Your CartFrenchGardenHouse Is Fourteen!
It doesn’t seem that long ago that I had an idea for a business that I would love, but more importantly, a business that I thought you would love. I’ve always been interested in interior design, and was working with a few clients here and there while my girls were growing up. The biggest problem my clients complained about, as did the interior designers I was friends with, was that it was so difficult to find good quality antiques, and unusual smalls that would make a personal statement at home.
I started my business for many reasons, and FrenchGardenHouse has been such a blessing to me. At one time, during some of the most difficult years with one of our children who had a medical condition, it felt like it saved my sanity! My first two customers were my very best friends {bless you, Gail & Jeanne!} – I actually shipped their packages to them since I needed the practice. I was packing and shipping everything by myself from my kitchen table and working from my tiny laptop.
Fourteen years later, I could not ask for more gracious and appreciative people I could ever hope to work with and for.
Our first website was so exciting! Designed and made by my friend Catherine of AvalonRose Designs, {who since then sells gorgeous graphics only} I loved everything about it, except that my logo and business card were light blue. The design world was enthralled with the shabby chic look, and I went with light blue thinking it might appeal to my men clients and friends too. After just one month, I knew it just wasn’t right for me {and you!} So I had it changed to this one
It was like this for many years, until in 2015 it was really time for a website and branding update and we changed over to the current logo etc.
{ I still miss the old website sometimes, isn’t it silly? It had a front page that showed a garden, with a gate that opened and birds and butterflies flying around. It was so pretty, but really didn’t tell anything at all about what FGH is really about, antiques! }
So many of you have found the perfect decorative object to make your home beautiful and personal here at FrenchGardenHouse. Many of you have fallen in love with a collection of antiques, or been able to replace antiques belonging to your family that either were “lost” somehow, or someone else inherited.
I’ve even had the privilege of working with a few clients who lost their complete homes with every single thing in them in wildfires over the last few years. Together we’ve made a huge dent in replacing their precious treasures, and although they aren’t the exact pieces perhaps, they have meant the world to them in restructuring their new home with touches and memories of the “before” homes they lost.
It’s been such a pleasure to have all of you as clients, from those of you who adore silver, gold, and the “fancy” pieces, to those of you who are strictly French Country fans. And the legions of you, who, like me, adore a little bit of both worlds, all mixed together to create your own personal style.
I have the honor of helping others in giving and receiving the most meaningful and beautiful gifts. Helping clients give heirlooms and create memories, and passing along objects with so much meaning is a huge blessing.
Some of my favorite sales have been sentimental ones. The grandmother who bought an antique brooch for each of her daughters, daughter-in-laws, and two tiny granddaughters as a memento of her own 65th birthday. The fiancee who bought the most exquisite antique French gilt box from us to present his engagement ring to his beloved intended. {She said yes!} The new father to be who carefully chose the perfect locket to gift to his wife as she delivered their very first baby.
Some of you discovered antique jewelry that you never knew about, and hopefully in the process of loving and wearing it, have learned a little about the history of jewelry. Or felt closer to women of the past, a connection to centuries ago.
Our antique linens and dinnerware collections remain a strong favorite. I thought that perhaps during our pandemic the antique table linens & porcelains might not sell as well, but I was wrong. And happily so. It seems that even more than before, you are all more than anxious to set a glorious table, with meaningful linens, made with such care, time and skill. You are all looking forward to gathering those you love around your table, now more than ever. Outdoors if need be, or in smaller numbers, but you are determined to make each occasion a special one! And I’m right there with you!
FrenchGardenHouse has grown over the years, the kitchen table is no longer our main shipping area, we actually have a shipping area. We’ve been blessed with so much national press, and are grateful for all the friends we have made over the years with magazine editors, writers, stylists and photographers. Photoshoots for national magazines were always a little bit stressful for me, but all of you made them SO FUN!
photo:SundayHendrickson
But mostly, we are grateful for YOU. Nothing would have been accomplished without each one of you, clients, friends, and readers of my blog. YOU are what makes this beautiful {but I’ll be honest, often more difficult than you’d think} business a passion, a joy. THANK YOU.
I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you. Hooray for turning 14 this year, for keeping and cherishing the beautiful pieces of the past, and most importantly to letting all of you know how grateful I am!
This week we’re launching our Autumn Gift Collection, and I’m pretty excited to welcome fall with some beautiful new gifts for you {and me} to be able to gift to the people we care about. I hope you are all well, and that our future as a nation is bright. I pray that we can re-unite as one and remember that we are all the same, even though we might have differences.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your friendship, it means the world to me.
A BIENTOT
Shop for the best in French Antiques, furniture with the patina of age, vintage accessories to delight you and your family & friends, and French Country utilitarian pieces. Treasures that make your home fresh, beautiful, inspirational and above all uniquely yours. Visit our shop FrenchGardenHouse.com
I feel like I’ve known you since day one of your business, Lidy. First admiring your ads in Romantic Homes, then making small purchases, all the while starting my own blog in 2007 and ramping up antique and vintage sales in a local antique mall with two of my sisters. Your offerings are exquisitely and uniquely chosen from Europe’s finest, right down to your own domestic lines.
I’m wishing you continued success and blessings for as many years as you choose to delight us, your readers and patrons. Thank you for the walk down memory lane and, btw, you are gorgeous!
