Barnsley Gardens and Shaw Floors

Two sisters who hadn’t seen each other in two years had the amazing opportunity last week to not only finally get to be together but to do it in style!

When Shaw Floors reached out to us recently to discuss a potential partnership we were absolutely thrilled for many reasons not the least of which was that it meant we would finally be together again. Reunited and it feels so good!

We arrived as guests of Shaw at the beautiful Barnsley Garden Resort in Georgia and immediately fell in love with it’s charming cottages and picturesque grounds. It really helped to offset the scorching temperatures and humidity, at least for the Oregon sister.

The entire resort is made up of cottages and each one is just beautiful. Especially when you have lovely gifts waiting for you when you walk through the door.

Later that evening, we made our way to the Barnsley Mansion ruins where Shaw had arranged for us to have dinner.

We so wish we could fully capture just how amazing this place really is.

The Barnsley family story is like something out of a historic fiction novel. Romance, grief, bravery and loss. In fact, the story of this family and their incredible mansion was used as the inspiration for Margaret Mitchell’s ‘Gone With the Wind.’

Walking through those empty rooms you couldn’t help but feel the spirit of this indomitable family.

As the sun began to set, we made our way to the back lawn where we dined in the most incredible setting we could have imagined. It was truly magical.

And check out the clever place settings Shaw created. A table runner made of carpet, wood flooring squares as our chargers and hardwood floor samples with our placecards and menus printed on them.

After dark, the mansion was lit up and we were all treated to a wonderful time of hearing the entire history of the mansion told to us by a masterful storyteller and musician.

The next day we visited the Shaw Floors Headquarters in Dalton, GA and learned all about the humble beginnings of this amazing company.

We were given a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how their products come together and even a peek at the new 2017 lines. There are some seriously awesome options coming next year!

Then we were ushered into a room where we were given the chance to be a little naughty.

While we spend most of our days as moms telling everyone in our households to be extra careful not to spill anything on the carpet, we were actually told that we HAD to spill red juice all over those beautiful carpet samples.

Honestly all of us in the room felt strangely liberated which may mean that we need to get out more!

Now a picture just won’t do this justice so we made a little video for you so you can truly see how amazing the new R2X technology is in the Lifeguard line of Shaw Carpets.

It’s amazing that something so wrong could be so right!

But of all the things we did this past week, what we cherished the most was the rare time to just be together as sisters.

We had 5 whole days together.

5 days of talking about only the things that we would understand. 5 days of laughing. 5 days of dreaming and planning for the future of At the Picket Fence. And friends, let me tell you that we came home with renewed energy and passion for this amazing community. We have so much coming up in the next few months (particularly the release of our first book ‘Life in Season’!!) and we can’t wait to share it all with you!

With lots of love,