Antiquing with sister in historic St. Charles

Husband and I enjoy road trips, especially when it involves spending time with family. An opportunity arose  when Andrew Peterson was having a concert at my sister’s church.  This was a great excuse to get out of town and make memories with one of our favorite couples.  Because we left on Friday after work and drove home on Monday, we had two days to fill with adventure and intrigue.

Sister lives right outside St. Louis, so there is always lots of choices on how to spend our visit. After a quick catch up and game of cards,  we discussed options.  Plans were made to spend Saturday in St. Charles and land at home for an evening barbecue. Sunday we would venture into St. Louis after early church and get back to church for the evening concert.

St. Charles is a great place to search for architectural salvage for restoration and decorating our  turn of the century house. Founded in 1769, it is the third oldest city in Missouri. St. Charles was already 35 years old when Lewis and Clark Expedition considered it their last civilized stop before  heading to the Pacific Ocean. Retracing their journey on the way home, they landed on the riverfront city in September 1805.  In 1821, St. Charles beat out 8 other cities to be a temporary site for the first state capitol, offering free space in the upstairs of a hardware store for the legislature to meet, while Jefferson City was being developed and the capitol could be built. (which took 5 years)   There is rich history to be told and St. Charles has well planned museums, special features, and events to depict their stories.

This historic district is a short jaunt from sister’s house, so Saturday morning found  two siblings sauntering along brick lined walks, peering into shop windows, and stepping into a few as we searched for treasures and inspiration. Husbands had found other things to do so we could have fun girl time together.

Her stylist Cherie’s salon, Mes Bon Amis Salon was our first stop, and my top pick for ideas on architectural detail.  One of my next projects includes a room redo using antique ceiling tiles, and this visit proved especially inspiring. According to Cherie,  the original shop sold harnesses, bridles and saddles.

I’m crazy about this creative combination of tile patterns, borders, and cornice pieces on these metal ceiling tiles!

I love this fleur de lis! The top half of the walls were covered with  metal tiles.

Sister gets made up in this chair stationed in the front window. Love the ornate mirror and antique mantle.

Historical markers graced many of the buildings with photographs of times gone past and description of original bldg’s.

This antique scales really caught my eye. Would love to add this to our home! She had a library ladder that I forgot to get a photo of.

It was a beautiful warm day, and The Homestead had an open door. One glance at the curved staircase drew us in for a closer look! Love the banister as well.

We were fascinated with the shutters on these tall windows.

The 1906 Central Building shop owner let us step into the back warehouse room to see the original loading dock used for a hardware and farm implement firm.

Don’t you know we wanted to venture up these stairs?

This floor to ceiling ladder was on a track. We secretly wished to help the store owner style her store to feature this ladder.

This next shop, Red Door Furniture Company, was super cute. We liked this antique hat rack  that was used to display linens.

We loved the antique baker rack!

Miss Mustard Seed milk paint classroom of the Red Door Furniture Company 

super cute “Create” banner/bunting-    The book pages made an interesting wall covering.

By now we had walked the length of the historic downtown and were hungry.

 I can’t wait to tell you about our fun girls lunch at a local favorite. It was the highlight of our day!

I may have to disclose some of our silliness.

Grace be with you,

Joanne