Man’s best friend can also get in on the act. They don’t come up very often, but occasionally antique dog kennels and wrought-iron dog enclosures find their way into auctions and salvage yards. Usually commissioned by wealthy owners theses relics—from stone dog kennels to wooden traveling boxes—are often very grand and make smart housing for modern pooches. They don’t come cheap, however. At recent Christie’s auctions in London a late nineteenth-century Victorian oak dog kennel, with a gothi8c-style arched door, an antique French painted wood and gesso dog kennel, made to resemble a stately home, and a small Victorian fruitwood kennel all sold for the price of a small car. Early and mid-twentieth-century examples, however, are easier and cheaper to source and repair if necessary. Most are softwood, and can be prone to rot or woodworm, so check your kennel is safe and comfortable for its new occupant. If in doubt, a traditional-style kit kennel is a good option and can be easily decorated with heritage paint colors for an authentic vintage feel.
When she was a six-year-old girl, Tiffany Kirchner Dixon’s parents escaped the hustle and bustle of California and moved to the Pacific Northwest to buy a farm. From an early age, she was surrounded by fruit trees, vast fields, and farm animals. Fresh milk from the cows, vegetables from the garden, and working the land were all part of daily life. That kind of upbringing is hard to shake. When she was twelve, Tiffany’s father’s job took the family overseas to Hong Kong, a far cry from the bucolic bliss of farm life. Every summer, they returned to the farm and tried to reclaim what the last eleven moths had deprived them of.
Certain that she would become a farmer herself, as an adult Tiffany finally settled upon a gentleman’s farm big enough to house a few horses, her beloved mini burros, pet sheep Margaret, and over forty rare breed chickens. With farming in the blood, along with an inherited passion for all things vintage, it seems inevitable that Tiffany would go on to combine these two passions into a trademark style. As a child, her house was always filled with family heirlooms and characterful pieces, so it’s no surprise that Tiffany picks up her favorite finds in thrift stores, flea markets, and antique shops. Drawn to things out of the ordinary, she’s always ready to repurpose quirky treasures into conversation pieces for the farm.
For the chickens, Tiffany set to work personalizing a basic wooden coop with salvaged materials. Secondhand windows allow light to stream into the coop and make a perfect hatch to keep the chickens safe at night. An old porch door from an early 1900s house, stripped of its screen and replaced with chicken wire, creates an ideal partition to divide the hens from the food storage.
Neighborhood yard sales are a rich seam for Tiffany’s keen-eyed searches and the place she discovered the antique barn ladder that now works as a perch for the hens to reach their nest boxes and roost on at night. Like a magpie, Tiffany always finds herself drawn to galvanized metal, a vintage farm must-have. Not only is the metal charming, but it’s functional, too, and she uses galvanized buckets with locking lids to store feed for the animals. A vintage garbage trolley holds the shiny buckets and makes it easy for her to wheel around the heavy containers. An antique sifter hangs in the coop as a flower pot, and an age-worn armchair allows Tiffany to take a well-earned break after cleaning the coop.
She doesn’t mind that the stuffing is falling out, it only adds to the charm and her handmade feed sack pillow adds extra comfort.
The Fancy Farmgirl
Imagine a farmer who also has a sensational eye for gardenalia. In Seattle, photographer and Fancy Farmgirl blogger Tiffany Kirchner Dixon creates extraordinary chicken coops from quirky collectibles and junkyard materials.
