Shopkeeper’s Secrets
Favorite primitive treasures often make their way from Traci Ostrander’s home to her shop—and vice versa—and deciding what to keep and what to sell can be challenging, she says. “Since I have been collecting primitives for 20-plus years, many of the things I sell in my shop I already have,” she explains. “So, I ask myself, ‘Do you really need another one of those?’ Usually the answer is ‘no.’ … I can’t keep them all or I wouldn’t be able to stay in business.” Here, Traci shares a few simple tricks to play up an item’s best qualities:
• Go vertical. Build up display areas to add height and interest. Position a bench or another item on top of the main piece to bring smaller items up to eye level.
• Seek strength in numbers. Group like items together for maximum impact, as Traci did with the wooden bowls stacked in her kitchen and the layered porcine cutting boards displayed in her dining room.
• Change with the times. Enhance vignettes with subtle additions that reflect the season, such as evergreens or berry sprigs in the winter, flowering branches in the spring, stick flags for summer, etc.