First Impressions

In business as in life, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. What do customers see when they come into your store? Are they blown away by your fabulous candle collection? Do they giggle with glee at your gorgeous glasses? Or are they repulsed by gum blotches on your carpet, appalled by water stains on your ceiling?

Store image has a direct effect on the perceived value of your merchandise. When a customer enters, they "read" a store like a book, searching for a visual harbor in which to rest their eyes. Often, those quiet spots are the floors, walls, and ceiling. While you're slaving away to create lush displays, your customers could be seeing everything you don't want them to notice.

Starting with your floors, make sure that everything in contributes to a pleasant shopping atmosphere. Or, more importantly, that nothing detracts from that atmosphere. If you have damaged carpeting, consider the following options.

If you have spare carpeting, hire a professional carpet layer to come in and replace the offending spot(s) with new carpet. The new spots will stand out a little, but they'll be less noticeable than stains or rips. Repaired carpet shows you care; stains and rips indicate laziness.

If you don't have remnants of your original carpet, use other remnants in colors that complement your decor. You can even make the repairs a decorative element of your display space. You might choose to repair not just bad areas, but establish a whole new floor pattern throughout the store.

But if your carpeting is totally unredeemable and you can't afford to replace it right away, there's a fairly radical solution that is temporary, but interesting. Believe it or not, you can actually paint the carpet!

To do it, move half the store on Saturday night and paint the cleared half, giving it all day Sunday to dry. Then, on Sunday evening or Monday morning, move all the fixtures back into position. Repeat the process on the opposite side the following week. The floor will look a little unbalanced for a week, but if you paint it the same color it won't show badly. The results look better as the paint wears off.

Other types of flooring are generally easier to repair than carpet. Wood floors can be sanded and re-stained. Cracked tiles aren't difficult to replace or repair. Hiring a professional up front will save you time, money, and aggravation.

Repainting will get rid of most stains on your walls. But remember, you need to seal the stain before you use any type of paint.

If you're more adventurous, consider faux finishing. For lumps and bumps, ragging or sponging can work wonders on walls. There are two secrets to successful sponging and ragging. First, use a flat paint, because gloss will pick up imperfections in the wall surface. Second, use colors that are close on color charts. When you use a dark and light color together, the surface can look tacky.

Another interesting way to cover a wall area without painting is to use fabric stapled over a wooden lattice tacked to the wall. The best way to do this is to cover the wall from floor to ceiling, so that it seems like a decorative decision rather than a desperate decision. The fabric should be excellent quality, steamed or ironed, and patterned only if patterns make sense with your decor. Using lattice strips, you'll make fewer holes than tacking the fabric directly onto the wall.

If you want a lush look, layer an inexpensive felt or quilt batting under the decorative fabric to make the wall look "padded." To finish it professionally, nail up thin molding on either side to frame the lattice.

Stained ceilings are always a problem, especially if you have to borrow a ladder to get up there. But if you're waiting for the landlord to fix the roof, you might be waiting for Godot. Best to go to Home Depot or Lowe's, pick up a box of matching ceiling tiles, and replace the bad ones as needed. Again, the new ones may be brighter than the old, faded tiles, but bright is better than stained and moldy any day.

Another solution for a suspended ceiling is to pop out the bad tiles, cover them with a colorful fabric, and replace them across the ceiling. Or create a special area in the store with the fabric-covered tiles overhead, and the same fabric spilling down or draped along the wall.

For plaster, sheet rock, and suspended tile ceilings, consider creating a canopy. An "Arabian Nights" look can romanticize any area. Filmy fabric will allow light to pass through, yet will successfully hide ceiling stains. Make sure there is a prime fixture with great merchandise below, as well as adequate lighting to attract attention.

Take the time to make a quick visual audit of your store. Are you happy with what your customers are seeing? Can you do something to better their first impression? With a little creativity you can go from trying to hide visual boo-boos to refreshing the decor and design of your store.