It Takes A Village

I thought I might share a few tips for displaying Village collectibles this holiday season. Whether in a retail setting or home environment, there are some pretty simple things you can do to enhance the impact of this kind of holiday decor. I'm going to give a shout out to Linda & Margo at Molbaks here, because they are women who KNOW how to play up this stuff. They've each done the massive (and I do mean massive) display setups at the store for the past five years, and every year it gets better!

Remember Christopher Lowell on TLC tv? One of his taglines was 'Lifts, Levels, & Elevations'. Well, I call this the Chris Lowell tip: Get something to use as risers, and lift up some of the houses & buildings. Take the houses out of the boxes, and then use the boxes as risers - just cover them with fabric, or snow, or even wrap them in giftwrap if you want a cute look. Create hills with them, and then sit the houses on top. Put a few on the flat surface of the table or shelf to add dimension, as well.

In the setup above, a huge mirror from a client's dining table was used as the pond. The bridge sits on it, and we created a 'stream' by lining part of the mirror with rock walls and snow right over the mirror. Creates a cool effect and it really makes the light dance on the surface. And under those snowy hills in the background are cardboard boxes!

In this setup, I took a beautiful antique wood box and opened it, put a cardboard box in it, covered that with snow, then sat the conservatory building on it. This lifts the spectacular piece up and makes it the star of the show.

A closeup of the wood box as pedestal. You can also use books (old leatherbound ones are gorgeous!), small stools, plant stands, and flowerpots to add height. Be creative and match the items to the village theme!

Now, against the advice I just gave, here is a flat layout. This is a sofa table, so the village is visible from all sides. We set it up so that the houses are in two rows, with 'backyards' that are behind each. On the front sides of the houses, there are sidewalks & street, making it appear to be a block of homes in merry old England. Placing them this way eneabled us to fit more buildings into the setup, and it keeps it neat & tidy so it's not overwhelming to the eye.

This setup in the kitchen window uses a part (small part!) of the client's nutcracker collection along with the village houses. Everything has to do with food here - the nutcrackers are bakers and winemakers and such, the trees are made from gumdrop candy, the houses are a cooky shop, a candy shop, and the Rudolph & Santa village pieces. Glass cake pedestals hold some of the houses up high, and the nutcracker pedestals lift a few more way up above the scene.

Sorry it's fuzzy, but here's a closeup.

A really important tip for retail display of these items is to remember to create some SMALL setups along with the huge dioramas. Many people who love these live in small homes - condos, apartments, senior living centers - and space is a consideration. So show them how to display their villages on bookshelves, mantels, small tables, etc. in small groupings. The photos I've shared here are from a darling client who lives a in massive home. She has plenty of room to display her collections...but not everyone is in this situation.

Also, in retail, show a cross-merchandised approach in several of your displays. Incorporate photo frames, books, candles, lamps, and other decorative accessories (florals, even candy!) to show how this can be done in a home environment. You'll sell more product when you show the customer what to do with it!

Eye Candy

The beginning of this week was spent installing the holiday merchandise & displays at Columbia Winery. While there is a plethora of wonderful merchandise to be found there, I just adore this display. It easily wins my 'Best in Show' prize this year (even if I did do it myself!)

The pine tables and hutch all match, making them effectively disappear so that the products stand out. I took a garland, ran it diagonally to create energy, fluffed it up with happy ribbon swirls, and then gathered up all of the glass vases, pedestals, bowls, and domes in the shop and brought them to this area to use as props. That way, the glass helps to create the 'candy shop' theme and adds sparkle, but the real focus is on the products. I hung a few of the giant bells overhead, too.

The merchandise is from Seasons of Cannon Falls, and it's all red flocked velvet jingle bells and rhinestone pins & bell necklaces. I placed the merchandise under the domes, heaped in the vases, lying on the cake pedestals to show it off - it's definitely eye candy! I also added a line of peppermint-twist candles and the Mary Lake Thompson candy cane linens (not seen in these shots) because they fit the theme.

When the Christmas candy order arrives at the beginning of next month, those items (candy canes, lollipops, candy cane wwreaths, etc) will all go into this area, as well. I just wanted to take all of this luscious stuff home and decorate with it - even tho when I use red in my tiny Cottage, it makes the rooms seem OH so small. Ah well.

Photos of other displays later!

Tampa Bay isn't eco friendly?

