Linda Cahan -- Gifts and Dec, 1/12/2011 4:34:37 AM
LINDA CAHAN is a retail visual design consultant based in West Linn, OR.
You always know when it's time to get a new fixture. Either you've run out of room for merchandise or a fixture falls apart - usually while someone is shopping it. . What do you do when your budget is approximately zero? Get creative. Often you can find fixtures on Craig's List or through a classified ad. Over the years I've seen all sorts of cheap finds transformed into fabulous fixtures by mirrors, contact paper, decoupage, wood shingles, overlapping laminate samples, mosaics and more. An old quilt over wood stretchers and batting can be attached to the face of your wrap desk or fixture to look fun, warm, textural and interesting. Frosted Plexiglass mounted to the front of a fixture with spacers lets you add thin fluorescent lights so the entire fixture will glow. Copper nailed to the surface with decorative upholstery nails/tacks will give a gleam of warmth. For texture, small carpet squares in a monochromatic color scheme attach nicely to the entire bottom of a fixture. If the top is beat-up laminate, try covering it with ceramic or glass tiles. Get brave with an old piece. Chances are you can only improve it, and if you mess it up, that's what paint is for!
A Pallet-able Idea Sand rough edges so customers don't catch their clothing. The contrast with crude wood highlights the delicacy and fineness of the china. An inexpensive fixture would place a 1/2" piece of glass directly on the top of the slats. Bergdorfs' raised the perception level with the addition of a spacer and thicker glass. Wood pallets are seen on loading docks, but at one of the most exclusive stores in the world? If Bergdorf Goodman in NYC can do it, so can you!
Just Add Art Aria Boutique at the Portland airportneeds storage on the sales floor since there's no stockroom. These black wood containers have locking doors. They hired a local artist to cut, paste and add a few coats of polyurethane for protection. The materials include wallpaper, contact paper and paint.
Raw Material Workbench metal tables at Wisteria Chic in Sisters, OR, range from $95 to $110 each. Debra, the owner, left the tables "raw." Her style of merchandising makes the fixtures disappear.
Completely Blocked West Seattle Nursery's cash/wrap areawas beat-up, but they had a limited budget. They had large blocks of wood, and used varying depths of wood blocks on the face and sides with the help of a friend/carpenter. The in-out pattern combined with the rings in the wood made the fixtures organic and textural. Glue was used to hold the slices so no nail heads mar the surface and feel.
A Moveable Treat Black Wagon, a children's gift, toy and clothing store in Portland, OR, is owned by Sarah Shaoul. Her vision involved fixtures that could be moved, were fun, unusual, casual, childproof, easy to merchandise and affordable. Ben and Todd from spacecraftpdx.com designed these out of wire cable wooden spools. White paint, casters, spacers and shiny tops turned them from basic to fabulous.
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Kids products that combine high play value and a design sensibility that blends with mom and dad's house are sure winners for specialty shops, who can market themselves as an alternative to cheap plastic imports and their problematic safety records.
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