Lucketts, Day One

This year, Lucketts Spring Market is fabulous as always.  The vendors have all brought great stuff.  The aisles were crowded with enthusiastic shoppers, and very few folks appear to be leaving the show empty handed. 

Sales in my booth were steady all day, with large pieces and small items selling equally well.  (The credit card ap on my iPhone has worked flawlessly.)  The weather was clear and warm ... bright blue sky, light breezes, and temps topping out at about 80 degrees.  I applied a coat of sunblock to my exposed parts every so often, and I offered it to customers and other dealers who looked like they needed it.  (It was definitely a "sunburn before you know it" type of day.)

I was on my feet nearly all day, and by the end of Day One, I felt a lot like this vase of flowers that I saw at a fellow dealer's booth ... tired and wilted.

The Husband is working the booth with me today, so I will have an opportunity to get out of the booth and really do some shopping ... instead of yesterday's quick look at the booths as I went to and from the ladies room or to grab a bite to eat (crabcake sandwich ... yum!)

One more day!

What a Fabulous Find!

In addition to stocking my antiques booth with pieces culled from my own collection of treasures, my plan is to also trawl thrift shops and Craig's List looking for things.  It's been a lot of fun to adopt a "picker's" mentality, evaluating items for their repurposing and resale potential.  When I came across the ad for this chair, I knew I had to make the trip across the county to see it for myself.

The headline on the ad said, "Adorable Vintage Chair (Shabby Chic)". 

Adorable?  Check!

Vintage?  Check ... approaching 'Antique', if you ask me.

Shabby?   definitely!

Except for the shredded upholstery, this chair is perfect exactly the way it is!  Once I strip the fabric off, I'll touch up some of the chips and scratches in the wood ... but no paint will touch these beautiful details.

I wonder what I have in my stash of fabric that will look good on this?  Something pale and feminine, for certain ... and double welting instead of yards and yards of gimp like it has now.

Once it's finished, I imagine that it may be hard to let go of this one.

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The Thrifty Groove

Common Ground

Miss Mustard Seed

A New Adventure

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"Promise me you'll always remember:

You're Braver than you believe, and Stronger

than you seem, and Smarter than you think."

- Christopher Robin to Pooh

Last month, in THIS post, I introduced you to my plan to refinish and resell furniture ... as a way to clear some of my 'treasures' around here and to channel my creative, junk-hunting energies into something besides collecting.  Initially, I was thinking that I could sell stuff piece by piece, or hold sales here.  I quickly realized that there was a better way ... and I went in search of a booth at an antique mall. 

Before we went on vacation last week, I spent a couple of days scoping out various locations here in Fredericksburg.  Our downtown is an antique shopping bonanza, so there should have been no shortage of great spaces to choose from.  Most of the shops had space available, but I wasn't jazzed with the atmosphere, or the other items available in the spaces.  Nothing seemed to be a good fit.

While visiting my parents in Culpeper, I stopped into the Minuteman Mini Mall ... which has always been one of my favorite places to waste time and shop.  I've shopped there ever since my parents moved to Culpeper in 1996, and I have never been in there alone ... there are always other shoppers in the building.  I talked to the manager, liked everything he had to say, and he showed me the three large spaces that were available ... one of which was the absolute perfect space for me!

So, Friends, I guess I am now an official antiques dealer ... with my own 10 x 11 foot space to do with as I please ... which, you have probably figured out, is the space shown in all of the photos in this post.  All of the items you see are consignment items, and they will be cleared out by the time I take possession of the space on December 1.

The space needs some freshening up, and I will accomplish this with a coat of paint on the walls and shelves.  I'm leaning toward a warm medium gray, with white shelves.  This should provide a good background for my pale painted pieces.  Beyond this, I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do ... I almost feel as if I'm making this up as I go along.

The quote that I used to start this post is one of my favorites, and it accurately portrays what I am telling myself these days ... as I make this leap into the retail antiques market.  I admit that I felt a not-so-small twinge as I signed the six-month lease for this new space of mine.  I'm pretty sure that I'm in the right place at the right time ... I keep telling myself this.

Any advice and/or reassurance you have to offer will be really appreciated.

A Fork in the Road

It's time for me to accept the fact that I have way too many projects and ideas than I can ever use for myself or our home.  Our garages (yes, we have two) are packed with things that are supposed to become beautiful finished items ... but, for now, the space almost looks like an episode of "Hoarders".  Okay, not THAT bad, but it's close.

Yes, I really DID put a fork in my road and take photos of it.  Be sure to notice that the fork has roses on it.

Since I was in my early 20s, back in the 1980s when antique furniture in need of repair and/or refinishing was plentiful and cheap, I picked up the most wonderful pieces at antique auctions and estate sales.  Our whole house is furnished with the fruits of my workshop, and it makes for a very personal decor.  After the house filled up, though, I neglected to turn off my 'bargain hunting' gene, and projects have been piling up.

Until we moved to this house, this wasn't too much of a problem because we had a large, modern house with lots of rooms and more-than-adequate storage space.  Now that we live in this old house, we have fewer rooms (though they are larger) and a crisis of 'stuff'.

In an effort to begin the process of simplifying our life, to cut the amount of 'stuff' that we have, and to make a few extra $$$ to fund some of the remaining renovations that our house needs, I have decided to take the plunge and restore and repurpose my stuff for resale.  This is a scary proposition for me, since I've been my only client up until now.

Here is a sample of what I'm doing.  It's a darling twin-size mahogany Chippendale sleigh bed.  It wasn't a good candidate for refinishing, and I love the way it turned out in ASCP Duck Egg with amber wax. 

I was trying to see if I could duplicate the finish on the armoire in our Family Room, with its genuine old-paint finish and natural wear pattern.

With some light distressing, the amber wax, and a lot of hand-rubbing, I think I got pretty close.

This bed has the headboard, footboard, side rails, and slats ... and it's all ready to be the centerpiece in a lucky little girl's vintage-inspired bedroom.

My dream would be to have this evolve into monthly or bi-monthly sales, where I set up shop in one of our outbuildings.  The idea of doing this gets me all giddy!  In the meantime, I'm considering offering individual pieces on Craig's List to test the waters.

My biggest obstacle is pricing ... I don't want to sell myself short, but I don't want stuff to be prohibitively expensive either.  I have a figure in my head for this bed, one that I think is fair, but I would love to hear your opinions on what you think it should cost.

If you have any feedback, advice, warnings, or anything else to offer as I embark on this new enterprise, I'm all ears.

(Edited to add:  after considering various outlets for my 'treasures', in December 2011 I decided to rent space at a local antique mall.  This should prove to be the least stressful, easiest way to move items from storage here at  home into a retail venue to get maximum exposure ... meaning, I hope to get rid of more stuff faster this way.  Wish me luck!)