Our Home’s Feature in Better Home & Garden’s Farmhouse Do It Yourself Magazine!

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Y’all, our home was featured in Better Home’s & Garden’s Farmhouse Do It Yourself Magazine!!! I’ve been on the edge of my seat waiting in anticipation for the issue to come out, and the time has finally come!! Oh my goodness, talk about a pinch me moment…

I thought it would be helpful to put everything related to the article in Farmhouse Do It Yourself magazine all in one place. FAQ’s about the photoshoot, links and sources for all the spaces shown in the photos, etc. It’s all here, and as more questions come in, I’ll keep this post updated with all the good stuff! Let me know show you a little peek into the issue.

What was it like having your home photographed for Farmhouse Do It Yourself Magazine?

Totally surreal! I was on cloud nine for days leading up to and after the shoot, and the only thing that would have made it better was sharing the moment with my Granny. I still can’t believe our home is in print, and in a magazine on store shelves across the country!

It was so fun seeing the photos pop up in real time on the computer screen, and seeing our home through a different lens (quite literally).

I actually blogged all about the magazine photoshoot last summer. Click that link (the bold text) for all the details, behind the scenes stories, the woo woo / manifestation story that led up to the photoshoot (this is a must read, y’all!), and a few “in progress” photos I snapped during the photoshoot.

How did you prep the farmhouse before the shoot?

I cleaned and stressed and overanalyzed everything. We did a few last minute projects around the house. And then I stress cleaned some more! In retrospect, I did not need to go so overboard on the cleaning because all the flowers they use in for the photoshoot are messy and the camera lens really can’t see dust and dirt on the floor. If I had to do it over again, I’d stress less about having everything perfectly cleaned and focus more on little projects and just surface cleaning.

What was the timeline of everything like, from the initial proposal to seeing your home in print?

I was initially contacted by a magazine writer in March of 2022. She asked to pitched our home to the magazine editors and I immediately said yes! There was a little back and forth, and I eventually sent over a mini photo tour of the farmhouse for the editors to look over as part of the pitch. Ultimately the story was picked up by Better Home’s and Gardens for their Farmhouse Do It Yourself Magazine. The photoshoot took place a few months later in June, and now a year later in March of 2023 the article is officially out!

Did the photographers change much around your home for the photos? What changed / moved and why?

There are a few changes you may notice if you’ve been following along up to this point, and let me share my take on why that is. #1, the camera that the photographer shoots with is totally different than what I take most of my photos with. So sometimes things need to move and shift to fit into the camera’s frame or view. #2, the magazine wants to capture photos that show our home in a new and fresh way to keep it exciting for readers. They don’t want to show you photos that look exactly like all the ones I share here on the blog and on my Instagram. All the furniture and most of the decor are mine, But the stylist did bring in a few throw pillows, vases, a couple of antique books, a few baked goods, and lots of flowers to play with during the shoot.

What rooms / spaces were featured in the article?

Ok, let’s get to the good part! Here are a few peeks at the article and all the spaces that made it into our home’s feature in Better Homes & Gardens Farmhouse Do It Yourself Magazine!!

The Porch

Granny was always on her porch! You could find her smoking a cigarette, sipping on a hot cup of coffee in 98 degree weather, cussing the deer and bugs for eating up her garden, shelling butter beans or snapping string beans. If the tomatoes were big enough to pick, you could find them all lined up on the ledge ripening the rest of the way in the sun. It wasn’t much cooler on the porch than it was in the yard, but you just couldn’t keep that woman inside! Seeing the porch in print in this issue of Farmhouse Do It Yourself Magazine did something to my heart y’all!

SOURCES:

• The doors and the porch ceiling are painted in the color Misty Aisle by Behr.
• The old wooden trunk on the screened in porch is currently being used as an outdoor coffee table. It was in the old house, and is such a special piece! Though very dirty on the inside!! I plan to eventually clean it up and use it indoors, either as a coffee table in the living room or maybe even for extra linen storage at the foot of our bed.
• We love our porch ceiling fans! They are a blessing, especially in the hot North Carolina summers!!
• These string lights are nothing fancy, but they have held up really well for us for the past few years. We leave them up all year round and love cutting them on for a cozy glow in the evenings!!

Our Main Bedroom and Bathroom

To get the shot of our clawfoot tub, I normally have to sit on the vanity and squeeze myself back into the corner. Now that’s when I take cell phone photos of the space. But for the magazine, they shot on with an actual camera. We ended up taking the bathroom door off of the hinges to get the shot!

FAQ’s and SOURCES:

• The dark wood you see on the fireplace and around the tub was all reclaimed from the old house.
• Our headboard was a DIY project I blogged about here.
• Our floral sheets can be found here.
• The mirror above was thrifted, along with many of the furniture and decor pieces in our home.
• The tub tray is an older Hobby Lobby find.
• Head to this post for more views of our bathroom.
• Our shower curtain is one of my most asked about items!