It seems that we are bombarded with information about "green" businesses and "green-washing" every week in the news media, but this last week's article in the St. Pete Times really caught my attention. The article led off with "Tampa Bay isn't exactly eco-friendly..." These sort of generalizations catch your attention, and even though I haven't really made my mind up about the "eco-friendliness" of Tampa Bay, I do get defensive when our area gets picked on.

I read the article and was surprised that the only real protagonist in this story was a friend and customer of ours - Nicole Kibert. In the article she discussed some of the green efforts of the Carlton Fields law firm where she works. I enjoyed that part of the article and am proud of what Nicole and her people have done. It's not easy changing people's thinking or habits, but the rest of the article seemed to hash some well-travelled ground about over-exposed large businesses. Wal-Mart's efforts to green - yeah yeah. Citigroup's changed the thermostat and then back - seriously?

I know it starts small, but waiting on the big guys to do the work will just show our unwillingness to change. You can get FLOR tiles at Target now, but they don't make it clear that they are even an eco-responsible choice. I'm not ready to believe that the only companies working on this have deep pockets and thousands of employees and I hope that the rest of the Bay feels this way. I see people making small steps - simple things, like the appearance of more recycling bins out on Friday. I really love it when people come in the shop and sustainability and FSC certified are not foreign terms to them.

I'm looking for the local green efforts and I am encouraged by small businesses who want to make a difference. Last week I went to Grassroots (our area's amazing vegetarian restaurant) and saw them making a grassroots effort on their own. They are researching eco-friendly take out containers for their growing business. This is no big corporate initiative, just a little group trying to start something big.

Let me know if you see more signs of the growing green-ness of Tampa Bay at info@tampastreetmarket.com

Tree Trimming Play-by-Play

The trees that Karen & I decorated for Molbaks are in the gift shop area - 'Christmasland', basically. Over thrity themes of Holiday decorations packed into the space along with all of the normal everyday merchandise. It's visual overload!!!

The theme above is aqua & brown, and had both woodsy (as in deer) and contemporary (as in some mod 60's look glass ornaments), so I designed the tree with a hip feel in mind and used the more contemporary items. Including a sleek art deco deer. The ribbons (3 styles) cascade from the top of the tree downward in four sections, 'bubbling' out in loops. At each gathering of the loops, there is an ornament - either aqua or gold. 'Bouquets' of sparkly (and heavy) beaded pointsettias and velvet leaves fill in the space between ribbon loops. And I have to say, this tree is gorgeous - it's a new one for Molbaks, and it's a blue spruce. Perfect coloring with this decor line.


The Nativity tree is in shades of gold, burgundy, deep red, and copper. Angel figures and large 'bouquets' again fill in space, and the ribbons on this one are WIDE velvet flocked, swirling in a clockwise rhythm around the tree. Drippy gold beads, cutwork gold ornaments, crosses, mirrors, detailed ornaments in an old world style all give this tree elegant Baroque beauty.

On the tree, Karen took a large gold cone and created a bouquet inside of it, then hung it near the top to draw attention to the angel. It's a huge element, and in this big space, really helps to direct a customers' eye.

Simple snowmen on this one - the notable inclusions are the sign and the many white frosted branches. The lights on this tree are LED - low heat, long burning, and the most bizarre blue-purple color! Decidedly non-Christmassy. Those white snowy branches help to cover the bulbs while allowing the light to diffuse and seem a bit more 'snowy evening' than 'nuclear winter'! The ribbons here just swirl down from a bow on top - I do wish I had had some knitted scarves to use, tho.

The 'Dr. Seuss' tree was created by wiring an arched garland to the top of the tree (and to the beam above). The fanciful shape is complimented by loads of colorful, whimsical ornaments ranging from silk flowers to plastic stars to glass figural drops. That big 'light bulb'-looking ornament hanging from the tip is the perfect finishing touch, don't you think?! I think Karen had fun doing this one.
An easy way to do a tree like this is to use your kids' toys - stuffed animals, Happy Meal toys, action figures, Barbie Dolls....lots of fun! (Plus it helps get all those toys up off the floor!!!)


The Champagne tree didn't photograph well, unfortunately. Soft creams, browns, and shimmering silver make it nearly effervescent....and the 6" wide velvet damask ribbon in soft mocha is coming home with Deb for Christmas, I tell ya! GORgeous. Again we have those hip 'of the moment' acanthus leaves in velvet, very hot this year, along with drippy silver cedar boughs tucked into and around the tree (which sits up in an urn - nice way to add height to a short tree!). Angels dot the tree and one sits up high, draped with the beaded garland.

