The Story of the Red Shed Saturday Spectacular Sale Aug. 23rd 2008

Our mascot, Well Read Red, welcomes you to the story of the Red Shed's Saturday Spectacular Sale!

Well, maybe he is not quite so well read......

First a little background. After two months of buying, collecting, sanding, painting, and reinventing, the Red Shed Girls finally have their plan in place. The Thursday evening before the Sale the movers arrive and we have them move almost every piece of furniture in both buildings and in the yards and gardens. Because they are "guys", they REALLY don't "get" why a piece of furniture that looked perfectly good in one room has to be moved to another! We don't care as long as they are strong and don't complain! (it takes 3 to 4 hours)

Thursday night into Friday is spent rearranging furniture and finishing projects, like the display that Michele J. and Jeannie were making to advertise the new "Runs With Scissors" Art Classes at the Red Shed. Also we spend hours hanging art and moving and displaying thousands of "smalls".

Here is the finished product!

Michele M. is finishing a fabulous chair and dresser!

The chair turned out great! See if you can find the dresser later in the blog!

Friday is spent decorating and re-merchandising 7 outdoor and 6 indoor "rooms". Imagine moving into a 3000 square foot house and doing all the moving and all the decorating in about 36 hours!

Rain or shine, sleep or no, (usually, no) at 8am Saturday morning the doors open, our dear shoppers arrive and the surprises begin!

The display in the area in front of the "real" Red Shed, featured pieces from our French Reinvented Chic Collection. An armoire with real lace panel inserts, a bed adorned with antique french letters, a dresser with vintage keys for drawer pulls, and Butt of course...our pants form decorated with French documents from an 1800s Corset factory.

Rounding the corner onto the patio, there was a wonderful black and wood pedestal table with iron chairs. The most important thing was the fresh baked chocolate chip cookies! Thank you, Marilyn McKechnie (Michele M's Mom). I bet those went faster than the antiques! (Which was pretty fast!)

The patio area continued to a dining room area with a great farm table, slip covered chairs, and an amazing bead board quilt/dish cabinet.

Other displays in the yard.....

The "Home Room" Back to School area was under the arbor. It included several vintage child's desks, vintage flash cards and posters, and a set of vintage lockers decoupaged with pages from a vintage children's French reader.



Into the Cottage, one room had this lovely display. Can you tell what is holding the books on the wall?

They are curtain tie backs! Aren't they great?


Another room had the fabulous curved iron french bed. The window above it is breathtaking. The pains are original wavy glass and they have all taken on a lavender hue!



This part of the room featured a huge three tier antique fountain and one of the best cafe sets we have found in a long time!

Here is one of the rooms in the Red Shed. The theme was Italian Market. It was done in blacks and wood with a touch of red. It was decorated throughout with lively Italian calendar prints (that we picked up in Florence several years ago) and clipped onto vintage hangers.

The other room in the Shed had the theme of "The Dogs of Paris" . It was totally Paris Chic and positively brimming with wonderful French dog prints.

Remember the Giant clock hands from a previous post? What did we use for numbers on the wall? Well, dogs of course!

(hint, there is the dresser Michele was painting. The knobs have been covered with vintage sheet music!)

Another room in the cottage was pretty in pink. Notice the powder pink garters on the lamp shade? Below is a close up of the new knobs we added to this to-die-for iron bed.

Hope you enjoyed just a very few of the many rooms of the Red Shed. In the next post we will show some close ups of some of the fabulous montages and displays that were in each room. We will also let you know what items we still have if you happened to miss the sale!

Thanks to our many friends who came to help. visit and shop! Below, Carol, Margo, Valarie, Michele M, Michele J..(We don't look too bad for 48 hours with no sleep!) Carol came from Oklahoma, Margo from Tyler. Thanks to Theresa who came all the way from Springfield, Mo and we had several ladies drive up from Houston. Thank you! We hope you had a great time at the Red Shed Saturday Spectacular Sale. Next Sale is October 25th.

You'll Cry Too if you Miss a Red Shed Postcard

It just occurred to us the all of you great out-of-towners, that love the Red Shed, even though you have never been here or met us, don't get to see the great postcards that we send out before each sale. Our customers say that they love them because they look so great on their refrigerator! Twice we have had customers call to say they were receiving two postcard because of name misspellings. They said they hated to call because they like having an extra to give to a friend, but they didn't want us to waste a stamp! What great customers and friends!
So here is August's Postcard and the last few months. Enjoy!

Unique Chic Antiques at the Red Shed Sale

Only three days until the Big Sale! Michele J is hammering, Michele M is painting and I am gluing. No, I don't know if gluing is a word, but all I know is I have glue in my fingernails, wedding ring and hair. I hope to do a little documentary over the next few day and exactly what goes into creating the Saturday Spectacular Sale at the Red Shed. I HAVE to try to take those Before, and during photos, so that you can really appreciate the AFTER. I'm sure the post will be called "It Always Gets WORSE before it gets Pretty"
In the mean time, here a few photos of some fun and interesting Uniques and Antiques that you will find a at the sale.
Gorgeous Vintage Angel
This fabulous serpentine dresser has antique keys for drawer pulls!

This armoire is not taking a great photo, but the doors have lace inset into the front panels. (I'm sure the bottom drawers will have pulls by the time the doors open for the sale!)

Here are some great corbels we smuggled into our carry-on luggage from Minneapolis. We have another great one from our trip to Upstate New York that has been made into a shelf. It not hung yet, so no photo, but trust me, Taci from Genevive's husband made it and it's adorable!
These GREAT BIG clock hands are very old and very wonderful! Just wait until you see what is going to be used for the numbers for the clock!
I love this old tea cart. It is just perfect shabby, and there are a million things that you could do with with it. Look at those fabulous wheels. Also the glass top comes off for a serving tray, so it's perfect to put your fun photos or documents underneath!

I don't know what to call this except, wonderful. How fabulous on your dressing table! (I bet it also gets some door knobs before the sale!)
Found these great pharmacy bottles in New York, they are from the 1800's I also found lots of great graphic old documents from the 1800s for you ephemra buffs.
Finally look at the great statuary, I'm pretty sure if that baby doesn't sell (what are the chances?) He's coming home with me!
Check back tomorrow and I will add more photos of items we are still unloading and finishing up.

Never a dull moment at the Red Shed!

Valarie