Vintage farm charm in Rathdrum Saturday

OK. Someone needs to do a study. Is the Inland Northwest a hotbed for really great vintage sales or what? I’m pretty sure we have more Farm Chicks-like events per capita than other parts of the country. At least that’s what I’m told by my friends on Facebook—you know, the jealous friends who live in those other parts of the country.

Yet another antique show is happening this weekend, this time in Rathdrum, Idaho. For you Spokanites who have seen the word Rathdrum on a sign off the freeway but have never been, here’s a hint: it ain’t that far away.

The Vintage Barn Antique Show will be held Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $4. Here are the directions.

Can’t make it? The organizers will host a similar event on Sept. 12.

And just who are the organizers? Husband and wife Dean and Rolane Hopper.

By day, the Hoppers are a physical and occupational therapist, respectively. (They met in gross anatomy class during college. It was love at first site, despite the fact that there was a human cadaver on a table between them. True story.)

So the Hoppers have a science side to them, obviously, but they have a creative side, too. Rolane says she has always loved seeing the potential in antiques and castaway items.

“It’s actually a sickness,” she jokes.

Several years ago she turned her sickness—er, hobby—into a business. She began selling what she had collected at antique shows, like the Farm Chicks show , and soon realized she had enough stuff to host a vintage sale of her own.

The Hoppers live in a 1915 farmhouse on the 10-acre property in Rathdrum where the sale will be held. In fact, it was the house and its barn that inspired the semi-annual show.

“Right when we pulled up, stuff was running through my mind,” Rolane says, referring to the first time they toured the house when it was for sale. “I thought, ‘that could be my shop,’” she recalled saying after seeing the bunk house on what used to be a 150-acre farm.

In addition to selling antiques and Vintage Barn merchandise, the Hoppers raise hens and sell their eggs. The couple has two daughters, ages 3 and 5, the older of whom has already gained an appreciation for vintage jewelry, Rolane says.

This is the Hoppers’ fourth big show in Rathdrum. In 2008, their event was featured in “Country Living” magazine (check out the gorgeous pictures here ), and it’s mentioned again in this month’s issue.

Rolane says the more recent article is about how events like the Vintage Barn sale are the future of antique shopping.

Rather than browsing through traditional antique stores and malls, “people want more nostalgia, they want more of an experience than just going shopping,” Rolane says.

And they’re willing to travel far to get it. Rolane says her show has drawn customers from as far away as Calgary, Minnesota and Colorado.

But she debunks my theory that the Spokane area is a breeding ground for these events.

“I think it’s happening all over” the country, Rolane says.

This Saturday’s show includes food (baked goods made by members of a Mennonite community, barbecue food, and sandwich wraps), live bluegrass music and 51 different vendors selling their goods. That’s an increase of vendors over last September’s show, but Rolane says she and Dean are carefully keeping the event from growing too big.

“My husband and I put it on with all our heart,” she says. “We’re hoping people love it as much as we do, and we don’t want to change the recipe too much.”

Photo courtesy of The Vintage Barn