A Visit to Lakewood Antiques Market in Cumming

Office at entrance of Lakewood Antiques Market 

For some time now, I have been planning a visit to the Lakewood Antiques Market in Cumming - about 30 miles north of the Atlanta metropolitan area - link to website.

Lakewood 400 Antiques Market, always the 3rd weekend monthly, is located in affluent North Altanta adjacent to Georgia 400, at Exit 13 on Georgia 9.  

This upscale Market features 500 spaces in a 75,000 foot climate controlled building  plus outside veranda and countyard dealers.

With my regular Scott's Antique Markets cohort, I visited the market yesterday. Since we travel to Scott's just about every month, a comparison between the two was inevitable - more on that later.

Cumming is often associated with Lake Lanier - a lovely area with meadering lake frontage all created by the corps of engineers - not many lakes in Georgia are natural. It is also the home of my daughter's in-laws who have a lovely home in a very nice subdivision called the Polo Fields.

Here is a pictorial walk-through with comments!

Entrance - food court and rest rooms

I saw this shop at the beginning of our walk-through and at the end - it is well staged and offers attractive items for sale - mostly faux greens!

This shop, close to entrance, offered newer and vintage ribbons by the yard. It was reminiscent  of a neighborhood shop that I frequented when I was very young in Kimberly, Wisconsin - one of those old fashioned general stores with dusty shelves, plank floors and friendly proprietors. I loved sewing clothes for my dolls and would buy 1/2 or less yards for embellishments. 

We liked this made-to-order farm table - loved the legs~

I've seen these driftwood trees elsewhere and am always charmed by them! 

Lots of shops with vintage signage. 

Just resting ....

Some nicely refinished vintage pieces - these looked familiar and I think this same vendor is also at Scott's Antique Markets. 

Not sure about this "item" for sale but it was nicely draped for general viewing.

i LOVE fabrics and found this shop with some great linen and other fabrics. The shop-owner was not present and her neighbor said $16 per yard although she might be more negotiable. A little high for me but not a bad price for the pieces I saw - high end materials.

We saw a lot of vintage "Georgia" pieces and signage such as this one - this market definitely had a rural southern feel to it.

Several shops like this one look pretty permanent and have a lot of very specific merchandise for sale. 

One of our finds were these "garden girls" beautifully rendered by this local artist - link to site here.  My friend, who is associated with Atlanta's Southeast Garden Show, tried to convince her that she should display at the show. She uses natural materials to create her fine work - we were so impressed! 

Here's the "about" section statement from her website - wonderful things!

As a small child, I really enjoyed hiking the hills and mountains of West Virginia with my grandmother. We loved collecting leaves and flowers and carefully pressing them in to old books. After a few weeks, our treasures would emerge and I began making special little characters and artwork from them. Now, I find myself walking through fields of Georgia and pulling off the road with clippers and a phone book in my hand. In memory of the great time with my grandmother and a little prodding from my friends, I have decided to create the “Garden Girls” — Nature’s Magic with a little bling! My original artwork is scanned and printed with the highest quality materials and 80 year archival inks to ensure that you may enjoy it for a lifetime. Each piece is hand embellished with Austrian crystals. 

A big Annie Sloan Chalk Paint display caught my attention. There was no color chart (a must have to sell these products) and there was no one in the shop that could answer questions and take $$$ - I would think a major flaw to selling at a market like this one! 

The vendor/seller in this booth told us she loved bright yellow and had been using regular paint to refurbish wooden pieces with a little distressing. We liked her idea and thought she did a very nice job. Her prices were very reasonable as well.

The only piece of upholstered furniture that I saw that I would have liked to consider buying was this lovely older wingback chair (with down seat cushion that has seen better days). As with several other booths, there was no one in the shop and the piece was not even labeled.

Here was a winner. I am doing a mini-redo of my master bedroom and installing hardwood floors. I am trying to talk my husband into using these kind of rugs to add a little modern punch!  This seller is a local person who buys from same source as Pottery Barn and sells for less. She said she was negotiable at these prices. I may come back next month when the floors are finished.

Well, this was an interesting visit. Overall, we did not like the event/market as well as Scott's Antique Market. It seems more local and "flea market" in flavor and the clientele also seemed much more local. We were less than impressed with the fact that several booths were unstaffed and no-one was even able to indicate when the seller would be present. I am sure we will be back but certainly not as frequently and with much less anticipation than our monthly visits to Scott's!