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December 16, 2010

Finished Hutch and Fabulous Booth Redo

Hurray!  The hutch that I bought at the auction last weekend is finished and in place in our booth.  I am incredibly pleased with how the hutch turned out.  Martie and I rearranged the whole booth to fit it in.  We were wanting to re-do the booth anyway.  It turned out great and it looks like a completely different area.  The hutch is a key piece.  

I distressed the black parts by sanding.  The tan parts seemed too plain and not quite the color I was after so I did a whitewash affect there. It looks good but it doesn't show up well in the photo.  A few of the knobs are missing and I'll be looking to take care of that in the next week or so.  To truly appreciate the makeover, you need to see the before pictures.

I don't want it to sell until one of us has a large piece ready to go in it's place.  Am I the only booth owner who puts things in a booth, but doesn't really want them to sell fast?  How dumb is that?  But, it's a key element in our booth!  It just can't sell til we have another big piece!!!!  Here's how it looks as you walk towards our booth -

Another major change we made was to move Martie's shelf to the edge of the aisle.  Why had we not thought to do this before?!?!?  Martie corralled all of the Christmas stuff into this one location and arranged it beautifully.  We reconfigured the shelf to make it tall at one end.  Having the shelf on the edge of our booth area expands our booth considerably and presents a greater opportunity to have items on the shelf noticed, since it can be seen from either side.  The shelves are tall enough to make it easy to browse, but low enough to keep the booth from feeling closed in.  Perfect.  
Interestingly, I was not too keen on this shelf when it was placed on the side of the booth.  I kept thinking that the style was wrong for the booth.  But in it's new placement and new configuration, I love it! Martie's dad had used these shelves when doing shows.  They are easy to set up and take apart and rearrange.  I like using pieces with family history and I'm so happy that we finally found a wonderful way to use them.

We moved the dresser against the wall.  Since it's a low piece, it left us plenty of room above on the pegboard wall to showcase mirrors and pictures.  We grouped glass and blue pottery items together on the top of the dresser with bits of gold here and there.

Next, we set up a vignette around the glass table, which is no longer for sale.  The tablecloth is also something I don't plan on selling.  I want to keep it for displays or to use at home (it fits my dining table perfectly).  The glass table was for sale, but since the tablecloth fits it so well, I decided to keep it for awhile.  
The tablecloth keeps a number of items out of sight, too.  We had some items that we don't want to use in the booth right now and we stashed them under the table instead of lugging them home and back again.  The display on top of the blue table is just OK.  We were running out of time and energy by the time we got to it.  It will be improved on later. Still, the setup looks attractive because of the pretty tablecloth, lamp and white shutters. That's what you notice first.  Oops.  I just remembered that I forgot to put a price on the silver serving piece.  Maybe it's because I'm reluctant to sell it. 
Speaking of lamps, we finally got around to plugging in our lamps in the booth. When we turned each one on, it was a bit magical.  Everything around them sparkles.  On the other hand, they don't look great in my photos.  I need to remember to turn the lamps off when I take photos.


I also made another booth sign.  We now have two numbers to make it easier to keep track of sales.  I printed our new numbers and attached them to a doily.  I will likely improve this sign in the future.  I'm picturing a slightly larger, ornate painted frame, with the doily and sign mounted inside.  I have a frame that *may* work once it's painted. 


We had such a hard time hanging the sign.  It looks like I pulled a bit of the doily loose in the process.  I didn't notice that until looking at the photo.  The back of the frame has a metal hanger, which are awful for hanging on a pegboard wall.  From now on, I'll make sure that pictures I get for the booth have wire hangers!


We put Martie's table near the Christmas shelf.  Right now this table is loaded down with assorted retro items, but as soon as the Christmas items are moved off the shelf, we plan to redo the table area, so the table itself shows better. It's a cool table.  I love the legs.  It has sturdy leaves that pull out on each side. It might look nice featured in the center of the booth with a minimal arrangement on top. Hmmmm.


 We put the black chest of drawers and the white wicker table on the right "wall" of the booth.  By the way, did you notice that our side walls have changed?  They are now white chenille bedspreads.  When we first moved into the booth, we used some of Martie's sheer white curtains.  The curtains were really pretty, but they didn't work.  I have pondered for months on why they didn't work. Something was wrong about the color with the color of the walls and floor. The white should have looked great.  We have white swirls on the floor. It should have been a great match. When we decided the try the white chenille, I was a little concerned that they might not work either.  But they do!  They look wonderful.  No color issues at all.  All I can guess is that the first set was too sheer and when hung somehow didn't translate to a true white. 



I think I may have finally learned a profound booth lesson.  If there's something in our booth that doesn't look appealing, it's probably because we haven't come up with the best way to use it or display it.  I guess I'm a slow learner.  I should have learned that lesson after the experience with Martie's chair and Beth's couch.  I didn't care for them when they were first put in our booth.  But when they were put in a feature area with colors that went well with them, they looked great... and they sold!  
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Be sure to check out the latest RE- Party!
We RE-do, RE-decorate, RE-organize, RE-pair,  RE-upholster, 
RE-furbish, RE-finish, RE-purpose,  and of course, we love to RE-lax! 
My post today was about RE-arranging! 
This party celebrates the RE-'s in our lives! 

Take a look at these other wonderful link parties for more clever ideas.  
I'm linking this post with them!