House of Hidden Treasures

We all need our champion, and this lady just might be mine. Dee Haas has been the single owner of this vintage shop since 1968. The house is over 100 years old and its 12 rooms are filled to the brim with a unique stay of antique treasures. It also boasts Dee's handcrafted pieces which are worth the drive in and of themselves. Eclectic jewelry is her specialty, and in her 86 years she is now becoming familiar with the term "steampunk" because it so aptly describes many of her pieces, though not all. The house in unheated, so dress warm. Amber and I only made it through the house... some how we missed that there was also a garage (!) and a barn (!!!) full of treasures. Dee lives in a part of the house sectioned off from the store, and came up to assist when needed.



I am not the best photographer, and I could not get a picture to justify the awsome floating staircase in the entrance; it is absolutely amazing. Not to mention Dee has cut out flowered vintage wall paper and pasted it to the ceiling of it, a theme repeated in many rooms upstairs.





So here is where a person takes decorating, combines it with ingenuity, and gets art. The tree here is made of burlap bags pasted to the wall and features vintage photos on the walls and ceiling.




Here you can better see how she cut the leaves and some of the featured photos.




Another room upstairs, again the ceiling has vintage wall paper... Dee has trailed this down the tops of the walls and cut along the pattern of flowers. Don't ask me how she got it up there...




I could not get a decent photo of the back stair case... go see it yourself. Why buy wall paper when you can just plaster the walls with vintage adds and clippings?





The top of the spiral staircase at the entrance of the house. I'm sorry to say I was so distracted by the awsome house I didn't really take many pictures of the stuff in it... many old glass jars, prints, magazines, home goods, jewelry and clothing.




So this was my haul! Above is a letter box with alphabetized dividers. I beleive this one is destined to hold my knitting patters... I wouldn't be surprised if I return for another someday. I also got a cool leather cuff... actually once used to husk corn. To the left of the cuff is box that Dee made of wall paper holding an awsome bracelet she made of Bakelite (!) buttons... and entirely reasonably priced. At the top you have my personal favorite... hand stitched vintage laces.



Here are the three laces I bought... after going through several boxes full. They weren't cheap, but so worth it.  Now I just need ideas to use them in.



My Bakelite bracelet... :)

...And the letter file. The date on the side said 1928, so it's nearly 100 years old. When closed, it looks like and old book.

Dee also mentioned that we may want to check out another vintage shop named Sugarloaf located in an old brewery in Winona, but that will have to be another day and another post :).

House of Hidden Treasure

507-932-3577

807 Richland Ave.

St. Charles, MN 55972

Open 9:30-5:00 daily ("except maybe Wednessdays" per Dee)

*Call in Jan, Feb, Mar, and 1st part of April