The shop that started it all: An affair with vintage

I don't know when I started collecting. I have a clue. It is a letter from my great grandmother, enclosed in an envelope and tucked into the frame of a painting. "This is a gift for the newborn daughter of two antique affecianados, I'm sure you'll have a collection of your own one day" the note reads. Collect I have! The things you live with must provide you comfort and function; why should they not also be beautiful? Handmade and Vintage wares answer this question for me, deep in my soul.

Today, I'm a budding fan of minimalism, and seek a simpler life filled with more fun and less stuff. However, I'm not a fan of white boxes- I need color and texture in my life. Vintage offers a patina and a history that CAN be bought (or handed down, it the case of family heirlooms.) Handmade offers a compassionate, thoughtful companion. Together, they help you craft the soul of your house.

I'm not just a dealer in vintage and handmade housewares- I love traveling, cooking, and DIYs. I commute regularly to San Francisco, and enjoy documenting my adventures here and on instagram (@hopechesthomemom). The only thing better than a flea market is a farmer's market, where I can pick up a nice boquet of fresh wildflowers and some fresh veggies for the family.

Hope Chest Home is my shop, and I think it is the most fitting name. Before the modern age of consumtion, women were expected to have hope chests. These chests were filled slowly with family heirlooms and new, functional pieces that were meant to prepare a young woman for her married life. Marriage today is optional, but having a carefully curated home filled with things you love shouldn't be. Yes, I actually find joy and comfort in my vintage can opener, and reach for that bright red handle every time, instead of the black oxo one that found its way into my kitchen.

This is so much more important to me now that I have a little one. W is four, and a crazy handful. I love that I carry on the traditions of my family -mac n' cheese served in yellow pyrex cassorole dishes, patio meals around our old glass table- as well as create new ones together, like reading stories on the vintage caramel colored chesterfield sofa (that I found for a song along the Bohemian Highway), buried under knit blankets made by my great grandmother. These pieces are not machine made in a factory by the thousands. They were made by hand, with love. These are the pieces that help make my house a home.

* Noelle is 26, and boasts an almost completed degree, a charming fiance, and * equally handsome son. Together, they have three cats (Yoda, Cellie & Jude) and a pit * bull rescue named Sadie. Currently residing in Sacramento, CA, they hope to live * near the ocean in the near future. Especially W, who dreams of actually living on the * beach and making friends with a seal.