Rita, I feel like that too! We’ve been blog friends for many years, and I so cherish your friendship. I wish you and your sisters much success too, and I know that your antique space must have a legion of loyal fans! Thank you for sharing your time with me, friend. xo
Lidy, here in Florida we are still struggling with the virus, but one of my daydreams has to do with the Christmas tea I will give using the magnificent gold cloth with” musicians” embroidered on it. I don’t often splurge like that! I’ve also learned to look first at FrenchGarden House for the perfect family gift or small hostess present, so thanks for the variety!
Linda, I am so sorry that things are still so difficult where you live. I am so hopeful that this year you will be able to have that tea, because your tablecloth was a one-of-a-kind special set, I’ve never seen another like it. When you do have your Christmas tea, it will be so beautiful! Thank you so much for your kind words, and for appreciating the antiques as much as I do. xo
Congratulations Lidy on 14 years in business! As a faithful reader of your blog you have brought so much beauty, pleasure and I’ve ever learned a thing or two. Thank you for opening your style, home, heart and business to all of us, so appreciated. Wishing you continued success as you move forward!
Thank you so much Denise. I’m always so happy to see you’re enjoying the posts. xo
Oooohhhh! This so touched my heart! Thank you Lidy for blessing us with your keen eye, gorgeous home, beautiful home decor and gifts and your amazing talent to bring it all together. Congratulations on 14 years! I hope there will be many more to come.
P.S. What a beautiful photo of you!!!
Thank you Linda. I am so very blessed with all of you, and my business.
CONGRATULATIONS Lidy, his is awesome, go do another 14, you can do it, its fun!
Mary W.
Thank you Mary! It IS fun, and I love it…thanks for your support through the years! xo
I goofed, should read this is awesome, sorry (see above) Mary W.
Congratulations Lidy! I always enjoy reading your blog, especially the Monday Morning Blooms! Continued success to you!
Thank you so much Donna! I love our Monday Morning Blooms too, and it makes total sense that that’s your favorite, flower lover!
Thank you, Lidy, for this beautiful walk down memory lane and congratulations on your14th anniversary. I have learned so much from your blog about the history and care of French antiques. And, of course, I love to see how you use them in your home.I wish you continued success and look forward to all your posts and antique finds to come!
Thank you so much Jan! Thank you for your visits and your encouragement too, friend.
Congratulations are due for 14 years of thinking of others while loving to shop for us. Your love of antiques plus sharing how to use them, their history, and how to design our homes with them is a gift from you to us. I agree with others that the portrait is beautiful. Looking forward to 14 more years. When my niece wants to know what I want for Christmas etc I say to shop FGH!
Congratulations are due for 14 years of thinking of others while loving to shop for us. Your love of antiques plus sharing how to use them, their history, and how to design our homes with them is a gift from you to us. I agree with others that the portrait is beautiful. Looking forward to 14 more years. When my niece wants to know what I want for Christmas etc I say to shop FGH!
Thank you so much Alice! I’m looking forward to many more years, too!!
Congratulations, Lidy, on 14 years! I have been wanting to tell you…your ad in this months issue of Southern Home is gorgeous! The minute I turned the page and saw it I was in awe! Wishing you a blessed week, sweet friend!
Thank you sweet Shannon! That means a lot to me, since I cobble together all our ads myself. Hope you are having a lovely week, friend.
Bonjour, Lidy,
I love both sites and even more now all your beautiful pretties and the way you display all of them living in a charming and warm home with all of your antiques and I bet it is hard to part with some of them. Enjoy hearing and seeing everything about FrenchGardenHouse and your lovely home always. Such a warm and sweet photo of you, wish we lived closer I would love a chat and cup of tea. Take care and be safe and happy Fall.~
Alway’s Jean Van~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you Jean, I cherish our friendship. You’ve been a reader and a customer for a long, long time! I’d love to chat with a cup of tea too.
Dear Lidy,congratulations on 14 years.Always love to visit your blog,get ideas for our home and garden.I hope your blog will continue to exist for a long time with tons of ideas about styling and information on antiques.
Thank you so much Anja!
Ohhh dear Lidy!
I remember that previous website with the garden gate! I have watched you and your brand evolve from one level of elegance to the next!
BRAVO!!! You are such a beautiful person, inside & out and you have such a wonderful way of sharing the precious treasures you mine for us! Every post and every piece is a delectable treat! A bright spot in the world… in my world!
Declaring God’s abundant blessings on you and FGH, now and for many more years to come!
Thank you for sharing your beauty, treasures and knowledge with us! Enriching our lives in so many ways!
xoxoxo~ Kathleen
Thank you so much for your dear words, I so appreciate them. It is such a blessing to be able to have this “beautiful” business, and if along the way I can encourage people and speak about God’s abundant grace and blessings, that makes it all the better. Thank you for being a friend from the very beginning, I appreciate you. xo
Thank you for your many years of providing such wonderful items for us. I have never been disappointed in the quality of your site. I am reminded of you many times as I use the linens, soaps and flowers I have acquired from FGH. Congratulations
Thank you so much Gloria. I love picturing you at home setting a beautiful table and gathering family and friends around it to share an enjoyable time!
Congratulations Lidy! I enjoy following your interesting blog from the other side of the world and have learnt many interesting bits of detail about our shared love of French antiques. Wishing you many years of success.
Beautiful pictures…. thank you so much…
Thank you so much Bridget! xo