Its almost time...

Sorry for the lapse in updating! Its been a busy couple weeks! So much has happened and we are so amazed to see this come together. We first found our temporary home which was love at first sight!

Welcome to Just Great Things (Fredericksburg)!

The home is adorable - its on William Street which is one of the main roads here and leads right into their historic Downtown which is just about two blocks away. We have a lease through the end of the year and are just itching to get it open to the public!

Last Friday we received one of our big shipments and covered up the windows so we could start preparing for the Big Reveal.

As of 5 am this morning our packed up U-Haul truck is on its way up here with the furniture, art work and rugs. Gerry is graciously driving it up which I am sure he is just LOVING.

It also appears we may now have a Pankow road trip tradition we would like to rid ourselves of. This is the second U-Haul that was loaded up ready to take off. The first one was returned after a LEAK was discovered thanks to the torrential rainstorm that took place the day before leaving. What is it with rain and car leaks the day before take-offs for us??? Ugh.

Just Great ROAD TRIP!!!

I'M OFF....well, just not yet, but, in the morning...so, I'M almost OFF! Car is serviced, packed up, (soon to be) gassed up and ready! It is stuffed to the brim with the smaller items I can carry up with the monster truck coming up in a few weeks with the larger merchandise. I'm kicking off this great big adventure tomorrow morning at 6 am and making a little road trip out of it. First things first I have a JUST GREAT 1st BIRTHDAY party to attend in Nashville! We are celebrating sweet George's birthday this Saturday and I am overjoyed to be able to attend his party! His original party was supposed to be a few weeks ago but had to be cancelled due to a bug. His party was rescheduled for this weekend right at the same time that we came up with this idea of the pop-up. LOVE how things work out like that! So, now I get to spend time with all my little lovies (and their parents!) and I am a content girl! I'll be back on the road heading to Fredericksburg on Monday. Once I am up there and get settled in (as much as a girl can while staying with a gracious sister and brother in law who have two crazy labs and two adorable tots) I will get back to updating the blog with my progress. In the meantime, please keep me in your thoughts and prayers these next few days as I am cruising the highway. I've enjoyed hearing back that I have some faithful followers to this blog which makes my day! I look forward to getting some more as I pop-up in a new city!!

Need Art? Will Travel....

Meet my front seat passenger - my closet.

After note:

I wrote this blog before learning I had a lovely *little* (we hope) leak in my car. The 2 inches of water on my passenger side floor courtesy of the torrential rains this afternoon brought this "water feature" to my attention. As I type we have a fan blowing on my car floor drying up water. I am hoping there is no additional rain in my forecast for the next few days until I am able to get my car back into a service center. While I like to sleep with my rain setting on my sleep machine I don't think I would enjoy driving 800+ miles with an actual rain setting in my car!!

Some New Arrivals

Popping on a few shots of the merchandise that came in recently...excuse the poor quality of the pictures - they were all snapped on my iphone. All these items are available in both Tampa and Fredericksburg...oh, that is so fun to say!!! :)

The Flower Pins that are so fun pinned to shirts, pashminas, scarves...

...or even pillows!

Speaking of Pillows...Our linen and flower pillows are so adorable!! We also have some solid olive green and burnt orange ones that I could not get to photograph right.

But someone whose does photograph like a natural would be...

I am sure she is going to LOVE being featured as a model on the JGT blog...but, (cue runway model announcer) here is Pat wearing a lovely lightweight cardigan wrap in Mocha and one of our gorgeous multi - strand pearl necklaces. Delightful Pat, Absolutely Delightful!!

If only we had an actual runway.

Miss Tulip wanted to get in on the modeling by posing with the fringed scarf and cardigan wrap.

Additional colors of the fringed scarves (sorry for the plastic wrap still on them!! Just wanted to show all the colors available)

Below are the remaining colors of the fringed scarf that we have in Tampa.

The Ame & Lulu bags - perfect for weekend getaways packed up with our wraps and scarves!

And lastly, we are loving these red flower napkin rings. Would make a great table setting for both Thanksgiving and Christmas! Or buy a pack or two as gifts!!

