Our Home’s Feature in American Farmhouse Style Magazine!

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Our home was featured in American Farmhouse Style Magazine! This feels like an early Christmas present, and it’s definitely one of those “pinch me” / dream come true kindof moments. Today on the blog, I want to show you a little peek at the article and share some behind the scenes details about the photos and the look that was featured. But I also want to chat with you about the craziness that’s been going on here at the farmhouse this month!

But first, I have to show you the feature! American Farmhouse Style has been one of my favorite magazines for years, so it’s wild to think that our home is in this issue. AND the coolest part is that the photos in the article are photos that I actually took myself!

Here’s a look at the article, and a peek at my original photos of this Christmas tablescape look in the dining room!

Behind The Scenes

A couple months back, a writer reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in sharing these photos and having her write a story for American Farmhouse Style. I immediately said yes, but didn’t get my hopes up very high because you just never know if a story will make the cut. But I submitted the photos, crossed my fingers, and here they are… I’m honestly not sure how the writer found me. Maybe Instagram, maybe Pinterest? Either way, it was an honor to share my photos and our home for this piece!

On the Blog

• Classic Farmhouse Christmas Tablescape – click to see more photos of this look!
• DIY Dried Orange Slices for Garlands & Christmas Decor

November at the Farmhouse: Behind The Scenes

Now that I’ve shown you the feature, let’s chat about the month of November here at the farmhouse. I’ve been totally MIA online for the past few weeks. Now that the dust has started to settle, I wanted to fill you in on where I’ve been and what’s been going on behind the scenes…

We Found A Homeowner’s Worst Nightmare

When you see the pretty photos, curated looks and styled spaces, it’s easy to make assumptions. But believe me when I say, I have my piles of laundry, lego’s shoved just out of sight, dishes in the sink, crumbs on the floor, stacks of mail on the counter, etc. And as of this November, we found out that we also have every homeowner’s worst nightmare… mold!

Our whole life got turned upside down a few weeks ago when we found out we had mold growing in our crawlspace. How did we find out about the mold? I started finding it inside our house!

I found what I thought was lint on a canvas laundry cart, so I vacuumed it off. But it came back a couple weeks later and it definitely was not lint! I found a green powdery mildew / mold growing on our wood vanity in the bathroom. So I cleaned it with vinegar, and put it out of mind thinking it was just an isolated issue in a typically humid room. Then I found it again on a couple pairs of shoes in our closet. And then I found it underneath our stand-up freezer in the laundry room. Then later on a couple natural sea grass baskets.

By that point I was starting to panic. Mold is scary! It can cause damage to your home, and it can cause health issues for your family. It’s a homeowner’s worst nightmare!

I kept finding more little isolated areas with this green powdery mildew / mold growing on it. After lots of google searches, and talking with my parents, we decided to have a contractor come out to assess the damage and find out what was causing the issues in our home.

Repairs & Clean-up

Our contractor ended up removing insulation from the crawlspace and finding more mold and humidity and moisture issues. They were able to treat the mold, install a moisture barrier and seal up the crawlspace, and then install a crawlspace dehumidifier. It was a huge relief to figure out what was causing the mold issues in our home!

By the way, if you’re local to Eastern NC and need similar work done in your home, I cannot say enough good things about Yuni of Dry Summer Waterproofing. I found out about him through my parents (they had him re-do their crawlspace a year or so back and he did a great job at their home too). Feel free to message me and I can tell you more about our experience, but the short version is we were very happy with his work!

We also needed electrical work done to be able to install the dehumidifier under our house, and we went with Royal Electric. I’ve known Justin for years, and he was the first person I thought of for the electrical work. He’s done work on my brother’s house too, and comes highly recommended by both of us! Linking Royal Electric’s Website here as well as their Instagram account here.

It can be really hard to find reputable, reliable contractors! So when I find a good one, I love being able to share them with you here on the blog. Both Yuni and Justin get the White and Woodgrain stamp of approval, and my highest recommendation!

Inside The Farmhouse

I spent 2 full weeks cleaning our home and everything inside it. All of our clothes, curtains, towels, bedding, slipcovers, etc. was re-washed. Our furniture was wiped down with vinegar. I washed windows, wiped down walls, cleaned behind the appliances. I cleaned literally EVERYTHING. When it was all said and done, I think I went through 5 or 6 gallons of white cleaning vinegar. We bought a couple small dehumidifiers for inside the house, as well as an air purifier and a new vacuum with a hepa filter. Our house has never felt cleaner, but it was a daunting task and an exhausting 2 weeks.

There’s still more work to be done, and more issues to fix that were uncovered during the crawlspace repairs… but I’ll save that story for another day. For now, I’m just trying to catch my breath from this whirlwind of a month. I’m thankful we found the issues, and thankful it was able to be remedied… but November was a tough month behind the scenes!

God-winks

November was crazy here, and when I think about it, 2023 was honestly a crazy year for our family. This year was full of difficult transitions, big changes, hard seasons, rough patches. It wasn’t all bad, but the rough seasons were really rough!

In each of those rough seasons I got to experience the most magical “God-winks”. There were several times this year where I thought, how can I juggle all of this? How can I balance it all? Should I just give it all up and throw in the towel? Do I need to quit the blog? But quitting would mean giving up on a huge dream of mine, and I kept getting signs that this is where I’m meant to be.

Each hard season this year was accompanied by perfectly timed, huge milestones and dream come true moments for White and Woodgrain in the form of 5 magazine features this year! These magazines came in some of my hardest moments, the moments when I needed encouragement the most.

Previous Magazine Features

• Landleben Magazine
• Better Home & Gardens Farmhouse Do It Yourself Magazine
• Modern Farmhouse Style Magazine
• Country Sampler Farmhouse Style Magazine
• And now… American Farmhouse Style Magazine!

I’ve been calling them “God-winks” but truthfully they have been so much bigger than just a “wink”. I need to come up with a more fitting word to convey the magnitude and the impact these moments and milestones have had on me not only as a blogger, but as a Christian too.

My Full Circle Moment in Barnes & Noble

About halfway through my 2 week cleaning spree, after a very long day of cleaning, I drove over to our local Barnes and Noble to pick up a copy of Liz Marie Galvan’s new book “Create Your Own Cozy”. I thought it would be good distraction, and a little reward for all my efforts at home.

While I was there I went to the magazine area, and ended up finding the new Christmas issue of American Farmhouse Style! When I tell y’all I had a whole moment with myself standing on that aisle at the Barnes and Noble…

I’ve been inspired by Liz’s home and her style for years now, and I’ve looked up to her professionally as a blogger and designer and business owner. It was such a surreal, full-circle moment to hold her new book in one hand, and our latest feature in American Farmhouse Style Magazine in the other hand.

Thank You American Farmhouse Style!

In many ways 2023 has been one of the hardest years of my life… and in just as many ways, it’s been one of the best years of my life! Full of milestones and big dreams coming true. So I want to take a moment now to say thank you. Thank you to American Farmhouse Style Magazine, and thank you to Michelle Mastro for putting our story into words and for your role in making this dream come true!

And a BIG thank you to you for stopping by the blog to celebrate with me today friend! Whether you stopped by the blog to see the magazine, to get the behind the scenes updates, or just to see our Christmas cocoa bar… I’m glad we got to catch up for a bit! I hope you found a little inspiration and encouragement here today! Until next time…

Love, Brittany