Eye Candy Holiday Merchandising

Santa's elf was up early this morning.  I was so excited to pull together my vision for our holiday merchandising and decor at the optical.  The theme is "How Sweet It Is" and boy oh boy, it turned out "sweet"!

I chose to bring together a color scheme based on reds, pinks, lime greens, and kelly greens.  It is fun, bright, and whimsical.  Let me share a few of my favorite highlights from this sweet candy land:

1.  Peppermint Paradise:  Using two chinet cardboard plates facing each other, I drew peppermints with red permanent marker.  Then, using iridescent cellophane and pink ribbon, I created a "wrapper" over the mints.  For the lollipops, I used wooden dowels to create a lollipop stick effect.  These giant peppermints and peppermint lollipops now hang from the ceiling and adorn the doors in the shop.

2.  Funky Nutcrackers:  Lime green spray paint makes a modern statement for these fun nutcrackers.  It was a little bit of an experiment, but they turned out really fun and funky!

3.  Candy in glass jars:  It took a little bit of sorting, but color appropriate gum balls are perfect in this glass jar.  Large lollipops from a candy store and giant peppermint sticks bring the pinks and reds into the scheme!

4.  Sparkle and Shine:  decorative shiny grass (with little kids coming through, we may regret this one) and white/clear marbles give a bright backdrop to the colorful frame lines we featured.  The iridescent candy wrappers on the peppermints also bring in some sparkle and shine to the look.

Woodsy Wonderland

Remember those fabulous orange candles we used for Halloween at the optical shop?  Well, we were able to create a simple intermediate display for Thanksgiving/Fall without shopping at all! Here's how I did it:

1.  I used the two pillar candles I had purchased for the Halloween display.  I love that these candles are different heights and were orange scented (so fresh!).

2.  I gathered some oak leaves in peak colors and pressed them under some heavy books.

3.  I used what we had:  including some woven wood orbs, cork textured contact paper, & orange and clear marble stones.

4.  I featured wood-tone frames as well as some really neat frames that are made of actual wood and bamboo.  We also featured fall-hued sunglasses as well!

Remember to look for items you have around your house that might go well with other items.  I like to create motifs based on themes, rather than have everything match-matchy.  Here we created a woodsy feel using wood tones and orange hues.

Only a few days late, but have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Gothic Halloween

As the merchandiser for a local high-end optical, I wanted to make sure that any holiday decor stayed classy, yet still featured the merchandise well.  For Halloween, I had a $50 budget for merchandising/decor and I wanted to make that stretch as far as I could.  So...I hit the thrift store!  I found fabulous candle holders and a brass candelabra.  All were different heights and different shapes.  I also found gorgeous orange candles from Bed, Bath & Beyond and fake spider webbing from the grocery store.  A few coats of black spray paint later and a little creative arrangement made for an romantically spooky Halloween display that was perfect for the optical shop's all black frame line.  

Here is the final product:  

What we focused on with this project:
1.  Feature a frame line that normally gets left out of the spotlight, but is perfect for the Halloween season!
2.  Stay within budget...
3.  Create a clean, classy look that says "Halloween" without being too overt
4.  Reuse and repurpose items, rather than buying "all new"
5.  Create a display that has some versatile items that can be used in other seasonal displays (black candlesticks would look gorgeous with red candles for Valentine's...)