Brocante Moderne

I opened my first Etsy shop, Gloaming Designs, in 2007. Looking back at the date just now, that feels both a long time ago and like yesterday! I filled it with special pieces I hand-crafted from vintage and reused materials as well as fun vintage finds. Looking back through the sold listings is a bit like remembering old friends.

Behind the scenes I have been working hard on a new incarnation of that shop: a new space filled with the best of the treasures I love seeking out in the French brocantes (flea markets). So I’m very excited to announce: Brocante Moderne is open!

What you’ll find is a curated selection of vintage French pieces that I adore (seriously, it’s so hard to say goodbye to these!) and that mix perfectly into the modern home.

Functional, beautiful, and unique, I believe that every home needs some pieces that tell a story all their own, that have a soul.

And that’s my design philosophy: that the old, worn, and storied should live alongside the simple and clean-lined modern for a home that isn’t like any other. A home that is you. That is why the shop is named Brocante Moderne – a place to find the world of the brocante curated for your modern life.

There will be new additions regularly so check back often and sign up for the mailing list here to hear all the latest news and special offers. You can access the shop here or through Etsy (they share the same inventory so you won’t miss anything going to one versus the other). You can even click on any of this post’s pictures to go directly to their listing.

I hope you enjoy and let me know if there is anything you’d like me to keep my eyes open for on my next trip to the brocante!

xo,

A.

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Brocante Finds

We’re home! It was a lovely week of vacation but it is always nice to be home, isn’t it?

Capping off the week of family visiting with a few days at R’s mother’s house, we made the customary Saturday morning trip to the brocante (French flea market) in Orleans. It’s my favorite. For a couple of reasons: the prices are much lower than in Paris, there is more space to move around, the people are nicer (in general). But the best reason is that we never, ever walk away empty handed. Here’s what I found on this trip.

I’ve been on a frame kick lately, picking up any vintage frames I like, even if I don’t have a piece of art in mind for them. Like the ones I found this week, above, they are all pretty unique and if they have some wear on them that tells their story, all the better! But what they have in common is their colors (naturals, metallics, black) and styles (most are very simple profiles). This means I can mix them anywhere in our home and not only will they all relate to each other, they can help pull a disparate collection of images and art into a cohesive one.

This tiny wooden frame is a fairly common and classic style found in the brocantes. It will be so sweet for framing a dried flower maybe or a special ticket stub.

The find I was most excited about is this plate from a vintage animal book. The printing is lovely with crisp raised lines for the fur and the colors were applied by hand. I especially love the spots on the jaguar and the lynx’s blue eyes! The seller is one of our favorites and she had a whole pile of plates from this same book of all different sorts of mammals. It was difficult to pick just one.

This is for Élie and as it happened, the middle frame is perfect for it! I can’t wait to find the right spot in his room.

Two of these goodies, the blue enamel bowl and the wooden paddle (originally used for beating the laundry clean) will be props for photos but who am I kidding? I use all those props in the everyday too! And I don’t think you can have enough unique little vases for wildflowers, right? This little Sèvres one is a celadon green with darker green splatters at the bottom.

How was your weekend?

xo,

A.