Not since November have sister M and I restyled our booth spaces to any great extent in our local antique mall (you can view my last post on that
here). We ran a sale through the holidays in an attempt to purge items in stock, and it was fairly successful. The remnants of vintage New Year's items were put away this past week, and we've got a fresh look for the new year in our main space:
We started the mid-January changes in our main booth (one of two rented spaces) by softening the pegboard wall with the addition of a vintage swag valance. We hung it behind the mostly mirrored wall, framing up the entire space. Just beyond the glass case on the floor, the main components of our restyling look like this:
This living room furniture was bought from a private estate purchase late last October in Cincinnati. We have been storing the pieces - the settee and two chairs, coffee table and corner etagere (left, in front of the louvered divider) - in our homes, waiting for the new year. We draped the furniture with lace to discourage casual bystanders (such as spouses waiting on their shopping wives or husbands) and the occasional climber(s).
We styled the wall of mirrors sometime either last November or December, and those remain - all antique or vintage - each with a unique style. On the tufted highback chair pictured above is a vintage set of nesting boxes. A chandelier is perched behind, on a coat rack for display purposes, too heavy to extend from the pegboard wall. To the right is a glimpse of one of our large (locked) curios, containing small treasures.
We use a lot of dividers in our space, as well as a few key furniture pieces (such as the curios), to wall ourselves off from our neighbors in our antique mall (good fences make for good neighbors applies here). It gives us a sense of having our own signature look and space, and is very effective to pleasing our own sense of style. For example, behind the floral divider in the photo above (a $15 bargain sister M recovered with remnant wallpaper and gimp trim) is the storeowner's bookcase and a curio of chotchkies, as well as the mall's service elevator.
On the left side of the restyled main space is the second chair of the pair, a lower back, and behind it is another divider. You can see the slender etagere a little better in this photo (there is a cabinet door below the shelves, just above the open legs at its base). On opposite sides of the settee are a pair of glass mantle lamps, with teardrop pendulums and etched hurricanes. They have a unique, flickering bulb in them that looks like a real flame when plugged in. Behind the chair is an antique floor lamp. To the left is a glimpse of another one of our dividing pieces of furniture.
Here's a closer look of the dividing piece (above), to the left of the second chair. It is a step-back cabinet, with the lower section having louvered, sliding cabinet doors. These shelves hold some of our smalls. Further left of this cabinet is yet another wall divider, strategically placed behind a vintage hat rack and another (jewelry) curio cabinet:
Flanking the opposite side of this main booth space is one of our vintage linen displays, a two-sided rack. In this photo (below), you can see how we manage the back side of our space, right across from the service elevator I mentioned earlier:
In addition to the back side of the linen display, you can see the back of the locked curio of smalls, where we've draped a vintage linen runner and leaned a vintage, framed rose print against it. Out of frame is the owner's bookcase of chotchkies (far right). As you can tell, we use every single square inch of space we rent. We had to get creative with placing the crock bench sideways on the floor, above, in order to stow it within our space, yet keep from taking it back home to store. On the quilted, gateleg table are three wooden containers, each full of various antique and vintage hardware for sale.
Onto our next space....it is just beyond what I've finished describing, catty-cornered from what we've always called our main booth. Both are really main booths, it's just that the 'main' booth was our first space rented before we expanded. We have a total of approximately 300 square feet of space rented.
The above photo is the view from the main booth, showing one end of our second space (the cottage). The next photo shows the angle from the opposite end (our Victorian/Primitive side) ...
This second space is wider than the main booth, and there are no vendors on either side, just aisles anchoring each end, so we don't typically use dividers. We do, however, create subsets within the space. For example, right now we have it sectioned off as one side more whites and cottage-like in appearance, and the opposite side more dark, with antiques, primitives and industrial items sprinkled across both. Our vignettes just depend on our assembled collections and ideas at any given time. Our styling really all depends on the collected items of we three Panoply sisters, and a vision for making things aesthetically appealing with what we have. We also always try to think ahead, in terms of retail shoppers' anticipated seasonal displays.
A few garden items are placed more visibly on the aisle of our second space, in anticipation of spring. There are also a couple more garden items in front of the display case at the center of the main booth area (visible in first photo of this post).
A couple more items hinting at spring...birdhouse and metal birds, plus a laundry theme in the rack, clothesline, well head, and metal hangers on or above the green-blue fern stand.
We find a way of tucking items in every available niche, these items settling just under the desk in the Victorian parlor setting.
We didn't get to finish our entire restyling efforts in one session and, just like at home, there's a domino effect once you move one or two large items.....it keeps going. Next up will be the wall area behind the Victorian fainting couch and desk (I purposely left it out of frame when I captured that vignette). Here's a photo of that wall space that will need attention next - it needs more stuff, as several items sold from the wall and case!
We'll also be changing up things in our cases - a tedious, not so obviously gratifying flashy job, but still necessary. We'll add more items for both Valentine's and St. Patrick Day, segueing right into Spring. Here's a recap of our spaces:
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| Before and After Holidays - Main Booth Space |
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Before and After Holidays - Cottage Area of Second Booth Space
Before and After Holidays - Victorian/Primitive Corner
Before and After Holidays - Behind the Main Booth Space
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We're hoping to get some of this furniture moving soon, as people tend to fluff their nests January through March (when holidays are behind, income tax refunds come in, and before nice gardening weather breaks). We're ready for our customers - we've got at least two or three rooms of furniture and decor items waiting!