The Nutcracker tree is filled with actual nutcrackers - tiny, small, and medium sizes - that we put on using pipe cleaners/chenille stems. Using larger items like this is a great way to add color and theme without having to use six hundred small ornaments. The ribbon spills down fromt he big bow on top, and picks of sparkly dots are inserted all over to add movement & light. Bouquets of lime green hydrangea, the sparkly picks, and red berries help bulk up the look. Ornaments are perched on top of upturned cones, and also hung in groups of three to draw more attention to them. Bright colors and whimsical shapes make this a playful version of a Holiday classic.


The entrance to the gift shop holds the Winter Conservatory theme. Looking at it about five minutes after finishing, I thought 'We should have put lights inside the arch'. But my back, injured last week, was screaming for a pain pill at that point, and I just didn't have the gumption to spend another half hour adding lights. Hey, nothing's perfect!

The tree sits up in an urn, surrounded by glass tops on other urns to make tables for product display. On the tree, we added snowy branches and snow-dusted bird nests in a spiral around the tree - it appears to be a garland. Ornaments hang in bunches of three and individually, and five round white ledges hold merchandise from the lines displayed on the slatwall near the tree. Houses, churches, reindeer, Santas - the whole snowy winter wonderland deal. The top of the tree is AT the ceiling (pretty low in this part of the shop) so it just has a few bell ornaments and some ribbon to set it off.


I hope you find some inspiration & ideas in there!!!

They're Ba-a-a-ack....

Yep, that IS what you think it is!
Tonight, design partner Karen and I will complete the last of seven 'designer' trees for Molbaks Home & Garden store. We've gone in four nights after closing, decorating trees and arranging displays surrounding those trees for maximum impact.

It's been a bit of a 'deja vu' experience, since Karen and I actually met while we both worked FOR Molbaks in the visual merchandising department. That was over five years ago, but being in there working together felt eerily like no time had passed at all.

We literally freaked out the owner - he walked past at full speed and came to an abrupt, screeching halt when he saw the two of us on ladders dressing a tree. His look was utterly dumbfounded and all he could say was 'It's YOU! And YOU! You're back!' Karen said 'Yep, Janet asked, she received, and you're signing the check!' (His expression then was completely hilarious!)

I'll get some 'real' photos tonight after we are done, and share them here later.
Beautiful stuff in there...if you live in the Seattle area, head out to Woodinville and see the holiday decor at Molbaks! For more on this company, visit www.molbaks.com.

'The Domino Effect'

(Hmmmn, sounds like a spy movie title, doesn't it?!)

A former visual merchandising manager of mine used this term a lot. It refers to what happens when you undertake a retail display re-set: Start moving product from one area, and you have to find a place to put it. That means you have to change another area.....and so on, and so on, and so on. One thing moves, everything is affected - just like dominoes standing on end in rows. It can easily get completely out of control and come crashing down around you. A plan is essential.(Working at night after the shop is closed is helpful , too!)

Last week, at the Hogue Cellars retail shop, Karen & I walked in and surveyed the shop, then into the storage area to look at backstock quantities. We then made a plan for where to start, what moves where, etc. It took us all of ten minutes. Of course, the shop is small....at Columbia, where the retail floor space is more than five times larger, I spend at least two days drawing a floorplan and sketches of each display setup, plus a 'map' of the progression of displays to be changed - in order of attack. That helps to keep the mess to a minimum.

So, let me show you the progression:

The back wall shelves looked like this ^
The main product on them was grape themed items

We moved them across the shop to the window area, which looked like this when we arrived:

And now it looks like this

Close up

I took the product from this display:

And put it on the shelf units


The warm color here is really a great pull from the front doors.
The area that looked like this

Now looks like this, with new products from TAG

A rearrangement of some of the fixtures allowed me to place the branched candlabra up high in the display, accentuating both the height and theme. This product is one of my favorites this season - it's at Columbia, as well, and selling like crazy!

In the large oak cabinet to the left of that display, we had all of the glassware

Karen left the logo glass and added large format bottles of wine. She used their boxes as risers, and the graphic logos on them really punched up the display. Great impact!

The shelves across the shop hold food products:

Not much changed, except the new Halloween product display on the small counter 'feature area':

And I can't even TELL you how many orange and black neoprene wine bags are still in the stock room. I guess maybe in Prosser, kids get candy when they trick-or-treat.....and adults get WINE! I could get into that!

Maybe a game of dominoes, too...