Booth overhaul, spring 2007
I emptied my sunroom and began setting up the booth so that it could stay up while I made the changes that needed to be made.
Here are the tables, placed in the same format as I’d had in the Lexington show. I’m pretending that the pressboard wall with the dartboard on it is the front of the booth. One of the first things I realized was the need to raise the tables. People had to bend over to see what I had displayed, and I wanted a way to avoid that if possible. So I begain combing the internet for ideas.
Initially I’d learned of using bed risers from the Bed, Bath & Beyond store. I bought some of those and placed them under my tables, but I wasn’t too crazy about them. The tables do tend to wiggle quite a bit on the risers and I was concerned about wind blowing them over. So I did some more research and found a better idea.
Look at the legs of the table from our Charleston show. What you see are lengths of PVC pipe and PVC caps that slide up over the legs of the table. We made these ourselves, using a hacksaw to cut the pipe with and PVC glue to adhere the caps on so the legs don’t dig into the grass, even in muddy weather. Click on the picture to see a larger image.
The pipe is cut at a 45 degree angle to fit the legs of the table better, and they are amazingly sturdy. It was very inexpensive to make, and cost is about 1/3 of the price of the bed risers. They’re lightweight and take up a small amount of room in our minivan as we transport stuff from show to show. We love these risers and still use them today.
One other thing about PVC we really liked were the instructions for making booth weights. The principle is the same as the legs for the tables. We used 4″ diameter pipe, filled with sand and capped on both ends. One end has an eye bolt in it for hanging the weights from the corners of the booth. Each of these sand-filled pipes weighs about 20 pounds.
That’s our son William pouring playground sand into the funnel while I hold it and the pipe steady. These are more durable than the cement-filled ones, because the sand can shift a little bit if the weight is dropped, where the cement ones sometimes crack if dropped.
Here are all four weights lined up against the wall. We use heavy-duty bungee cords to suspend the weights from the corners of our tent, and it works really well. So far, the tent hasn’t blown over or anything with using these weights.
Instructions for making these weights are HERE. There’s also a nice review of tent weights on the website for Boston’s South End Open Market.
Once we took care of these basic essentials for the booth, it was time to start working on the decorative elements and displays.
