Odana Antiques Madison--Next Phase

One of our earlier posts introduced you to our selling space at Odana Antiques on Odana Road on the west side of Madison Wisconsin.  This has become the premier selling location in Madison since many of the other shops have gone out of business or have turned into dreck filled storehouses.  We have been selling there for several years now--and last winter the opportunity came up for a fabulous prime spot--and we jumped at it.

My parents live in Madison--so we are there often--and it is not a hardship to sell antiques in that city.  We have never had the luxury of selling in a shop local to our home--and to sell in this fine shop felt like a good fit.

Our space is large.  Wide and narrowish--a gallery space--which is just what we love.  The space has lots of wall space and much natural as well as spot lighting.  Perfect.

Dear Husbola is a mighty smart man.  He has actually developed quite an eye for layout--and frequently designs our show selling spaces.  He very quietly but repeatedly spoke to me about our new space--and suggested we go for the "spare" look.  Not the "jammed within an inch of its life" look that so many antique center spaces have.  He suggested that we go for several vignettes, including art work spaced sparely so that people could really see the forest from the trees of each piece.  He designed an idea where art work could be walked up to as well as furniture pairings and color coordination in the vignettes.  As a compromise--I requested a "garden area" where I would put an ever changing collections of furniture and smalls suitable for a cottage look or garden room or porch.  Then we set about putting it into motion.

Oh my.  We have had the space for one month.  We have made three trips to Madison in one month.  Knock on wood--we are sellinglikecrazy.  We have sold more in one month than in any time I can remember.  Now--antique dealers among you--yes, we are familiar with the "honeymoon syndrome" that all dealers get when they are new to a shop or space.  That would hold here--IF--we were not also selling things we have had for a long time--as well as some new things.

So says Crow Eating Beth to Dear Husbola--it is working.  Spare is more.  A table by itself--WITH NOTHING ON TOP OF IT is not a crime.  A wall with one large piece of artwork--not 50 little bits of whatever--sells the one piece of artwork.  A birdbath "we have had forever" sells when you fill it with old doorknobs and it is standing by itself.

If truth be told--we had a gangbusters show in February at the Northern Illinois Antique Dealers Association show is Rockford when we did the spare look.

Time will tell if the trend continues.  NO trend in the antiques trade continues forever.  To be continued...