Pro Tips on Selling at an Antique Mall from Vintage Rescue Squad

Sue's booth (left) at the Leesburg Antique Mall in Leesburg, VA and my booth (right) at Edgewater Antique Mall in Chicago.I scored a booth for my vintage business, BackGarage, at the Edgewater Antique Mall last November. Selling Mid-century furnishings at an antique mall has been sort of a life goal of mine since I discovered the Broadway Antique Market at age 20. Now I'm like, "Hey, it's my stuff in there!" Which is cool. But it's also way harder than I thought it was going to be. And I already sort of knew it would be harder than I thought. Some weeks sales are great, some weeks sales are meh. Some stuff flies off the shelves, other stuff ends up rotting in the corner and embarrassing me. And I have to keep it up! A lot! Browsing customers are equivalent to herds of wildebeests, basically.

So to help with my newbie questions -- and to keep them from becoming doomsday frustrations -- I contacted Sue, who writes the fantastic DC-based junking blog Vintage Rescue Squad. She literally wrote the book on selling in an antique mall (seriously, her book is called Selling in an Antique Mall: A Beginner's Guide) and she's got lots of great booth tips and advice on her blog. I thought she'd have some much-needed sage advice for me, so I picked her brain on the ins and outs of mall boothing.

TVB: How many booths do you have and how long have you had them?

S: Right now, just one large booth. In the past, I've had two at a time, but it wasn't working out. I've been in my current space for three years, but have had booths for over five years.

What kind of stuff do you sell in the booths? Does it fit in well with the rest of the stuff in the mall?

I specialize -- if you can call it that -- in '30s and '40s merchandise, but it can vary. I started out with the girly shabby-chic granny stuff, but my heart wasn't in it, and it went out of favor in our area. Right now, it's more vintage industrial, schoolroom, and mantiques. I'm not sure it fits in with the rest of the mall, which is more traditional, but it's working!

Did you have to be selective about what mall you sold at so it matched the kind of merch you sell?

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52 Pilgrim Baby Names Ripe for Resurgence

Hey, Dorcas? Is that a baby bump? Vintage Pilgrim postcard from Vintage Plum.

Last week we listed off 108 of the hottest baby names from the 1880s. This week we're digging deeper into the American baby name vault and coming up with 52 baby names from good ol' Pilgrim times!

Here are some our favorite monikers of the Mayflower: 

GIRLS --

Remember, Patience, Humility, Constance, Desire, Thomasin, Hester, Millicent, Mabel, Priscilla, Cecily, Clemence, Dorcas, Ursula, Florence, Prudence, Charity, Fortune, Philippa, Susanna, Damaris, Rose, Mercy, Sincere, Verity

BOYS --

Fear, Oceanus, Wrestling, Damaris, Degory, Humphrey, Clement, Giles, Roland, Ellis, Cuthbert, Arthur, Bartholomew, Degory, Elias, Gilbert, Giles, Henry, James, Jasper, Love, Moses, Myles, Peregrine, Resolved, Solomon, Lowell

Inspiration Folder: An Overboard Valentine's Picnic for Two

True love isn't always fancy or easy like in the movies. Some of us have to balance kids, work, friendships, illness, litter boxes, etc. in addition to the schmoopy. But at the end of the day, it's all about loving your partner through the dull stuff, the fun stuff, and the difficult stuff. So, let's reflect on that with a lovely "Valentine's Day picnic for two" collage based on the #1 romantic movie of all time Overboard. 

Style inspiration from some movie stills!

Nautical details.

Real '80s to the max. 

Collage reveal after the jump.

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'80s Commercials I Still Love to Hate

It happens at least once a week. It's morning. I'm in the shower, still groggy. I reach for the soap and feel compelled to sniff it vigorously... for one reason and one reason alone: the 1986 Coast commercial. Damn you, Coast! After 26 years you're still plauging me with your musical insistance that "the scent opens your eyes"!

What I realize is that during the course of any given week, advertising jingles, catch phrases and commercial moments ("Peter!") from my childhood permeate my thoughts. To this day, I still love to hate -- and hate to love -- their permanent hold on my subconscious. Here are 7 commercials from the '80s that I still think about, for better or worse, to this day.

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16 Essentials for DIY Wood Refinishing

Check out what this table looked like after -- here.

I've talked before about attempting your own wood refinishing projects and how satisfying it can be to find an ugly piece of wood furniture from a thrift store and turn it into something marvelous for your living space. For those of you trying to knock those DIY projects off your to-do list in the new year, here's a list of 16 essentials you'll need to turn your your garage, basement or living room (ill-advised but sometimes necessary) into a handy home wood refinishing workshop.

The good news is? You can pick most of this stuff up second hand from estate sales. Just make a beeline for garages and basements!

• plastic tarps
• 5 gallon bucket
• old paint brushes
• old rags
• sponge paint brushes
• wood glue
• wood stripper
• scrapers
• scrub brushes
• varnish
• wood stripper
• mineral spirits
• sandpaper (fine grit)
• tack cloth
• latex stripping gloves
• steel wool

If you've got these stashed away together in a plastic bin, or stored neatly in your garage or basement, you can start on your DIY furniture refinishing projects in a jiffy. And we all know starting is half the battle.

Want more tips on how to strip and varnish wood tables? Watch this.