Well, it didn’t take me long to become infatuated with the antiquing world after a few years off. I haven’t had booth space since 2009, or so, besides a few pop up Birdsong shops in my garage, and when I quit, it took me years to get over the itch to buy junk to redo and repurpose. I very much loved the business.
Over time, I got out of the habit of getting up early every weekend for garage sales and stopped yearning for ugly little tables to transform into cuties and even started clearing my house and storage out. Goodwill, friends, and family got all of my back stock when I cleaned out.
My friends still had spaces and sometimes I’d get my redo fix by helping them paint something or redecorate a booth. Finally, I gave in and joined them full time by taking on a wall at Good Juju at the Old West Bottoms. I was very, very worried about finding enough to fill it, since I’d gotten myself down to bare bones and had nothing to bring in. But a couple months of very hard work and hunting built my stash up enough that now, I’m taking on a second wall.
It is also thanks to Beth, as my first wall was. She had a bit more space than she needed, and offered to share. We’ve been partners in the past, and mesh well together, plus have lots of giggle fits and fun while doing it.
When I painted my original wall, I also painted a couple for her, and this is one of them. Here is how it looked when I took it over this week.
I like the color I’d chosen for it, so that worked out well for me. But I wanted it completed, without spending any money, so had my dear, helpful husband come in with me to add a shutter over the vertical missing plywood, and I covered poster board in heavy vintage wallpaper to cover the horizontal hole. It wasn’t quite enough, so we patched with a piece of ceiling tin and then a strip of leftover trim to finish it off.
Did I mention that my husband has been soooooooo supportive and sweet?
He also hung 3 chandeliers, put in a French door, hung a vintage window over my wall, and then made a shelf from hinged shutters.
The shutter shelf looked so good, I texted Beth to see if she wanted one on her wall too. So he put one up from a pile of shutters she had, and it immediately split and all the slats spilled out.
oops
But, I mentioned she had quite a few, right? So he pulled out heavier duty ones and switched them out. I’m glad it all worked, because they add so much to the space. For one thing, it extends our real estate, and we are making the best use of the area. For another, it just plain old looks good, and hopefully will bring people in.
With having this area to fill too, we are making the most of these tall walls and grabbing more spots to sell from.
Juju is such a cool place, people always come in, and there are so many dealers very talented with styling and design, so it’ll be nice if we can grab a little more attention. Beth has amazing finds and a great eye, so already has her regulars, but I could use a few of my own.
I know that poster board isn’t a very durable way to build a wall, unless maybe you are the 4th little pig and were left out of the story because it is even dumber than straw. But it was efficient and looks fine. I can change it any time I want, pretty quickly. But, so little of it shows, I probably won’t bother.
The French doors were some I used in the studio at home, and I also had the wallpaper (of course) but struggled to figure out a quick, cheap way to get it up over the hole in the wall. Then, I noticed that I had pieces of poster board on my table at my work space, and thought I’d try using that, by glueing the paper to it and stapling it to the boards.
It seems fine. We will see if it holds up.
Now that I have committed to more space, I am slightly freaked out. Honestly, I love the venue, hanging with my pals, and decorating the space, but I do worry about the time and commitment of keeping the space filled throughout the winter when there are no garage sales. I hope to be able to make jewelry and some other creations, not just hunt and gather.
Please wish me luck. I think I could use a bit of my own good juju.
