Flea Market Trends

I've been busy searching for vintage and antique pieces for our Etsy store and the Strange Folk festival. So, when I saw Etsy's recent shopping guide featuring flea market trends, I was happy to see that my recent purchases are right on track.

I've found some great vintage trunks lately. 

The bottom one is pretty big. We're thinking of adding castors and making it into a rolling storage trunk or even a coffee table. It has this great sticker on the top, from a transatlantic cruise it took in 1965. How great is this?

Then there's this heavy little guy. The tag said it was an antique dentist box.

It has cute little knobs and drawers. With a little cleaning up, I thought it would make a unique jewelry box. Or, maybe a great place to stash desk supplies? I have a feeling I'll have a hard time parting with this!

The article also featured antique telegraph insulators...which we're already offering in our store. We're keeping one of these for our kitchen and I'm hoping Jeff will be installing it soon. I just love the color!

I'm still on the hunt for the perfect letterpress drawer to turn into a jewelry display. And, there's a set of antlers that I've also had my eye on, too.

How about you? What are some of your favorite vintage trends that are out there?

5 Tips on Selecting a Door for a Table

One of our favorite places to go hunting for old doors and windows is Cherokee Street. Known as Antique Row, it offers store after store filled with antiques, architectural pieces, vintage clothing and jewelry...and much more.

One of our first stops is at Riverside Architectural Antiques. This is a typical scene of what we dig through.

The Painted Cow is also a great place to find one-of-a-kind items...

Over time, we've learned what to look for when selecting doors that will ultimately become tables. A couple things we consider:

1. What do you want the finished table to look like? Our tables range from those with a more finished look (complete with table skirt and glass to even it out), to simply a table on legs. Whatever look you are going for, think about how you will put it all together and will the door work with your plan?
2. Symmetry: Depending on the look you are going for and the tools available, take a close look to see if the door is symmetrical. Alot of the time, the bottom rail is wider than the top. If this is something you are concerned about, you'll need the proper tools to even it out.
3. If you plan on going with a stained top, does the door need to be stripped? This process can take up alot of your time. You can find doors that have already been stripped (or, the store might offer it for a fee), but you usually will pay more for these doors. If you love the chippy paint on the door, then this isn't an issue!
   
4. Sturdiness: Think about how you want the finished product to look. Will you have a large piece of glass on the top, like this table? Or, if there are smaller panels, will it be more like this table? If you don't care for an even surface, knock on the panels to make sure they are sturdy. We opted to not put glass on this table. The panels are thick and can stand to have vases, books, etc. placed on them.
5. For me, the older and chippier a door, the better. However, as we have been leveling the symmetry on older doors or removing rusty nails, doors have cracked and chipped apart. Pay attention to the quirky details you love in the door...will they end up causing you more problems as you are putting your piece together?

There's one other thing Cherokee Street is known for...its Mexican food. As we all know, antiqing is hard work!

Craft Fairs, Business Planning and Pretzels - Oh, My!

What a week! Not only were we selected to show at the Strange Folk Festival, but we also made the cut for Handmade Happy Hour, as well as approached for several other potential business opportunities. By Friday, our heads were swimming and it was clear we needed one thing: a business planning lunch.

We chose Perennial Artisan Ales for its inspiring atmosphere, tasty food. Oh...and they have good beer.

We have alot to do before the Sept. 29th Strange Folk Fest -- we started mapping out our space and figuring out how much merch we'll need. Since we are limited to a 10 ft x 10 ft space, we can only feature so many of our tables.  For the most part, Jeff will be focusing on those (although, I'll be apprenticing these next couple of months). I'm in charge of filling the rest of the space with delicious home goods. And, I'm not talking the baked variety.

We'll be holding off on offering any of these in our Etsy store, as we will be stockpiling them for the festival. Don't worry...what doesn't sell there will be offered in our store! Here's a peek of what I've been working on:

Vintage Grain Sack Pillow (small)

 Vintage Grain Sack Pillow (large)

Sewn Notecards

Burlap Pillow

Stay tuned...we plan on offering a wide variety of vintage and handmade items for your home. We're loving every finished piece and we hope you do, too!

Telegraph Insulator Lights

A few months ago, we bought several of these blue antique insulators to decorate our mantle. Jeff's always been drawn to them and they added an interesting element to our typically coastal decor.

Then we saw these in Napa Style -- selling for upwards of $100. knew they would make the perfect addition to the Etsy store!

Visit our store here to see what's available. We have many shapes and sizes...and will give discounts if you buy two or more!

New Items Coming Soon!

We've been out hunting for new pieces lately...I'm really excited about what we have coming soon! I think my favorite is the old, chippy door:

Or, maybe this long piece. It's going to make a great entryway or sofa table!

You can always see what's coming up  by clicking on the Coming Soon tab on the blog. We're also happy to do custom orders and requests. Just send me an email at info@reddoorfurnitureco.com.

New Sofa Table Update

The blog has gotten off slower than I anticipated...but, we are working away, I swear! We'll be listing our next table on Etsy soon (just waiting for the glass to come in). We found the door for this table at Fellenz Antiques on Euclid. It's one of our favorite places. It is packed to the ceiling with architectural items. Here's Jeff looking a little intimidated....

The three rectangular sections add such an interesting element...I loved it right away!

Before

After

 

This was a combined effort. Jeff refinished the door and handmade the legs and trim. Once it was stained, I painted and distressed the legs.

The color is beautiful...a lovely dark brown.

 What do you think? We would love to hear your thoughts.

Next on the list is this door. Hoping to have a productive weekend so we can share more photos!

First Sales!

So, our etsy store has been open for just over a month and we are excited to have already sold several items. Most notably, our first sale was this table:

Since these tables are our signature item, we were thrilled that someone liked it as much as we did. It had many cute features...like this little key hole:

We're busy working on adding more tables to the store. Here's a peek at what's coming up:

I think they are going to make great tables. The first photo is of just a section of a door. It's very thick and sturdy. We're thinking of making it into a small coffee table. The bottom photo is also a section of a door. I loved the detail in the woodwork -- it's going to be a sofa table. 

 More to come soon...including our favorite places to find materials, how we build tables and {my favorite} marketing and packaging!

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog Behind the Red Door — a peek behind the scenes of our newest adventure, the Red Door Furniture Co. Thanks for stopping by! We’ll use this space as we refinish and build our pieces and share our hunts for local architectural treasures and DIY techniques.