THE FUN BEGINS

It has been just one month since we were handed the keys to our new storefront. The former medical office space was filled with work cubicles, sitting on institutional, very worn unattractive blue carpet and surrounded by boring gray walls. Now I love the color gray, don't get me wrong, I am not one of the popular gray haters out there today, our home is gray (not by choice but it is a shade close to what I might have picked if I had been given an option) but Toledo Lamp Company is all about color and fun and quirkiness, so finally, we are going to wash that gray away. The carpet removal was a huge job, the glue that remained was very tough to lift off, but after hours of soaking and scrapping that job is behind us and now we are going to start painting the walls and the personality of TLC is going to start to show.

Our brand colors, 3 shades of blue and a contrasting bright orange will be predominant. Simple yet deliberate geometric shapes on the walls, orange trim running in unexpected directions with accents of the bright green, yellow, pink and purple. The colors all have fun names of course and when I find my samples I'll share those as we paint doors, frames and, well, who knows what all, the goal is to make it a happy place.

Do we know exactly how everything is going to look, not yet, there are so many details, it may be a spur of the moment decision on certain choices.

In contrast to the main showroom, the "gift vault", more on why its going to be called that later, will have a very different feel and ideas on how to distinguish the "book nook" are still rolling around in my bald head too.

We want to make some major progress getting some color on the walls Wednesday as we then need a few nights off for a dinner party we are throwing and of some time in the downtown store. Before we know it, it'll be Saturday morning and we will be ready for one of our last 3 farmers' market mornings.

Without a doubt, we will miss that energy on Saturday mornings downtown, a plus will be however, we may now have more time to shop the market, before heading across town. The tradition of the farmers' market is nearly 200 years old, if you have never ventured downtown early on a Saturday, put it on your bucket list.