There is really so much more but I am pretty sure I lost most of my audience when the runway announcer was cue'ed so I'll post more pictures at a later date!

just great pop-ups!

Just Great Things by Pat Pankow Interiors is on the move – literally! Inspired by the pop-up restaurants concept we’ve decided to take this show on the road. Kathryn is packing up a selection of our just great items and taking them up to Fredericksburg, Virginia where she is opening a pop-up Just Great Things showroom. She has been hard at work picking out a few of her favorite things to showcase to all her soon-to-be new JGT fans! She’ll be driving up at the end of this month with her car packed up with smaller items and the larger merchandise will arrive mid-October. Keeping with true pop-up fashion we will only keep the showroom open in Fredericksburg for a limited time period. More details will be announced as we get closer to the launch date so make sure to become a fan of Pat Pankow Interiors** on Facebook or check the Pat Pankow Interiors blog for updates!

**If we meet our goal of 300 fans by the end of October we plan to draw a fan name at random who will win a FREE 8” x 10” original oil painting of their choice**

Farmhouse Chic???

I love the look of distressed furniture. I love all styles and variations of it. So much so that I wanted to attempt it. I am pleasantly pleased with my first completed project but know that I have quite a bit of learning ahead of me. I am looking forward to learning more as I go so I can perfect my new hobby!

Before (not the best picture but it works for this purpose)

The top of the dresser had a large and deep scratch going across the top so it needed quite a bit of sanding and wood filler. After repeated sanding I was ready to prime it. I painted a few layers of primer with light sanding in between each layer. (Can you see why this lovely piece took me so long?)

Drawers out and primed

After priming I had a lovely time scratching up and denting al my hard work. I used a flat paint instead of high gloss like I have used for the other pieces I have done so far. Between each coat of paint I sanded just like with the primer although this time I used a coarse sheet of paper as opposed to the fine grit. Applied a couple coats of Poly along with a little bit of gold sheen to give it some shine and it was done!

Once the body was complete I painted the legs chocolate brown and reattached them.

Last thing to do was put the pulls back on! Its now on display in our front room of the showroom and it looks so pretty all pulled together with lamps and art!

Showroom Pictures

I recently snapped a few (ok, quite a few) pictures of the showroom since we have so many "just great things" here right now! Oh, how we love playing off the name here! It just doesn't get old...to us! Along with the pictures I also took a little panoramic video of the rooms. I didn't think you would want to hear me attempt to narrate what you were viewing so I stayed silent by holding my breath as I turned in a 180 degree circle. After uploading the video I realized it was a bit creepy without any sound so I thought I would put this Mac to it's full potential and add a little music to spice it up. While my 11 year old niece could probably do a better job with both the video and editing, I, for one am quite excited with my new found (extremely amateur) skills. May want to learn how to slow down and not shake or jostle the camera before my next attempt....Enjoy the picture's and video!

Like anything you see in these pictures? Give us a call, text, email, Facebook or even tweet us! And, speaking of Facebook - are you a "fan" of our page? If not, please become one! We are trying to grow our page and our goal is to make it to 300 fans by mid-October. So, "like" us and suggest all your friends, family, neighbors, dog walkers, teachers and even strangers to like us too! We'd appreciate the support!!! And, as a reminder - this shameless begging is coming from Kathryn - not Pat. I am trying to prove my worth and show that all my hard work (haha) on these various social media sites are paying off!!

A Quick Chair Re-do

This may have been my favorite chair to work on to date. It was such a simple project but such a fabulous transformation! I found this little gem in a small store and immediately scooped it up. I LOVED the high back and the overall look of it. It was a little banged up but nothing a little bit of TLC (ie wood filler, gorilla glue and sandpaper) couldn't fix!

On it's way into my trunk but snapped a "before" picture first. Excuse my finger (thumb?) in the bottom. Obviously, I was too excited to notice!

Once it was repaired, sanded and primed I painted it silver and added a bit of gold varnish on top. It helped bring down the edge of the silver paint.

On the "drying rack" with the other chairs I was working on.

Added a bit more padding to the seat and recovered in a black velvet fabric. It came out gorgeous!

A view of the back of the chair in its new room!