Stay ConnectedGrandma’s Silver explores the culture of everyday life, from design and interiors to food, tradition, and the rituals that shape how we live.
Hosted by Allie Kochinsky, each episode features thoughtful, approachable conversations with designers, historians, and tastemakers, uncovering the meaning behind timeless style and enduring traditions.
New episodes every Wednesday.
Copyright: © Copyright Allie Kochinsky
In this episode of Grandma's Silver, Allie Kochinsky sits down with lifestyle creator and new author Chassity Evans to discuss her debut novel Pink Sand Summer, and the relationship between place, memory, creativity, and storytelling.
Known for her thoughtfully curated lifestyle content and love of coastal living, Chassity has spent years creating visual narratives inspired by the places she loves. With Pink Sand Summer, she takes that storytelling a step further, transforming the atmosphere and emotional pull of Harbour Island into a work of fiction.
Together, the women explore how places shapes narrative, why summer stories continue to resonate with readers, and how nostalgia functions as both a feeling and a creative tool. Chassity also shares what surprised her most about writing a novel, the challenges of moving from visual storytelling to long-form fiction, and the role memory plays in building characters and emotional depth.
In this episode, they discuss:
In this episode, Allie Kochinsky is joined by Brittany Shepard, founder of The Sentimental Decorator and co-host of The Sentimental Twist, for a conversation on what she calls storykeeping, the practice of weaving memory, meaning, and personal history into the everyday rhythms of home.
Together, the two explore the quiet power of ordinary rituals: setting the table without occasion, using heirlooms instead of saving them, and gathering in ways that feel lived-in rather than performed. Brittany shares how her perspective on home was shaped by the women who raised her, and how continuing their traditions through objects and simple acts of hospitality has become a way of carrying their presence forward.
Brittany and Allie also talk about the difference between hosting and hospitality, the emotional weight objects can hold, and why repetition rather than reinvention is often what creates a true sense of home.
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Charleston is often described by its charm and beauty, but this conversation looks at the city through a different lens: domestic space, hospitality, and the rhythms that shape how people feel inside a place.
In this episode of Grandma's Silver, Allie Kochinsky sits down with Stacey Bodnar, Director of Marketing & Public Relations for Charming Inns, of which the John Rutledge House Inn belongs. The pair talk about what it means to operate a historic house as a living environment rather than simply a hotel. Together, they explore how architecture influences behavior, why porches—nay, piazzas—remain powerful social spaces, and how atmosphere can subtly alter our sense of time and connection.
From summer mornings and daily rituals to the emotional pacing of historic interiors, this conversation examines why certain places stay with us long after we leave them, and what Charleston reveals about hospitality at its best.
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In this episode of Grandma's Silver, Allie Kochinsky speaks with the founder of Bushel of Prints, a studio specializing in illustrated wrapping paper and printed goods inspired by memory, pattern, and everyday storytelling.
The conversation explores how even ephemeral, everyday materials like wrapping paper can carry meaning through design. It considers how pattern becomes a form of visual language, and how illustration can transform ordinary places and objects into part of personal and cultural rituals.
Together, they discuss the relationship between design and memory, the emotional role of gifting and presentation, and how small-scale creative work can shape the way we experience everyday life.
This episode looks at pattern not as decoration, but as a way of marking time, memory, and connection through design.
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In this episode of Grandma's Silver, Allie Kochinsky sits down with Cynthia Main, founder of Sunhouse Craft, for a conversation about tradition, material knowledge, and what it means to carry craft foward today.
This episode is part of a special series exploring American craftsmanship inspired by Colonial Williamsburg, created in partnership with the Craft & Forge brand of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Craft & Forge collaborates with contemporary makers whose work reflects the Foundation's mission to preserve historic trades and pass on artisanal knowledge through living practice.
Based in Berea, Kentucky, Sunhouse Craft operates as both a working studio and a training environment, dedicated to reviving regional materials and traditional making practices through well-made goods for daily use. Through this collaboration, Cynthia's work draws inspiration from the Historic Area, archival collections, and the legacy of early American craft, while remaining rooted in place and process.
Together, Allie and Cynthia explore the philosophy behind making objects meant to last, the role of nature and seasonal materials in shaping craft, and the balance between historic inspiration and contemporary design.
