{“This blog post is sponsored by Sawyers Farmhouse Breakfast, Three Bears General Store, The Pigeon Forge Gem Mine & The Old Gris Mill Restaurant. It reflects my personal views and opinions on the products.”}

We just got back from our Smoky Mountains trip and since moving to the beach, we needed a good ‘ole dose of fall foliage with fresh mountain air!

Must Do’s while in the Smoky Mountains

1. Grab an RV spot in the mountains! The place we stayed was absolutely amazing. Highly recommended!

It was one of our favorite parts because of the amazing fall foliage and it was super clean with wonderful access to hot heated showers, laundry facility and a dog park! This is the link!

2. Explore nature and take some hikes! In the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area, we hiked Clingmans Dome (moderate) and Grotto Falls (more moderate).

We loved them both! NOTE: Both have steep climbing!

3. Take a drive through Cade’s Cove and visit several old church’s and log cabins.

You can see wild life like deer, bears and other turkeys!

4. As for more touristy things, there are a TON of options for you in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.

One of the spots we visited that I visited as a child was The Old Mill. It’s a gris mill, turned restaurant! Check out our REEL on IG!

They even have a Pottery Shop next door, along with a General Store! We went for dinner and the food was yummy and I fell in love with all of the pottery! Check out my REEL on IG to see which pieces we came home with!

5. We also took a half day and spend it at a more touristy spot but we had a blast! You can see our reels for the Pigeon Forge Gem Mine, 3 Bears General Store and Sawyers Farmhouse Breakfast on IG!

We started off the day with breakfast at Sawyers Farmhouse Restaurant, then headed over to the Pigeon Forge Gem Mine, where we mined for minerals and rocks! You can even have jewelry created from the minerals you find! My younger two girls both had pieces of jewelry created for them! It does take 4-6 weeks for the jewelry to come in, so I’ll need to update the post when we receive our jewelry!

We also visited the Three Bears General Store where they have live bears that you can see and feed! Very budget friendly at $4 and then $2 for food! The Three Bears General Store was amazing! They have anything you could think of to buy, like name brands, such as Sinply Southern and Pandora, along with an arcade that we all loved!! The Three Bears General Store also has candy apples, fudge and ice cream! We decided to treat ourselves to ice cream at the end of our visit! Such a great place to spend time with those you love!

A Few Other Tips For Your Smoky Mountain Vacation

1. Be adventurous! Go hiking, check out the beautiful fall foliage. Try something new!

2. Bring a hiking backpack with a first aid kit, water, cliff bars, snacks, phone charger and a flashlight. It will be much needed!

3. Be safe! Don’t forget the time zones are sometimes different than we live. It is fall, so it’s getting darker later now.

Cades Cove is a beautiful place!

The Smoky Mountains was showing its majestic colors of the season! The weather was perfect and the mountain air was glorious! Hoping this was helpful! I hope you and your family have a wonderful trip to The Smoky Mountains!

I am excited to share how we built our barndominium desk with ya’ll today! It’s budget friendly too at under $90!!

I’ve teamed up with my sweet friend (host) Terrie from Decorating & More with Tip plus several other blogging buddies! Our goal is to each turn something from Trash to Treasure!

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Background of Our Barndominium Build

Most of ya’ll know that we have been building our barndominium, the past few months! Check out the blog here.

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We basically started with a piece of land that literally was littered with trash and have built our home with own hands! The photo below is where my husband was clearing our land of trees, trash and junk cars.

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We also had to rent several dumpsters to throw away the large amount of trash! The photo below is dumpster number 2.

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Curating Spaces For Our Barndominium Home

Since tax season has rolled around, I knew that I would need a space to work on our taxes, instead of sitting on the concrete floor. I have not had a desk since our move and had been teaching/working at my dining room table! Our youngest two girls needed a space for schoolwork!

Our Vision Coming to Life

I have had this vision of what I wanted this space to look like for the past several months. I enjoy roughly sketching out designs for our home. I want to make sure that every single inch of our almost 1,700 square foot barndominium, to be useful and curated to our family’s specific needs.

Supplies needed:

~2-2x12x12 foot boards

~3-Quarter inch pipes

~3-Quarter inch floor/wall flange

~Stain- Minwax Semi-Transparent Red Oak (on hand)

~1.5 inch wood screws (on hand)

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Assembling the Desk

The first item on our agenda was sanding down the wood on all sides. My husband also had to trim one of the boards, as it was uneven. Next we counter-screwed the boards together.

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After the boards were counter screwed, we applied a light coat of the stain on either side.

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Next up was installing the quarter inch pipes and wall flanges to the wall. Measure how far apart you want your “brackets” to be and mark with a pencil.

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Add your 1.5 inch screws to the studs in the quarter inch pipes and your done! Place your desk top on the “brackets” that you’ve installed! Done!

Styling our Work Space

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We still have a check list of items to finish. I need three barn lights to go over each desk area. I also need to build two bottom cabinets for either side of my desk area, which will hold my printer/computer on one side then files/desk items on the other side.

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I’ve bought three white mid century chairs, along with a couple cork boards for the girls wall sides. The middle desk area is mine and I’ve added a vintage crib spring for my memo board.

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I am also adding pipe “brackets” to the wall with metal galvanized baskets to hold pencils, crayons, markers and color pencils. I am loving how it is looking and can’t wait to update y’all with a finished look soon-probably on IG, so be sure to be following along with us on IG as we finish up with this project plus more on our barndominium build!

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I would love for you to check out my other blogging buddies below and see what item they found from Trash to Treasure! You will never be disappointed with these ladies!

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