Bonus -- Supersized Nature Window

Dandelions! (check out the sky background!)

So, we've had this dream to do a window with huge nature elements for a while -- specifically giant mushrooms.  It's finally happened!  Yay!

We always try to think of things a little differently for Liberty windows.  That's what we call the windows that coincide twice a year with the Liberty Antiques Festival in Liberty, North Carolina.  The mall gets tons of traffic during those weekends -- people from all over the southeast make the store an add-on to their Liberty trek -- so we like to make it count!  In Blackbird girl-ese, "we're doing the Liberty window" translates to "we're doing a super-crazy-quirky-oddball window."

Add to this the fact that Collector's Antique Mall is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and we knew the first Liberty window of the year had to be giant-sized, off-the-wall crazy.

Mushrooms and wooly worm (we call him Philbert)

This was a giant build for us.  We had to make soooo much time in our schedule to get the parts together, and then find room to store the ginormous pieces and parts.  The large mushroom cap started as a big umbrella, layered with papier mache, screen, tape, etc.  It's over 6 feet tall, with a span of probably 2 1/2 feet.  It was delicate, it was fussy, it was time-consuming -- but it ended up looking fantastic!

The worm is faux fur sewn into a tube, with a newspaper and wire armature inside.  We roughly taped off stripes and hit it with orange and yellow spray paint.  We used landscaping burlap on the walls to cover the peg board (mainly because it was natural looking, and well, we already had it!).  The "grass" was made from laminate flooring underlay we had leftover from our house.  It was a foam-y plastic material.  We spray painted it all different greens, using up odds and ends of paint we had leftover from different projects.  Once dry, it rolled up easily, and I cut freehand blades right before we installed them.

The sky was made from two thrift store white sheets, spray painted with pale blue paint.  We just kept the paint very splotchy and misty to mimic clouds.  Once installed under the lights, across the window, the sky just came alive!  I wish the photos could capture it -- it really looks like a blue sky!

The dandelions were a happy accident!  We knew we wanted to do some flowers, but what kind?  When we came across a box of 3000 drinking straws at a Goodwill for $3, it all fell into place.  The center of the puff is a decorative ball from a craft store, and the straws were hot glued to it.  Some of them were left as they were, and some were clipped to make a frilled tip.  The dandelion flower is a straw hat with layers of yellow crepe paper streamers, cut into petal shapes.  The stems are slim PVC pipes, covered with green crepe paper streamers.  For even more whimsy, we hung frilled straws from the sheet sky, to look like floating dandelion fluff!

In our window world, we imagined that someone would want to picnic under a giant mushroom, so we merchandised with springy, picnic themed items.  A vintage quilt in yellow and turquoise, combined with turquoise glassware, stacks of picnic baskets, and insect themed finds completed our dream.

What do you think?  We're really excited about it!  It's in the running to be considered our favorite window... AND we have 2500 straws left. Hmmm...

Junk Love Monday: The Big Ten

This week, we have decided to spill some secrets. When the Blackbird girls need a big junk fix, certain antique malls sing sweetly to us across the miles. We, of course, willingly answer the call, even if it involves hours of travel. It certainly helps that we are pretty centrally located, so beach and mountain shops are never out of the question. And, we have certainly scoured the state for those premier antique shopping experiences. So, here are our top 10 favorite antique malls in North Carolina. (We will later post our list for smaller shops, and out-of-state gems.) In no particular order, we introduce:

1. Screen Door, Asheville NC
      We love this store. It is a fairly recent find, and it pops up in conversation regularly. It is well-curated, with a lot of industrial, distressed, and elegantly re-purposed items, as well as great architectural pieces, antiques, and collectibles.
Visit their website: http://www.screendoorasheville.com/pages/faq.php

2. Oddfellows Antiques, Asheville NC
     Another favorite in the Asheville area. It has around 16,000 sq. feet of antiques, with a lot of furniture, stained glass, architectural items,  and things with a certain interesting "look." You can easily find a beaver top hat, 1930s trophies, leather books, or old store signage.
Go!: http://oddfellowsasheville.com/

