Step into Our Vendors' Homes: Meet Deb aka Green Queen

As part of an ongoing monthly series we will be entering the homes of our talented Ramshackled Treasures vendors. They will show us their recent DIYs, room remodels and favorite furniture refinishes. Prepare yourself to learn, share and be inspired!

Last month you met Paulette and witnessed her incredible sewing talent! This month we are beyond excited to introduce you to Deb! And right now we are about to make a Ramshackled proclamation and dub her "Queen Green" because up-cycling items that would otherwise be shipped to a landfill is one of her many passions. 

Deb inside her eclectic workspace in the barn where she paints, repairs and creates her pieces for the shop! 

Wandering around the many rooms of Deb's Zimmerman home, felt like exploring an English cottage: the tarnished silver tea service, the ornate 1800's buffet table, and the massive oak hutch in the kitchen all spoke of a simpler, more rustic time. It was the kind of home you could really curl up and nap in. 

"I love the concept of wabi sabi," Deb's said over steaming cup of coffee. "Which basically means: embracing the imperfections. It's a Japanese philosophy that's been around for a long time. It's the study of the decay of a tree...You see a beautiful bird on an ugly tree...but as a whole composition--it's perfect. I want that to be some part of my room (at Ramshackled Treasures), because I embrace the rustic and a little bit of the foofoo." 

Deb's husband teases her about her growing collection of antique furniture in the barn.
"I'm not a hoarder! I'm a chipmunk!" Deb insisted. She likes collecting things that speak to her, or have good bones to be created into interesting pieces for the shop.

Deb also enjoys making her popular pallet signs. When asked whether she found a tutorial on how to make her signs she said: "I can't follow directions very well. I just put it together, it was a wonderful accident. Serendipity."

Deb makes her signs out of recycled wooden boxes and pallet wood. She gets her boxes from a manufacturer who would otherwise have to send them to a landfill. She can't stand to see good wood buried in the ground.

"I thoroughly enjoy the signs they make my heart sing," Deb said. She likes to feel her art and the pallet signs are no exception. She doesn't cater her craft for mass appeal, but looks for sayings and phrases that speak to her personally.  

One of the pallet signs that still brings tears to Deb's eyes is inscribed with this special poem.

There is freedom waiting for you,

On the breezes of the sky,

And you ask 'What if I fall?'

Oh but my darling,

What if you fly? - Erin Hanson

Thanks for giving us a glimpse into your life, home and creative process Deb! We look forward to taking a page out of your book, and seeing life's imperfections as beauty.