After the recent Spring snow we had this weekend, I am so ready for Spring. Spring brings some of my favorite things…yard sales, flipflops, and longer days.
We updated our booth at Black Dog Salvage with more bright vibrant colors for Spring. Below is a preview of some of the one of a kind items we have available:
 |
Today I am taking the first step to a new, healthier lifestyle. I am at a point in my life where things start falling apart. The knees are getting weak and I am sure this extra weight I am carrying around is not helping and is probably causing a lot of internal damage that I do not know about yet. So I am going to make simple changes to my lifestyle…nothing too drastic because if I do, I will not stick with it. I will make changes in my diet and will exercise more. I know it will not be easy. After all, over the past 30 years, I have tried every new fad diet, only to fail and gain a few extra pounds. I am going to share my journey with you and I promise to be totally transparent. I will share my successes and my failures. I hope you will share your experiences and help to keep me on track.
I spend my days making things beautiful. I work on homes to get them ready for the market, I create websites, I photograph homes, and I paint and refurbish furniture and accessories…. now it is time I do a little work on me.
So let the journey begin…
Wanda Richards
Designing Pickers
 |
For as long as I can remember I have always loved painting furniture. Last year I decided to turn my hobby into a little business venture. I call it my retirement fund 
.
Yesterday was my daughter’s 21st birthday and I came across this photo that shows one of my early pieces. I found this little bench that I painted, stenciled, and recovered for my office. Dana’s little Pebbles hairdo is covering part of the stencil. She had so much hair that we came up with this little “do” to keep it out of her face….poor baby.
 |
We started this journey a little over a year ago as a creative way to enjoy a hobby…picking and painting and to rotate out staging inventory from our staging business Shows Great Home Staging. We had no idea how fast our little venture would take off and how much we would grow in one year. We were fortunate that our booth was located at Black Dog Salvage (home of the hit new reality show Salvage Dawgs) where people from all over the country stop in the tour this amazing place.
Our First Booth – November 2011.
In January 2012 we updated the booth with black, silver, and red.
We spent January and February Picking and Painting and were ready to move to a larger space.
The booth sold out quickly and it was time to restock. We moved to a larger space and stocked the booth for summer.
Sold out and restocked again a few weeks later…
By August we had moved again to a more visible space right beside the Annie Sloan paints.
Ready for the Holiday…
Next week we will begin a new year at Designing Pickers. Lots more picking, painting, and new stuff for the booth. This first year has been a wild ride… we have had some fun, met some nice people, and learned a lot. We are looking forward to 2013 and we hope to see you along the way. Happy New Year from Designing Pickers!
 |
It has been a while since I have written a blog post and I really need to get better at this but this summer has been crazy busy. We have moved the booth 3 times, to new bigger, more visible locations at Black Dog Salvage. It has been amazing at how great business has been during out first year of business. We have a hard time keeping the booth stocked because things are going out as fast as we move them in, but that is a good thing.
This has been a busy week. I have painted the booth a great color called Ocean Storm. It works well to show up our Fall and Winter merchandise we have planned for the booth. I have found a new way to “pick” from my home by searching online auctions. My friend, Tommy Wagner has one of the best sites around. Check out Tommy Wagner Auctions for lots of great stuff. I purchased some great decorating accessories this week from his latest auction. I have been doing a lot of picking this week and have found some really cool items for painting. Now to just find the time to paint…that is the real problem because our staging business has been busier this year than ever.
Check out our new booth… we would to hear your comments.
 |
Living in the South, we love our porches. A place to swing, dream, read, talk to friends, and enjoy a glass of wine or lemonade. If you are selling a home with a porch, stage your porch. Add furniture and plants to add value to your porch and add more living space.
 |
We have used this small side table for several years in our staging business but after lots of moving, it had a few scratches on top and was ready to be retired. Instead I painted it with Annie Sloan’s Providence, distressed the edges and now it has a fresh new look in another staged home.
Before:
We put it in the Designing Pickers booth at Black Dog Salvage last month but it did not sell so it went back to the warehouse.
After:
It now provides a much needed pop of color in one of the Shows Great Staged Homes for sale but it will be for sale soon…so watch for it at Designing Pickers.
 |
We had a busy day at the booth last weekend and we sold just about everything in the booth. Yesterday we added new merchandise including this really sweet farm table and 4 chairs. The table can be sold with or without the chairs.
 |
Well…we moved just a few feet to a larger space to accommodate our new pickins. We hope you still stop by the Designing Pickers booth at Black Dog Salvage to see all the new things we have added for Spring.
We have items from our real estate staging (Shows Great Home Staging) inventory like the chocolate brown sofa from Ashley Furniture, and assortment of throw pillows for just $4.00 each to some great painted pieces, like the black and white chest, soft blue/green coffee table and end tables, and chest and night stand. We have pickins like the antique 1850′s chest, vintage trucks, moonshine jug, and vintage luggage and much more.
We have lots more stuff to add as soon as we make more room.
 |
A few weeks ago while photographing in Rustburg, I picked up a really cool chair, which although it was looking a bit worn and outdated, it was in great shape. The cushion was in good condition and after a thorough cleaning I decided to just leave the pink velvet and work around it with a silver paint application. I used Valspar Metallic paint and was very happy with the outcome although it took several applications to cover.
We will be adding the chair to our booth today.
Chair Before
Chair After
 |