3. Bryant Antiques, Asheville NC
     We drop a lot of dough at this place. There are a lot of dealers that cater to our wide list of collections, and the prices are reasonable. I once bought a large (around 20"x30") vintage pinup for $75--a steal, as it was in mint condition, and looks fantastic hanging in my house. Also, it is right beside Oddfellows, so we can park once and spend the whole day buying junk!
Their website is here: http://bryantantiquesbiltmore.com/

4. Sweeten Creek Antique Mall, Asheville NC
     This is another fairly recent discovery, and it is huge. The prices are great, also. We still lament that perfect little mid-century hutch--only $100, but not possible to fit in a Yaris! Le sigh....
Go!: http://www.sweetencreekantiques.com/

5. The Depot at Gibson Mill, Concord NC
      Very huge. The building used to be a functional mill, and has been upgraded with heat/air conditioning (important!). There is a large section geared toward decorators, with new upholstered furniture, fountains, fabric, etc. But, there is also a lot of square footage devoted to traditional antique vendors. We always find great things here, but plan on many hours of shopping to see it all.
Their website: http://depotgibsonmill.com/

6. Collector's Antique Mall, Asheboro NC
      We admit to some bias, because we both work here. However, we've both been customers for longer than that (and usually spend a fair share of our paychecks here). It is 35,000 square feet of antiques and collectibles, and tends to be on the regular migratory path of antique buyers from all over the South. Their website stinks, but here is the Facebook page:
Go!:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Collectors-Antique-Mall/321877306363

7. Antique Market Place, Greensboro NC
      This one is right off of I-40 West, and well worth a full afternoon. You can find anything from Victorian to Mid-Century, and there is a lot that is just neat to look at.
Their website is here: http://www.triadantiques.com/

8. Sleepy Poet, Charlotte NC
      They have a great vintage clothing section, a huge selection of vintage vinyl, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
Go!: http://sleepypoetstuff.com/

9. Sanford Antique Mall, Sanford NC
      My favorite purchase from here: a vintage cardboard movie advertisement (18"x24") for $45. They also have great kitchen collectibles, and a large selection of books.
Their website: http://sanfordantiquemall.com/

10. Smokey Park Antique Mall, Candler NC
     It's sort of in the middle of nowhere, but it's only 15 minutes past Asheville. Our favorite thing about this shop is that we always see versions of things that we've never seen before, if that makes sense. An example: we see a lot of vintage Santas here and there, but this place has a whole showcase of Santas that we've never seen in person at another shop, only in reference books. They are also good about calling dealers with offers on items. Just don't believe them if they tell you that they'll be open on Easter. Lies, I tell you!
Go!: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Smokey-Park-Antique-Mall/158177827547843

and, okay, we had to add another one:
11. The Salisbury Emporium, Salisbury NC
     In the historic Frick Building, right beside the old train station. The staff is very nice, the selection is great, and if you ever wanted anything to do with Cheerwine, this is the place for you. (Cheerwine comes from Salisbury!)
Go!: http://www.salisburyemporium.com/

Go and shop! The only way we get to enjoy our favorite places is if they stay in business!

Bonus: A New Window

The fall window is special because there are a lot of events in a two month span that will bring extra people downtown, and we want them to remember us. There is the Liberty Antiques Festival, the Fall Festival, the downtown Trick or Treat in the Park (which brought thousands of people out last year), and we usually get some extra shoppers during the High Point International Home Furnishings Market. This display has to be amazing, memorable, and able to transition us from the end of summer to the Christmas window (which usually goes up in November).

This window was supposed to be country primitive, because we haven't done that in a while. We made props at home, and started scouting for furniture, and...changed our minds. New idea, new scouting, new discussion, and...we changed our minds again. We got to the very day that the window was to be redone, and...changed our minds. Sometimes, an idea fades because a necessary piece sells at the last minute and there isn't enough support for our theme. This time, we just weren't in the mood.

