly learned is that you learn that your aesthetic will fall into place if you let yourself buy what you fall in love with. I look for the bones first since the fabric can be replaced or the finish restored. In an effort to make sure my house doesn’t look like the floor of a thrift store, I really try to be thoughtful in combining time periods. So while I lean traditional, I try to incorporate more modern elements in the lighting or small tables and even some fabrics but, I really think it’s mostly guided by good luck and patience! Also living in a city flush with good décor!

“Life goal: be the first in line at estate sales”

— Anna Weaver

Anna’s collection of vintage Art Deco Rugs

Will you please tell us about the amazing Art Deco Chinese Rugs you find: I think if there were ever one piece of décor that summed up my style it would be the Art Deco Chinese rugs- often times called the “Nichols Rugs” (which actually does a disservice to the other manufactures at the time, one of whom was a woman, Helen Fette). The designs I love the most were manufactured during my favorite time period, the 20s and 30s. During that time period, they used vibrant and unusual color combinations to weave these gorgeous floral motifs. The rugs were rooted in the Japonisme style, which greatly influenced the French style of the moment (see the French connection again). While the English and German art deco pieces were more boxy, the French still had the softer lines and vibrant colors.

Fortunately the rugs haven’t been so popular – I used to always say people would misinterpret them as 1980s Nancy Regan, but the rugs from that time period are much more muted. So as minimalism became more popular, these rugs became less so. I started finding so many of them at Estate Sales, Facebook and Craigslist mostly. No one goes to these places looking for these rugs, so I can get them for a deal.

I think their popularity is shifting though – or at least that’s what I tell my husband when he has to help me haul them home - ha! I think I have seven 9x12s, four 5 x 3’s and many small ones. I use them everywhere – I can’t get enough of them and I find them worn down and stained but I don’t care, that’s what gives them so much personality and history.

Maison DC Entry You see one of Anna’s delightful Blanc de Chine lamps

When I asked Anna if she wanted to share a list of the projects she’s completed within her home she laughed and answered: I have so so many projects to complete! We are so blessed to have a home that is large enough to fit a family of 5 and also have an air bnb in the basement. That is where I spent the first couple years of living in this house and scratching the decorating itch. We gutted the basement, which had gone from a doctor’s office to the ultimate teen hangout space, and turned it into a 1 bedroom short term rental. I filled the whole space with my second hand finds that were locally sourced. And to honor my French side, I call it Maison DC.

The second we finished the basement, the pandemic hit, we thought we’d never have this time to have time to complete house projects so we decided to redo my middle and youngest daughters’ rooms. We stripped the trim and doors (the realtor, in an effort to spruce up the place to sell, painted it all latex over oil so the paint was all peeling) and painted the rooms. The project came at the best time, b/c we had no idea at the time that our daughters would be spending the next year in their rooms for remote learning. But the whole project about killed us and it burnt us out to think about doing anymore projects in the near future. But my middle daughter’s room is still my favorite but that’s maybe because besides Maison DC, it is the only “finished” room in our house.

The Maison DC

Will you share what’s on your To Do list and what Plans you have for the rest of 2021: My dining room and entry way are my number one priorities right now. In the future, we are going to renovate our kitchen, turning it into a space that can hold five people. And our whole top floor is a another reno project down the road - it’s an attic that was turned into a family room and bedroom in the 1940s. Needless to say the insulation leaves much to be desired and it has become a dumping ground for all my furniture finds – so it’s barely made an appearance on the Instagram page.

I have so many plans and ideas for my future that it is hard to organize them! I think that one silver lining with the pandemic was, it made the steps to what I want to be when I grow up much clearer. I have always wanted to sell vintage home décor, so as the pandemic went on, I realized I had everything I needed to just jump into selling. While I admire how Etsy and Chairish have made vintage home décor more public and accessible, I thought I would try to skip using their platform and instead use Instagram where I have made more connections. That’s what made me fall in love with vintage in the first place, having a connection with those flea market vendors. I can also control how my finds are merchandised. It gives me great joy to put the hodge podge of vintage items together and create a moment - mixing different textures, eras and adding the unique background.

One of Anna’s very well curated “moments” from one of her sales.

I think of myself as a foster mother as I find vintage pieces – many I decide to keep and others I offer for adoption. I know first hand how much stuff we have in this country and it’s highly unlikely we will run out anytime soon - so I first and foremost want to influence others to seek out the second hand treasures using all the avenues available to us: estate sales, thrift stores, auctions, online platforms, insta sellers, neighbors, the dump and so on. The reason I started selling is I can rarely say no when I see something beautiful but I don’t have the room to keep everything.

Stacy Harvie & Anna Weaver at the DC Big Flea 7/18/21

How has Social Media impacted you: Instagram surprised me! I didn’t know I would meet so many wonderful like minded people but I have! I partnered with Stacy Harvie @CapitolVintageCharm to go vintage hunting – she’s my ride or die and it’s so much fun to laugh our way through an estate sale - all made possible by Instagram.

From Anna’s I G Highlight dedicated to Clubhouse

Then I partnered with Jacqueline Wein @TokyoJinja because we both connected over the same things on Instagram and I was immediately smitten with the incredible work she did on her shore-house kitchen. We had both just joined Clubhouse and thought it would be fun to talk about topics we found interesting. At the time I was having a “discussion” on Instagram about second hand pricing and it was so hard to keep track of the great ideas coming into DMs (direct messages). Clubhouse gave us the opportunity to have two-way conversations. It’s actually a lot of fun and we have the same group join us so I feel like we’ve gotten to know each other more. I miss it as we have put it on the back burner for the summer.

I am actually really looking forward to meeting more people – as I travel, I think that I have built relationships on Instagram and would feel so comfortable meeting up in person if I had the chance. It’s like the modern day pen pal - lol!

Anna thank you so very much for sharing yourself with my readers. You are so inspiring and have a very deep knowledge of vintage items and how to thrift. You could each a master course and I my friend would sign up!

You can find Anna on Instagram and Clubhouse.

Til next time friends be well.