About four months ago, one of my customers came to the shop and told me I had to sell down at the Irvine Antique Market. I hadn’t been to that flea market. I thought I had heard of all the Southern California swap meets so my interest was piqued since I had never heard of nor had been to Irvine.
I broached the subject with my friend Michelle who sells the Image Transfer art and my other friend Mike who does antiques in OC and asked if they’d be interested in going down with me as vendors. We set out in January to scope out the event to see if it would be worth our time.
The view alone was worth our time!
I fell in love with Irvine. It is relaxed. It is small…but not too small. Not so overwhelming as the Rose Bowl and not nearly as much competition or crowds. I liked the vendors. Friendly and down to earth.
There are enough vendors and people to make it worth our time, but not so many to overwhelm me in this venture. And the big bonus…it’s free…yep….FREE. Free parking, free admittance. The first time we went I was looking for a ticket booth and was spooked out by just “crossing” the imaginary line from the parking lot to the shopping area.
Prepping for this event is an event in and of itself. My initial plan was to liquidate old inventory. What better way to refresh the store than get rid of the old stuff. So, I mentally tagged everything that I would be taking from the shop so that I could plan for its replacement. Except, all but one piece sold last week. So, going into the weekend I entered scramble mode.
Fortunately, I didn’t have a shortage of furniture since I just brought an entire truck load from my recent picking adventure on the Central Coast.
On Sunday afternoon, I pulled out one piece at a time and just started painting…
…and stripping and staining…
…and lots and lots of mixing milk paint and combining colors.
By Wednesday afternoon, I had a mini workshop set up on the bed of the truck and seven pieces of antique furniture lining my driveway, painted, chipped and waxed (my neighbors are very understanding)!
Almost all of the furniture I’m taking is painted in a variety of Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint colors or combination of colors and I’m taking a box full of Milk Paint to sell down there, too. Who knows…maybe I will create some milk paint enthusiasts over the weekend!
I spent the whole day today making smaller things to take with me.
About half a dozen window pane chalkboards painted in various shades of blues, reds and browns!
I also worked on re-purposing some dresser drawers and love the look.
Tomorrow I am organizing some new stock of hardware and hooks to take with me and replenish the store supply.
And yet, I still don’t feel ready for Sunday. Perhaps, it’s the thought of waking up at 3:30 am…who is ever ready to do that!?
Thinking about paying us a visit on Sunday?
Here’s the info:
Irvine Antique Market at Irvine Great Park in Irvine, California
7:00am to 2:00 pm
Take the 5 Freeway (south from Glendora)
Exit Sand Canyon and turn left.
Turn right at the first street under the freeway (Market St. I think) and follow the signs.
