How big is the booth? Black & white is good but to add "POP' have another color as accent such as lemon yellow antique roses to place around. Does it have shelves? If everything is flat on a wall you need some cutouts with some color such as sm.Victorian. Maybe cut pics of covers of magazines from thrift shop. Hot cars, saiboat in bay,Paris St. etc. but something to break up the bk/wh look. People have to envision the frames in their homes. Having pics in some will help but are they all bl/wh photos? Say a wall 5 ft tall 8 ft long would need about 5 -7 bits of color. Attach cutouts. Would be better to have some shelves as some folks do not have much wall space so few pics could grace a shelf or small table with cloth that is very "in" color. A lamp in keeping with style you choose puts light on pics & is nice if allowed. Tablecloth can be fabric sq. that is folded under at bottom & pinned on in back so looks like a draped cloth. GF & I had booth 5 ft high x 8 ft wide & 8 ft deep. You have to "grab" people's attention so need a little bling. We were selling antiques & her handmade things. We did quite well but then they sold the building. If you have couple of shelves (could be store bought) add cloth, doily, small vase with high quality silk flower ,something that spells home, on another wall maybe more formal look,small book, couple of keys with decorative look. Look at magazines, other booths etc. Just frames on flat walls won't get you the sales that you'll get if the booth has personality & don't forget the floor, is it tile, carpet etc. It needs to look good with the rest. After all this is done you must keep everything clean & sparkling, dust & blurry glass in frames says things arn't going well or sloppy space sloppy work on frames. You want your booth to be a "knockout" Don't know what area of country you are in but if most folks are into country add country touches, European look ,pipe on book etc. Check out your competition & see what the other booths have & write down what & how many of each type booth & make your's different. I would use the letter ones on back wall as when folks look in they would see the letters straight on & would be good selling point. If walls are a mess cover them with fabric or repaint if allowed don't go dark on that as would make booth seem tiny. Lots to think of but study booths you like & note what they did. Incorperate some of that in your's. Good Luck! Jan

Bumping so allison will see this, with any luck... Sorry, been gone all day. I shop the vintage or handmade section on etsy. I've bought new pottery (jars with lids) for pets I've had cremated. Bet you weren't expecting that one! lol I thought they deserved something nicer than shiny urns that don't "go" with my decor and would be banished to a closet somewhere. Several of antique etchings (architectural and one of a horse), a pair of antelope horns, vintage salt & pepper shakers (don't laugh, only 1 pair after searching locally for something to leave on table), an antique horse harness with brass, a small handcrafted/faux deer head with metal antlers (mounted on wood - I know that one sounds weird, but it is in DS guest room and really cute 12" tall.) Okay, here's the photo from etsy...I cleaned off all the dust after it arrived. Why they hadn't before they took picture, I do not know: Also a ceramic plate (new), an old inlaid box with an dog on the top (embossed), and some old pieces of horse tack/bridle brass to group together/frame. Will go with horse etching from etsy and one I bought locally, and the harness in the laundry room. We live in a horse community and I grew up owning horses, so it's fitting. I have other things in my favorites - like transferware (old) and some pillows (new, handmade). Patty cakes, the antique store I'm referring to has mostly bars of French soaps, small candles, etc. Most of these dealers go to Atlanta market and buy this type of thing from what I overheard. fwiw, I don't buy the soap, candles either but in a pinch, I may be tempted if I needed a gift. jackie, yes. I'm talking about Hanna's. My children are 22/DD2, 24/DS and 26/DD1. When I wasn't having a #4, we got a Miniature Schnauzer and I named her Hanna. If DS had been a girl, DD2 would have been Hanna.

Thank you sweeby for the reply. It's reassuring to hear an opinion that mirrors our own. The window sash colors we have been considering are in fact: Hartford Green, Chutney (a rich deep red), and Dark Brown (Gingersnap?). It would feel better, however, if we put this together with a reasonable overall color scheme that we feel good about. For example, if we really want to go with a blue color for the first story lap siding, then it might be challenging to make red or green sashes work. Do you imagine a more complete (at least general) color scheme that you think would be attractive for this house? Any opinions or insights are appreciated. Thank you.

Following up on my reply, above, getting away from the two-story entry (porch or portico) is a HUGE step away from (the idea of) a McMansion. McMansions were never designed to enhance family life. They were created to enhance builders' bottom lines by taking advantage of human nature, the desire to keep up with and then surpass those damn Joneses -- dangling the American Dream, dressed up with some bling, at what seems to be an affordable price, never mind that it's actually OVERpriced for what it is, which is a mass-produced house constructed cheaply with no thought to proper design, with low-quality materials and low-quality craftsmanship. Part of the appeal is the outsize scale, like two-story entries, great rooms rather than more aptly named family or living rooms, and acres of granite and stainless steel in the kitchen. If you hang out in the Remodeling or Home Decorating forums for any length of time, you'll find a steady stream of posters who are trying to deal with wonky McMansion layouts requiring great creativity and often a great deal of cash (window coverings for those giant windows don't come cheap) to turn their McMansions into vaguely liveable homes. Some will call the forum members here purists or professionals, and say that various terms are for experts, and so on. But I continue to be amazed by the number of regular homeowners who come to this forum because they have some sort of nagging, persistent uneasy feeling — backed up by no special education or training whatsoever — that there is something very wrong with their house plans and they have problems pulling the trigger to start construction. That’s because a lot of architecture is actually common sense and involves basic math like the golden mean or golden ratio, which few of us remember from school but which we’re surrounded by, in nature and art as just two examples. Most of us might not be able to define “golden mean” or other architectural terms, but we can understand on a basic, unconscious level the concepts of balance, proportion, rhythm (the repetition of certain elements) and feel much more at ease in a house built with good balance, proportion, and rhythm than in one with little or none. Similarly, while we might marvel and ooh-and-ahh over a majestic-looking entry or an enormous great room, most people will instinctively feel more comfortable in a house built to a more human scale. Just as organizing philosophies from Flylady and Kon Mari to feng shui, “Hoarders”, and the Container Store, tell us that organizing and decluttering our homes will make us happier, calmer, more contented — and most of us can vouch for how much better we feel when our house is in order — humans are also more satisfied (even if we can’t put our finger on it) in a house built with balance and cohesion. (As an aside, it’s also much easier to keep a house orderly and decluttered in a house with thoughtful design, where the house responds to your needs, rather than, as in the case with most tract houses and McMansions, making you respond to your house’s needs).