Little things, put together, make up a whole. I mentioned this recently in one of my Letters From Brooke because I think it’s important to remember that even when you’re creating and building beautiful dreams, you can really only do things one step at a time.
So when it comes to creating a new store from the ground up, there are so many details to consider — and all of those decisions add up to complete a story.
THE PATINA HOME & GARDEN SIGN
I knew the sign for Patina Home and Garden would have a lasting influence on the overall feel of the store, so I wanted to be sure we got it right.
The building itself has been through many changes over the years and at one point was even a gas station. With history as one of our three core tenets, it means a lot to me that the frame of our sign is actually from that time.
We love interweaving history with the present, so while the sign is new, we wanted it to feel like it had a patina from life and time. Like so many things, it will get better with age, as it weathers and rusts. Klint and Matt at Liquid Fire Vintage Neon, a local company with a skillful eye for restoring old signs to their former glory, helped us achieve this look for the base of the sign. They have an appreciation for antiques and history, so they understood what we wanted right away.
The beautiful thing about recently identifying our core tenets is seeing them pop up repeatedly. Community has become so important to us over the years, so when we met Aubrey and Michele Preston here in Leiper's, we knew they’d connect us with so many other wonderful people. Another one of those wonders is Meghan Aileen, an amazing creative director, photographer, designer, and artist. Her talents have been instrumental in preparing the store to look and feel great. When we were choosing a font, she helped us find what felt right, hand drew it for our new logo — and then she used it when she designed and painted the sign!
She used layers of different greens and browns to create the "patina" in the background. From afar it might just look green, but when you get closer you can see the variety of color and texture. The lettering got several layers of color as well in order to give them some depth and make them feel like they belonged on the background.
So much of what has come together quickly over the past few months has been with Meghan’s talent.
It meant a lot to us to collaborate so closely with two of our new neighbors as we settle into town.
There are so many stories just like these throughout our new store — the stories that connect us to our history, community, and nature.
We’ll continue to share these stories with you in the vignettes we’ve placed throughout the store, so be sure you’re following along with Patina Home and Garden on Instagram.
As everything comes together in this new chapter of our lives, I’m so grateful you’re here with me on the journey. 🙏
xo
Brooke
