Patio Umbrella as a Booth Anchor Piece

It's a good idea to have something fabulous in your booth to make it memorable and to create a wonderful first impression.  I have heard this type of item described as a booth anchor piece.    It's usually one fantastic piece of furniture, but sometimes it's a unique prop.  In this case, it's a patio umbrella.

This is the Faded Charm booth at the Farm Chicks show this past summer.  Even without the umbrella, you'd want to walk into this booth.  The set-up is very nice and most anyone who loves vintage would see something that would entice them in for a better look.  But the use of the umbrella brings the style perception of this booth up into the stratosphere!

I skimmed the comments on her post and plenty of them mentioned the umbrella.  Yep.  It's a showstopper.

After you read this post, I highly recommend checking out the full post - Faded Charm - The Farm Chicks Adventure.

On a similar note, A year or two ago, I was part of a team of five vendors who shared a theme booth.  Nicole was one of the very talented vendors in the team.  She and I worked together to create this fun vignette with a picnic table and clothes line she brought in.  Note the crows perched on top - it was a late September or early October vignette.  That vignette got so many compliments while it was up.  Unfortunately, both the table and the clothesline sold really fast.  That booth was fairly popular and it had to be reworked constantly.  That's a good problem to have.

This post will be categorized using the label, anchor pieces.  I feel certain that I will have plenty more posts in the future showing interesting anchor pieces.

One more idea with umbrellas - If you find one with a good frame, but the fabric is awful, you could re-do it with fabric strips like this one from Vintage Whites.

Color Grouping

Grouping by color is a tried and true booth display trick.

If you find that you have a number of things in the same color family, try putting them together in a vignette.  Every single thing in the display doesn't have to be in that color family.  There just needs to be enough of that color (usually paired with a neutral) to have an impact.

Amazingly, you can use shades of the same color that don't necessarily look great together, as long as you have many variations of that color.

I saw this first hand once when I was trying to find the perfect shade of green for my home decor.  I pulled together a number of things in my house with greens that I loved.  When I put just two greens together, they usually clashed. When I put lots of shades together, I noticed the grouping was very striking.

Here are a few color display groupings for inspiration -

Source - My Desert Cottage

Source - This isn't actually a booth, but it would look nice in a booth!

Source - I found this on Pinterest and unfortunately, the pin didn't go to the exact post.

Look for more color grouping examples on the Vintage Show Off Facebook page!

Track Your Mileage

Booth vendors often do a lot of driving.  Between hunting for treasures, going back and forth to the booth, and running here and there for supplies, the miles really add up.  At the end of the year, those miles are a tax deduction.  If you wait til the end of the year to think about it, there's no way you'd be able to come close to being accurate.

The easiest thing is to stick a notebook in your car and make just a few notes anytime you drive somewhere on a booth related errand.

My notebooks only had 3 columns as shown in the picture below.  You can total the mileage at the end of each month or at the end of the year.

Get started and let this be the year that you get a handle on keeping good records for your booth business!

What Color Should I Paint It?

Vendors are generally creative and adventurous.  When we paint furniture, it's far more fun to show our talent by choosing pretty colors, interesting paint techniques, and the hottest trends. You need to think twice when you paint something. That pretty, quirky look may satisfy your creative impulses, but it won't necessarily help your bottom line.

As much as it grieves me to say this, the larger the item and the more expensive and item, the more you should consider choosing a neutral paint color and a neutral paint technique. In the everyday vendor world, bland can be beautiful.  Hear me out on this before you dismiss it.

This chest sold the first day it was featured on Facebook.

When an average income customer comes to a store looking for say, a chest of drawers, they need a chest that will go with their decor... hopefully, for a long time.  The room accessories are most often where they add color and pizazz - not furniture.  Color choices come and go, but for many people, the chest they buy will be the chest they'll have to live with for a long time.  If they are decorating their room in blue and white, they probably won't get a chest that is blue, even if it's the perfect shade of blue.  They may get tired of blue in a year or two.  They don't want to be stuck.

White is different.  Customers can make a  white chest work with lots of color schemes.  Other neutrals are good as well - off white, taupe, gray or greige, even black.

This secretary sold the first day it was featured on Facebook.

When you paint a piece you're selling a neutral shade, you've expanded your potential purchasing group.  Say there are 50 people coming to your store in a given month looking specifically for a chest of drawers.  Many of those will be able to work a white or off white chest into their decor.  Only 1 or 2 will be able to use a chest that's turquoise... if you're lucky.  In fact, you may have to sit on a turquoise chest (even a beautiful one) for many months before the right customer sees it.

Put another way - How many people decorate their bedrooms in turquoise?  How many of those are looking for a chest?  How many of those are so in love with turquoise that they feel sure they'll stick with that color scheme for a long, long time - long enough to feel that buying a turquoise chest is a wise purchase?

If you want to have fun, choose a small piece for showing your creativity.  People don't mind spending money on a small versatile side table that's a bit adventurous.  Also, those small, fabulously painted tables will add pizazz to your booth while they are waiting to be sold.

This pretty red table sold within about a week of it being featured on the store Facebook page.  We've had chests and hutches painted a similar color that took months to sell.  The table was reasonably priced.  It's versatile and could be used in a number of rooms. And, if worse comes to worse, a customer wouldn't feel too bad giving it away if they tired of it in a few years.

As with almost all of my tips, there are exceptions.

There are always pieces painted in very UN-neutral colors that turn out so fabulous they sell super fast.  They are usually painted by very talented people who have a knack for choosing colors that leave customers gawking in awe.  I love color and am not afraid to buy something like that.  There are definitely other customers like me.

I see fabulous quirky pieces online that sell fast.  They are often presented by bloggers who have a big following.  They are marketed so well that the right customer will come to them faster than the typical vendor.  If you have a great following and you have a style that your customers love, keep it up.  If you are a small vendor struggling in a sea of other struggling vendors,  keep the large items neutral.  If you paint furniture very creatively, but the amount of time you have to wait for things to sell makes you sad, then maybe you need to rethink your paint strategy.  If you have a booth just for fun and the income is totally unimportant, paint all your furniture any way you want.  :-D

I promote for a fun antique mall.  I see what sells.  I see what doesn't.  All three of the photos on this post are items from that were in that store.   I love to estimate how long it might take for certain pieces to sell.  If there was a gambling ring set up around sales for antique malls, I would probably be banned from playing.  I'd win at least 80% of the time.  The other 20%?  There are always pieces that sell quickly that leave me flabbergasted.  If you aren't just in the booth business JUST for the fun, then increase your odds.  Use neutrals for large pieces.