Opening Day

Today is opening day for my booth at Carriage House Antique Market here in Jackson, TN! Seth and I have put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into getting her ready.  Let me show you.

Here is what she looked like before:

An unpleasant green covered the walls and a very obtrusive rug hanging device was taking over the back wall.

Changing the paint color was first priority.  It took a TON of spackle to prepare the walls (and there are still multiple areas that are less than perfect).

The above pic gives you an idea of how many nail holes and defects were present on each wall. Spackling was a bit time consuming.  For our new paint color, we chose Valspar's Woodlawn Bedroom White for a nice, neutral backdrop.  (Keep reading for the reveal....)

As for the monstrosity on the back wall...the store owner removed the upper part of the rug hanging device, but did not remove the lower part as there was old shag carpet underneath that she did not want to expose.  So Seth and I came up with the idea of building a platform that we could slide over the lower part.

My apologies for the awful, grainy iPhone pic.  I didn't actually take a picture of the platform itself (in the progress of being built or otherwise) and so I had to crop it from another pic.

My first thought was to paint the platform the same color as the walls, but then it hit me that it would blend in better if it was the same color as the carpet.  With only our memories for color reference, we hit up Home Depot with the intent to purchase 1-2 sample pots or an "oops" container of paint to help conceal our platform.  Amazingly, we found a gallon of this light tan in the oops section for $9!  We grabbed it and ran.

We still weren't sure how close of a match it was going to be until we actually transported the platform over to the store and set it up.  Lo and behold, our oops gallon of paint came through for us.  (NOTE: We have quite a bit left, so if any of you are looking for the perfect dingy carpet shade let us know.  We'll hook you up.)

With the platform in place, it was time to load in our treasures.

Things went smoothly for the most part.  Until I attempted to install the shelves we custom built for the existing shelf brackets (visible on the angled walls on either side of the buffet/hutch in the photo above).  Turns out we had somehow measured wrong and our shelves were not going to work.  So...a late night trip to Lowe's for more supplies and we have started over.  I hope to have them installed and filled with artwork by Wednesday.

I'm working on some before and after posts of our "booth projects" for you, but if you're in the area, you should stop by and see the pieces for yourself!