Panoply Booths Displays: Fall Transitions

Whew, the leaves may not have started falling yet, but it's been a whirlwind of activity in our Panoply booth displays lately! You may want to go back to this blog post and have a look-see for a refresher on where I left you with our last displays of summer before you continue....

Now, let's jump to where we are currently, with our Panoply fall 2018 displays.

Pictured below is our sports-themed, mantiques area.

You may recognize many of the items in this display mentioned in my last post.

The area below is directly across the aisle from the mantiques section. It's styled with many fall-themed items on and below the wallpaper hanger's table, as well as several harvest farm tools on the wall behind it.

A shutter and shelf unit divides the fall / farm area from yet another vignette, where we have just finished an apothecary-themed display.

We three Panoply sisters found out just how many elixirs and other medical paraphernalia we had in our stash when we readied and unwrapped things for this area.

Detail of items within the cubby shelves of the various units of display are pictured as a collage, below. Of particular note in the bottom, right hand corner of the collage is an original prescription for whiskey during Prohibition, dated February 23, 1928. Also notable, although faded, is another original prescription, handwritten with the date of October 31, 1892.

On the floor in front of the apothecary smalls, we styled a small desk area with typewriter stand and two antique chairs and vintage office supplies, mimicking a consultation of doctor or pharmacist with patient.

The view of our booth spaces from the stairway, below, shows the apothecary, the fall and farm section beyond (with the shutter and shelf divider between), and the sports-themed mantiques in the background.

What we call our primary booth space - our original space rented - still retains a bit of romantic, refined, and Victorian appeal. If you will notice, there is a LOT of furniture absent in this booth as compared to our summer styling. I'll come back to that shortly.

First, let me show you a couple other transitional displays we made in August in anticipation of fall. The big red truck was a piece I was fostering at home and let go. It sold within days.

We also set up a back-to-school vignette. It was dismantled, and several of the smalls became part of other vignettes.

We also set up a Grim Reaper behind our main booth, near the service elevator.

The reason for much of the furniture absent from all of our booth spaces, particularly the main booth, is we have made a conscious decision to stop pursuing furniture for resale. There are several reasons: 1) it's pricey insofar as rental space it consumes, 2) many other dealers in our mall sell furniture (competition), 3) furniture is too hard to haul for the return it renders, 4) no one wants to pay anything for 'brown' wood furniture because the majority want to paint what brown furniture they do buy (and they want it dirt cheap).

So, pictured below are ten items we sold - dirt cheap - just to purge the furniture (clockwise, starting top L): farm hutch and enamel table, reupholstered antique rocker, china hutch, matching sideboard to hutch, chest of drawers, wicker cart and folding rocker, washstand, and Baker coffee table.

Other furniture which sold without the extensive markdowns this summer include the heavy wood, claw foot and ball chair, work table & metal stool, and garden swing.

You probably now understand much more clearly my opening statement that it's been a whirlwind of activity lately with Panoply. Shopping, hauling, organizing, pricing, moving and styling are all very time-consuming activities related to selling antique and vintage items. All that furniture we sold was used for display, too, so now we are faced with resolving how we will maintain our displays going forward. We know we don't want to handle anything bigger than we are. 😉

We just celebrated our 10th anniversary of styling and selling in the South Charleston Antique Mall this summer, and don't see ourselves quitting anytime soon! Panoply booths are located on the first floor of the South Charleston Antique Mall, 617 D Street, South Charleston, WV. It's an easy on/off of WV I-64, Exit 56. We hope you'll stop if you're traveling through Charleston, WV on I-64, I-77 or I-79, all of which converge in Charleston, WV.

Thanks so much for your readership. Your comments are always welcome! And for anyone in the path of Florence, my heartfelt thoughts are with you in that you will find the energy and stamina to salvage and rebuild in its aftermath.

Rita C. at Panoply

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