The Exterior, Living Room and Entryway

The “tree” in the living room photo was actually a long branch the stylist cut off of an actual tree in our yard. It was so fun watching her creative brain at work and seeing our home in a new and fresh way! Oh and you can barely see it, but there is actually an old black and white photo of my Great Aunt Faye laying on the coffee table! She about lost it when I told her that her photograph was going to be in a magazine. Here’s a closer look at the photograph. Wasn’t she pretty?!

SOURCES:

• Our couches are a thrifted find from the Salvation Army! We bought them for my first college apartment, and they are the most durable pieces of furniture I own. They are the “This End Up” brand and the company still makes them today.
• I used to use painter’s drop cloths as couch covers! They were super affordable and no one could ever tell as long as I tucked them in there good before people came over. Head to this post for more on the drop cloth slipcovers and what we now use instead.
• The DIY tie-up curtains hanging on the door in our living room photo can be seen here.
• The vintage yardlong photos in our entryway were actually a DIY of sorts, and I blogged the “how to” of it all here.
• The exterior shot that made it into the magazine is by far my favorite view of our farmhouse because it shows off the original chimney! Click here to see more of the chimney and the before photos.

The Kitchen, Dining Room and Coffee Bar

SOURCES:

• The dark wood shiplap you see on the kitchen was all reclaimed from the old house.
• Our dining room table and chairs were both found, sold separately, on Facebook Marketplace! You can find some really great pieces on there, and at affordable prices too!
• The hardware on our kitchen and coffee bar cabinets and drawers are a frequently asked about item. Get a closer look at the drawer pulls and the DIY labels I made for them in this post!
• I blogged my best tips for identifying vintage and antique china in this post, along with the story behind this hand-me-down, vintage china collection you see in our dining room photo. This post is a must read for all vintage dishware lovers!
• Spoiler for a future blog post and DIY: see that shelf in the coffee bar? It was an old hutch top from my childhood dresser. (Click here to see how I styled it at Christmas-time.) We have since moved it to the kitchen to serve as open shelving in that space. The coffee bar is finally getting some permanent shelving and I can’t wait to show you! Stay tuned…

My Daughter’s Room and The Guest Bedroom / My Office

SOURCES:

• My daughter’s pretty pink bedroom rug is hands down the softest rug I have ever felt! Pink isn’t in my usual color palette, but it’s my daughter’s favorite color. And her new rug inspired this post where I linked up a ton of other vintage style pink rugs.
• The grey paint you see in these spaces is the color Greige by Behr. I had the store mix it at 50% to lighten it up a bit, but it’s the perfect neutral gray!
• The before and after of the painted secretary desk can be seen here.
• The throw pillows in the guest bedroom were all DIY’s! Click here for the DIY pillow covers with tie-closures (seen on the bed). Click here for the DIY cloth napkin pillow covers (seen on the desk chair).

Where can I get a copy of Better Home & Garden’s Farmhouse Do It Yourself Magazine?

You can get a copy of the magazine at your local grocery stores, Barnes and Nobles, etc. I found mine at Harris Teeter, after going to 10 different stores on the day the issue was released. I have no self control and no patience, clearly, haha! And wouldn’t you know when I got home, the magazine people had sent me a copy in the mail and it was waiting for me in the mailbox. It wasn’t a waste of a trip though because I got a couple extra copies to share with family. And I got to see the issue out on store shelves!

Has your home been featured in any other magazines or publications?

Yes! In addition to this most recent feature in Farmhouse Do It Yourself Magazine, our home was also featured in Landleben Magazine, which is a German publication. Since we live in North Carolina, I actually shot all the images for that first feature myself! You can see all the photos and read more about our home’s feature in Landleben Magazine here.

Thank you for stopping by the blog today and hanging out with me here as I celebrated the magazine feature and the article coming out! This has been such a cool experience, and not one that I take for granted!!

If you’re new here, I’d like to invite you to join my email list! I’ll add a couple spaces below for you to sign up and snag one of my freebies too while you’re here! As an email subscriber, you will get access to exclusive content not available anywhere else. I’ll be checking in each week with behind the scenes content and sneak peeks at what I’m working on, a little bit of blogger life and farm life updates, links to the most recent blog posts, sources and links for my favorite finds each week, exclusive discount codes, and so much more! You won’t want to miss out on these emails…

I also want to invite you to come hang out with me over on Instagram. Over on IG I share behind the scenes content, DIY’s and projects, pretty farm / farmhouse views depending on the day, and the occasional antiquing adventure in stories, and I’d love to hang out with you there soon! Again thanks for being here and celebrating with me today! Until next time y’all…

Love, Brittany