Update On My Antique/Vintage Booth

I haven’t posted much about my antique/vintage booth in a while so I thought I would update you all on my booth business.

This space has been a fun creative outlet for me and a fun way to share ideas with you. My hope is that this post will inspire you to create beautiful spaces not only in your booth space but also your homes.

Watch Something I Haven’t Told You Here

The Beginnings Of My Antique/Vintage Booth

My love of upcycling thrifted items is what caused me to start looking for a booth space. In this post and also here I share some of the thrifted finds that I have upcycled.

When our daughter was born in 2003, I became a stay at home mom. I enjoyed it so much and a lot of my time was spent caring for her. We had our second daughter in 2006 and it was double the fun but it left very little time for myself.

Somewhere in that time period, I realized that I needed an outlet and discovered furniture painting. I started scouring thrift stores for discarded furniture and I would repaint it.

We had a small home and I quickly ran out of room to store the painted pieces.

I had an idea that I might could sell my painted pieces and make some money to support my habit. I tried Marketplace but that was a lot of work and didn’t work well for me.

One of my first projects was a painted and upcycled trunk, some old frames and a stool.

Wreath making was also something that I had tried and I wanted to try to sell those creations in my booth.

In the early days of my booth ownership , I had not learned staging.

I started looking for a space to rent and found out quickly that this was not an easy endeavor.

A lot of spaces were very expensive or there were no openings. I added my name to a few waiting list and decided to wait until a space became available.

I continued to search for a space for several months with no results. One day, I stumbled upon a store that had recently opened and was looking for vendors. It was a monthly rent that I could handle and it was near my home.

I showed the owner some upcycled items that I had created and wanted to sell and he decided to give me a chance.

I will always be grateful to him for giving me a chance at owning a booth space and for showing me the ropes of booth ownership.

Moving Into My New Booth

The day I moved in was so exciting for me. I was so nervous and excited for my new business venture.

I had painted the walls a nice creamy white and I was ready to add my inventory.

It is probably best to have plenty of merchandise when you first start a booth. Since I was brand new at this, I did not have a lot of inventory.

Invest In Display Pieces

I didn’t have a clue how to set things up. When I first moved into my booth, I didn’t have a lot of display pieces so I just sat things on the floor. Finding display pieces became a priority and I added fun pieces to display my inventory. These display pieces were always great sellers for me.

The first few months were a huge learning curve for me. I spent a lot of my time finding and adding new inventory to my booth.

Thankfully, I met a lot of people along the way that taught me the ropes and also taught me how to stage my booth. I will always regret selling that huge blue chinoiserie planter.

The Beginning Of My Antique/Vintage Booth

One of my favorite things about owning a booth was finding one of a kind items, creating a curated collection and staging them in my booth. I would add vignettes throughout my booth to show people how to use items in their homes.

My booth space was small but was so much fun for the creative in me to style and stage in a way that my customers loved and they were excited to see the “new look” with each season.

I loved decorating for all of the seasons, but Christmas was my favorite season of all. Christmas was also one of my biggest selling months.

One of my favorite booth designs for Christmas was this one when I built a mantle out of an old pallet. I added a piece of plywood that I painted with chalkboard paint and drew a fire scene onto it. My sister helped me decorate it with garland, lights and ribbons. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of the space.

Taking Your Booth To The Next Level

If you want to take your booth to the next level, learn how to stage a booth. I am a firm believer that if you stage a booth, it brings in more customers and keeps those customers coming back. Think of your booth space as a department store and treat it like a storefront window that will woo the customers into your booth. They may find a treasure to add to their home.

Staging An Antique/Vintage Booth

In my opinion, learning to stage a booth is a skill that will take your booth business to the next level. Staging was a learned skill for me and it allowed my customers to picture what my upcycled and found items would look like in their homes.

Staging also inspires your customers and keeps them coming back to shop in your booth space. You can see some different looks I created with my booth here.

Update On My Antique/Vintage Booth

Earlier this year, the vendors where I have my booth were told that booth rental would be increasing in October. Since so many vendors (including myself) had taken a hit with booth sales this year an increase was not what we wanted to hear. This news caused me to step back and decide if I wanted to continue with my booth.

Closing My Antique/Vintage Booth

In September 2022, I decided to close my booth space. I was not sure how I would feel about this decision since I had grown to love this little adventure of mine. However, when my husband and I went to move everything out of the booth, I felt such peace and it also took some pressure off of me. This was the right decision for me in this season of my life. For now, my plan is to to create more content for my YouTube channel and blog and I hope that you will stick around to see what happens from here.

What Led To The Decision To Close My Booth

As many of you know, our family moved into our new home almost a year ago. This move added more commute time to the booth. A trip that once took me about ten minutes was now an hour drive round trip. It was getting harder and harder for me to get to the booth to work and “fluff” my inventory. I was finding that it was harder to balance all of my responsibilities at home and keep up with the booth. This was a huge factor in my decision.

If you are in the booth business, then you know how essential it is to keep your booth fresh and “fluffed.” Being unable to get to the booth as often was also hurting my sales. It didn’t make sense to me to continue on with something that was not creating a decent income for me.

The second reason was the rate increase for booth rental. I could not justify spending so much time into a hobby that was only paying for my booth rental.

The third reason is so that I can spend more time creating content for my YouTube channel and my blog.

Future Plans For My Antique/Vintage Booth

I know that several of you follow me for my booth content and you love when I share a video on my YouTube channel. Rest assured this is not the end of my booth career. I have my feelers out and I am looking around at options and locations that are closer to me. At this point, I am not sure which direction I will be taking with my antique/vintage booth career but I plan to organize my inventory and prepare myself for the next adventure when it presents itself.

Until them, happy creating and I look forward to whatever is ahead!

Your Friend.

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