If you read Friday's blog post, all about Edward Gorey, things will start to look familiar. Near the end of  our shift at the store, a stray comment was made along the lines of  "Wouldn't it be awesome to do a Gorey window," which transitioned into "How can we pull it off?" The last half hour of our on-the-clock time was a power brainstorming session, and then we were on our way to the store for supplies-- twenty dollars worth of foam core, black markers, and paper for the walls.

Back at the store, a significant amount of time was spent on the figures. We used actual Gorey illustrations, modified slightly, as our characters. We outlined them with pencil, filled in with black marker, and then cut the pieces with a utility knife (very tedious work). We assembled the pieces with packing tape and yardsticks for support, and, most importantly, gave them names: Zelda, Mona, and Edgar.

We had to turn the paper sideways so that the pattern would be correct, which meant that papering the pegboard was a two-person job...which meant that it took longer than usual. The black and white floor is leftover from the Alice window, but some of the tiles had fallen off and we had to reattach them. The curtain is just a piece of vintage black fabric, which by some miracle, is the exact dimension that we needed. All that was left was to bring down the blue sofa, chandelier, column, and a ton of gold mirrors.

This is when it's important to stop and think about the practicalities of installation. Nothing is worse than having to pull something out because you didn't think it through, especially since this was such a spontaneous idea in the first place. You measure the furniture to make sure it will fit. You think about tall things, heavy things, and delicate things. You think about placement. And so, we determined that the events absolutely had to happen in a particular order. We even wrote it down, as silly as that sounds, so that we wouldn't create extra problems for ourselves. First, the wallpaper. Second, the column and the figure in hiding. Third, hang the chandelier (which is lower than the column). Fourth, hang the mirrors. Fifth, lay the floor (so the ladder didn't gouge it). Then, the sofa and tea cart. Last, the figure of the man and the lady on the couch. It went off without a hitch. In fact, the prep work took 90% of our total window time, and the installation was pretty fast (except for the wallpaper).

We now have a scene that tells a story. Edgar has returned home to find Mona very upset. She has found his letters from his mistress, along with some ominous life insurance papers. Mona has no idea that Zelda is slipping into the shadows with a bottle of poison. (Zelda knows how to fix her problems, and Mona may not be long for this world.) A quick glance at the rug under the sofa hints that Mona has some secrets of her own....

 We have never done a window this spontaneously before, and I'm not sure that we'll do it again, but we. love. this. window. It is so Gorey, and so us. But the prep work was tedious. We worked all night, a total of 10.5 hours making the props and installing the pieces. I still need a nap.

Bonus: Yes, We Do Windows

You would think that our favorite part of working at an antique mall is all of the junk that we can buy and take home. Actually, the thing that we look forward to the most is working on the front window displays. We've been contributing to the windows for quite some time, but for the last two years we've allowed ourselves to branch out with our designs. Yes, there will be a display that mimics a Victorian sitting room, or a lady's boudoir, or an explorer/travel theme, but then you might walk up the sidewalk to discover an abstract, and very graphic, black, white, and blue display of vintage sign letters and glassware. We take inspiration from movies (our most recent Victorian display drew its inspiration from the new Sherlock Holmes movie), books, magazines, and other things that catch our attention. We like to make the window displays over the top, so that people stop on the sidewalk to take pictures, or even come inside just to tell us it's cool. That travel window? It had suitcases stacked ten feet high. And that pales in comparison to the "over the top" that we've been doing for the last year.

We, along with a co-worker who joined the top secret window team last summer, change the window displays 6 or 7 times a year. The longevity of a particular display depends on season, as well as the fact that feature items in our displays tend to sell. We replace them as quickly as we can, but there are only so many upholstered chairs or green vases to be had, and then it starts to look barren. We spend weeks, if not months, planning future displays. It is an obsession. We spend our own money; we do the windows off the clock; we start at night and stay until the wee hours of the morning, so that it seems like the work of little nocturnal elves. Sometimes, we spend hours upon hours at home preparing props, dyeing fabric, or engineering a new way to highlight a particular item.

