Part 1: How to create an antique booth in just 3 days!!!

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"Anything One man can imagine, other men can make real."

Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days

Hello Everyone!

I'm so glad you could stop by today!

I wanted to share with you what I have been doing the last few weeks! If you read my previous post, I explained that I had been contacted by one of my favorite antique stores in Northwest Arkansas! They told me that they had a space available for me; which happened to be on a Tuesday morning. I was so excited for the opportunity!

If I could get the booth ready by Friday or Saturday, it would be in time for big "War Eagle Craft Fair & Antique show" that weekend! (Yep! That gave me 3 days!)

I went home that afternoon and actually thought about it all day. I made some lists and stressed a little (I mean, a lot!) on how I was going to get it all done in such a small time frame. (yeah, I know I lost part of a day there but....)

At 5:30 Wednesday morning, I had made up my mind! I had my plans in my head and decided to go for it! My thought process was If I didn't get done, then I didn't get done, but if I didn't start; I wasn't getting anywhere!

I knew that I definitely wanted to have a space in that antique store! The antique store is called "Daisies & Olives", located in Prairie Grove, Arkansas. You can find them online at www.daisiesandolives.com.

Now, I will tell you that prior to this event and this blog, I had a small shop that I operated with a friend, which we had decided to close recently. Because I still had several pieces of painted furniture and some hand-made and retail merchandise; I was able to put this together more quickly. Even then, there was a great deal to do and you will see that I re-painted one of my pieces because I thought it needed a different look.

(I do this often enough. LOL!)

Here is the before and after pic of the writing desk I painted on Wednesday!

I love the changes and it coordinated better with what I already had to go into the booth and my PLANS!

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The top pic is the before when the desk was painted cream on top and a mint/sage green for the body and legs. It was pretty but it didn't really match anymore what I had in mind for the booth.

I painted it a nice soft light/blue gray with a white drawer and replaced the hardware from a cameo to a enamel clock drawer pull in white.

Next, I made a few accessories that I needed to accessorize the space.

This topiary was an easy craft. I already had the moss, the form (that I got from Save on Crafts online store) and the pot. I painted the pot the same blue/gray as the desk, stuck the topiary form in it, then cut and glued a moss piece to cover the form. The moss for the topiary was a loose moss that I pieced on in sections to make it look more natural by hot glueing it to the form ball.

Ta-da!

The dry erase plate was also easy and fun. You can find a tutorial in a previous blog post if you are interested to see how I did it!

Next, I needed to make a sign for the booth. There was a space above the shelf along the back wall that I thought would be perfect for the sign. I already had the frame but needed to cut a gypsum board for the insert, paint it and stencil and paint on my logo! I will have a tutorial and a link for you later to show you my method for making this sign, but for now here is a pic of the finished product. This was probably the most time comsuming project outside of building the side walls; which I will show you!

The next thing I did was create my tags. The tags at the store needed to be two parts: One , with the item description, to tear off when the item was purchased and Two, the logo tag that would stay with the purchaser!

I did these on my computer and here is how they turned out! Unfortunately, I did not get a pic of the item description tag but it was the same shape and color, so you get the idea! I used baker's twine to attach the tag!

Making the Side Walls:

Here is what the blank canvas looked like before we started! We needed to create a space to match up all three sides as well as create some space for hanging merchandise and making display vignettes!

This is the left side of the booth. For this side we decided to build two small wall panels and attach them to make a vignette. We did this mainly because it was getting too expensive. I used gray burlap to create curtains on either side of the two side walls. Fabric was $14 for what I needed; as opposed to another $50 to build two more walls. It also added some softness and dimension to the space to keep it interesting.

This is the right side of the booth. We created 8 ft wall sections to cover the entire side. There were a total of 4 smaller sections that were attached to the existing 2 x 4 to cover the entire space here.

This is the back wall! Look at those really cool tall ceilings! We painted this cottage bead board wall a medium gray to match the walls we built.

My husband measured the space on Wednesday; something I had forgotten to do on Tuesday when I was there. We needed the exact measurements to build the walls for the sides of the booth. He made a special trip on his lunch hour, as the town of Prairie Grove is about 35 min from our home! A big "Thank you" to him for that !!!!!!

We built the walls Friday morning! It took us several hours but we bought the supplies Wed night and had the measurements for them to be cut so the pieces could be assembled at home later.

( Plus, we needed to be able to fit them in our car !) ;)

Here is what they looked like being assembled. I should mention that Garrett also stained all the boards for me Thursday night! It was late when he was done so he is quite the trooper and I couldn't have possibly done it all in time without his help!

I had to get a pic of the hubs in here! It was also his day off on Friday when he spent from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. with me building the walls, moving and hauling everything (making several trips) and being patient with me for taking FOREVER (lol) to arrange the booth just soooooooo!

Here is what the walls look like assembled:

The top pic is of the two 7ft walls that go on the left side of the booth. The bottom picture is 2 out of 4-8 ft walls that will form the right side wall in the space.

I was starting to feel like we would make it at this point! Woo hoo!

After the walls were built, we loaded the truck and Garrett's car to the max and headed to Prairie Grove to paint and install the walls! Once the walls and painting were done, we were ready to move everything into the booth, arrange and tag it!

Here is a sneak peak into Part 2 of this post to see the end results!

My daughter Emily, who also had the day off from school, helped us all day! A big "Thank you" to her too for helping! She was there with us until about 7:45 p.m. on Friday!

She painted and helped make the curtains and arrange and haul furniture! ;0) I'm so grateful for my family's support! My son even came by that evening after his classes and helped us too! He climbed this big ladder, and being 6 ft 4", was able to reach the rafters to help hang the big rusted lantern!