The conversation also centers on Sunhouse Craft's white oak basketry apprenticeship, an initiative supported in part by South Arts, which is working to restore an endangered Appalachian tradition through hands-on training, mentorship, and long-term skill development.
This episode offers a thoughtful look at craft as living practice, one sustained not only through objects, but through people, knowledge, and the act of making itself.
In this episode, you'll hear:
Recorded live at the Pennsylvania Antiques Show, this panel brings together leading voices in the worlds of design, material culture, and collecting to explore what it means to live with objects today.
Framed as a conversation on collecting—why we do it, how we begin, and what it means to steward the past—the discussion moves beyond acquisition and into the role objects play in shaping identity, memory, and home. Together, the panel considers how a new generation is approaching antiques and material culture with a fresh perspective, balancing scholarship with instinct, preservation with use, and tradition with evolving taste. At its heart, this is a conversation about how we carry the past forward, and why it still matters.
About the Panel
This collecting-focused discussion was convened as part of the Pennsylvania Antiques Show, the inaugural gathering of dealers, scholars, and collectors dedicated to the study and appreciation of American decorative arts and material culture. The panel explored the evolving nature of collecting today, from connoisseurship and scholarship to accessibility, storytelling, and lived experience, offering multiple entry points for both new and seasoned collectors.
Panelists
What makes a home feel truly lived-in?
In this episode of Grandma’s Silver, Allie Kochinsky sits down with Bebe MacKellar, an interior decorator known for her classic, layered interiors and intuitive approach to creating spaces that feel warm, personal, and enduring.
Bebe shares how her career began apprenticing under her mother at Fanny Bolen Interiors, and how that early hands-on experience shaped her understanding of the importance of intention and following her gut.
In this conversation, you'll hear about:
In this episode of Grandma's Silver, Allie Kochinsky sits down with designer Vicente Wolf to explore the intersection of interiors, nature, and the art of creating true environments.
Known for his layered, collected approach, Vicente shares how his work is shaped by a lifelong relationship with the natural work, from tending plants in his New York City apartment to living and working in Montauk. Together, the pair discuss the balance between natural and manicured spaces, and how the same principles that guide a garden can inform the way a room is composed.
The conversation also explores how interiors can function as living landscapes, spaces with rhythm, movement, and emotional resonance, and what it means to design with restraint, intuition, and a sense of time.
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What makes a piece of jewelry meaningful, and how does it become something we keep for a lifetime?
In this episode of Grandma's Silver, Allie Kochinsky speaks with Jane Winchester Paradis, founder of Jane Win, a semi-fine jewlery brand known for its symbolic coins designed to represent intention, identity, and personal milestones.
Jane shares her journey for a career in corporate marketing at Lilly Pulitzer to building a rapidly growing brand centered on meaning over trend. They discuss the philosophy behind her designs, why she believes people are seeking deeper connection to the objects they wear, and how jewelry can function as a modern heirloom, telling a story and carrying significance over time.
The two also explore the themes behind her recent collaboration with Giadzy, including ritual, gratitude, and the role of gathering in shaping memory and experience.
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A single street can reveal a lot about ambition, identity, and the rise—and disappearance—of cultural ideals.
In this episode of Grandma's Silver, Allie Kochinsky is joined by architectural historian Mosette Broderick, author of Fifth Avenue: Architecture and Society, to explore how one of New York's most iconic avenues became a powerful lens for understanding American social and architectural history.
From its early days as rural farmland to its transformation into a boulevard of brownstones, and later, a stage for Gilded Age mansions, Fifth Avenue tells a story of aspiration, competition, and constant reinvention. Families like the Vanderbilts and Astors built grand homes not simply for comfort, but as expressions of status, taste, and belonging.
Yet many of these archiectural landmarks were surprisingly short-lived. As the city evolved, mansions gave way to apartments, hotels, and luxury retail, marking a profound shift in how status was defined, from private ownership to public presence.
Together, Allie and Mosette explore the idea of architecture as social performance, examining how buildings reflect identity, hierarchy, and cultural values, and what it means when those symbols are erased.
This conversation offers a thoughtful look at Fifth Avenue as a place and as a cycle, one that continues to shape how we think about cities, preservation, and the meaning of prestige today.
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