08/14/2026
Whatâs it REALLY like running a vintage shop?
People often walk into the Barn and say, âOh my goodness, this must be your dream job!â
And actually⌠it is. â¤ď¸
But behind the scenes, there are days when it feels less like running a beautiful vintage shop and more like playing an enormous game of Tetris while simultaneously spinning 14 plates.
We sell a six-foot dresser? Fantastic! We genuinely do a little happy dance.đş
Except now thereâs a six-foot hole.
Move another dresser into the hole. It doesnât look right.
Move the cupboard beside it.
Now the wall looks empty.
Move the mirror.
The mirror is too small.
Move another table.
And approximately 17 pieces of furniture later, weâve somehow rearranged half the shop and can no longer remember what started it. đ
Which is why one of the nicest things anyone can say when they walk through the door is:
âOh wow, it looks completely different in here!â
We hear it all the time â and we LOVE hearing it. Because yes, it probably does look different. And somewhere behind that lovely new display were two very tired people at 11 oâclock the night before wondering why on earth they decided the enormous cupboard looked better on the other side of the room.
And thatâs really the bit customers donât see.
Our supposed âdays offâ are generally spent sourcing, repairing, painting, spraying, cleaning, upholstering or delivering furniture.
One evening this week I was at my kitchen table ironing backing onto fabric to make it substantial enough for upholstery, then recovering chairs and properly finishing the undersides â because even the bits you donât see matter to us.
Tuesday, Bill and I spent most of the day delivering a table to Parksville. By the time weâd delivered it, chatted with its very happy new owners, grabbed something to eat and driven home, it was after 9pm.
Other sourcing trips involve packing the truck so precisely that Tetris really should be sponsoring us by now. Occasionally followed by discovering halfway home that perhaps we werenât quite as good at Tetris as we thought.
There have been drawers rebuilt. Things retrieved from roads. Furniture carried, repaired and carried again. And paint that wonât cooperate because itâs too hot, too cold, too damp or apparently just because it doesnât feel like it today.
Somewhere amongst all that, thereâs bookkeeping, pricing, photography, social media, messages, ordering supplies and a hundred other little jobs.
But then we open the doors.
And thatâs a completely different part of the job â and genuinely one of our favourites.
We love the conversations. We love when someone spots something and tells us it reminds them of their grandmotherâs house. We love hearing the stories about pieces people already own. We love someone wandering around for half an hour just taking everything in.
And when somebody takes the time to tell us how much they love the way the Barn looks, notices that weâve changed everything around again, or tells us how much they love something weâve restored or created â believe me, we appreciate it.
And of course, we REALLY love it when you buy something. đ
Not simply because weâve made a sale, but because thereâs something incredibly satisfying about watching a piece we found, cleaned, repaired, painted, upholstered or brought back to life leave with someone who is genuinely excited to have it in their home.
Thatâs why weâre here.
So yes, running a vintage shop can be exhausting, chaotic and occasionally completely ridiculous.
But most of that chaos happens behind the scenes.
What you see when you walk through the doors is the bit weâve been working towards all along.
And we still think itâs one of the best jobs in the world. â¤ď¸
And we canât do this without you!
