The City Farmhouse Pop-up Fair is almost here and we can't wait to introduce y'all to our friend Cari Cucksey, host of HGTV's Cash and Cari! When it comes to repurposing this chick has a knack for reinventing, so we caught up with her to help y'all get to know her a little better before the weekend...
1. How would you describe your personal design aesthetic?
Very eclectic but tasteful (of course). I love a variety of periods -- my own home is a mix from the 1700s all the way to the 1950s! Obviously it doesn’t look like some crazy flea market but it’s all about melding together color and texture.
2. Where does your love of antiques & vintage stem from?
Well, I grew up in a 1908 Sears Roebuck and was surrounded by both sides of the family. My mother was a teacher and had a huge love for antiques, so when she was off in the summers she’d drag me around to go shopping with her, always wanting to teach me everything she knew about antiques.
On the other side of the family was my grandfather -- the first American picker (way before Mike and Frank!). He taught me all about repurposing… after going through The Great Depression, he had so much gratitude and was just astonished at what people were willing to throw away. He would go shopping every day alongside the road and pick up what other people considered trash, then turn those items into things that were useful and beautiful. He really instilled in me a love for repurposing.
3. How do you know when you've found the perfect piece to refurbish?
I guess it’s just a gut feeling… sometimes I find pieces and I have no idea what I’m going to do with them. It’s all about your gut in this business though, and taking a chance and being willing to put in the sweat and equity to make something come to life!
4. What's the coolest piece you've reinvented?
It’s so hard to pick just one since I’ve repurposed so many fun things out there… I guess my favorite project though was for our wedding. We created 20 vintage vignettes and one of them was a cast iron tub that I cut the front off of and turned into a little vintage couch!
5. If you could only choose three tools to use for the rest of your life, what would they be?
A paint brush, my staple gun and mascara -- definitely can’t live without that one!
6. What's your favorite part about what you do?
I absolutely love the fact that I’m able to inspire people across the globe. Cash and Cari on HGTV airs in 40 countries and it’s so neat to me that so many different people are looking at objects in a different light. We’re bringing back the stories of these pieces and their owners -- if we don’t keep telling that history and educating people about what those items were and can be recreated into, they’ll get lost.
Catch Cari at the demonstration tent this weekend where she'll be teaching fair-goers the art of repurposing with Matthew Mead and Wagner spray tools! For more on Cari and show details, go here.