Creativity is a requirement, because we are limited by what is in the store at any given time. You can't do a Mid-Century living room if there is no Mid-Century furniture in the store right now. If our vision is based on a wall of tightly packed portraits (which we did for Halloween one year--very creepy), then there had better be at least 30 portraits in the store. Some items are critical to the display, so we have to keep a Plan B handy in case one of those items sells. That bench is perfect! If somebody buys it, we had better know exactly what can replace it and still look cohesive with the rest of the display.

This post is intended to review the windows of the last twelve months, and our intention is to write a post for each new display from now on. So here is a recap, starting with late last July:

July/August 2011: Mid-Century Under the Sea window
A staggered, sculptural stack of Lane coffee tables in various sizes and shapes, covered with 1950s and 1960s pottery, & glassware. We covered the pegboard wall with strips of bubble wrap, painted on the reverse in different shades of blue, alternating in a random pattern. We dyed fabric in greens and blue-greens and made "seaweed" to hang from the ceiling (loosely based on an Anthropologie window that we had seen). We draped seaweed over and around the accessories, which were in blues and oranges. We made a Mid-Century style mobile with sleek orange fish and hung it from the ceiling. It was a huge hit. Unfortunately, no pictures survive.

September/October/early November 2011: Train Station window
We found a piece of brick-patterned paneling in the attic, and used it on the floor. We stacked two painted wooden tool boxes (six feet long) to make a bench. We rigged an old door across the nook with a vintage "tickets" sign, and put a small stack of suitcases beside it. A bonus discovery of a vintage painted "Pay Here" sign hung above the door.  Train lanterns and railroad signal lights hung on the walls, along with a beautiful vintage Railroad Crossing sign.

Christmas 2011: Country Christmas Kitchen window
Big tree, lots of ornaments, pine cones, berries, etc. A 1930s enamel gas stove, with red and green mixing bowls and spice containers on a shelf above. A rocking chair with a bowl of popcorn/cranberry garland spilling out. 1930s toys under the tree. Platters of cookies and bowls of cookie cutters.  But no pictures of it!

January 2012: The Alice Window
Without a doubt, the most famous window that the mall has ever had. We cut panels off of a big roll of white paper, and transcribed the Mad Hatter's tea party story in different sized letters, using different fonts, in black ink. We attached these to the pegboard wall. We put black and white tiles on the floor. A red velvet drapery hid the corner nook, and we made a 14" high golden-yellow door to put at the bottom. In front of this went a tiny dollhouse-sized table with a small key and a tiny glass bottle. The center of the window held a glass and chrome table covered with teacups and teapots. A yellow shelving unit held more cups, etc. Funky chairs surrounded the table, including a large gold wing chair. We sold the wing chair five days later, and replaced it with a cream one. That one sold less than a week later, and we replaced it again. That one sold within ten days, and marked the end of Alice's reign, as we didn't have any more chairs to put there. People still ask about this one. Pictures do survive of this window. Here's a sample, and the rest can be found on the Collector's Antique Mall Facebook page.

February/March 2012: A Photographer's Living Room
We gathered every panoramic photograph in the store and clustered them on the walls, and used a large Mid-Century hutch to hold more photos and vintage camera gear. A locally-made lamp using a vintage tripod and camera lit the display from the corner.



March/April/early May 2012: Is There A Doctor In the House?
Vintage medical posters, a doctor's cabinet, various medical tools and signage.

Doctor's window

late May/June/July 2012: the ROY window
Nothing but red, orange, and yellow from top to bottom. The unique feature was the orange fridge.  Definitely an eye-catcher.



August 2012: Asian Fusion window
We once again pulled out the giant roll of paper, cut it into panels, and painted Asian-style fish onto it. Parasols, fans, some figurines, a bamboo ladder, a Henredon silver chest, and various green and amber jars and accessories filled in around a bamboo-patterned Windsor chair. We used a bank of vintage post office boxes to mimic the feel of a Chinese apothecary cabinet. The Henredon chest sold fairly quickly, and has been replaced by a small Arts and Crafts style tapered bookcase.