Indoor Booth Walls

Since we will soon be in the indoor show season I thought I would
ask the esteemed group of Orchidians what their ideas are on
sectioning off a jewelry booth at an indoor show that does not supply
pipe and drape partitions. So far this year I am fortunate enough to
be scheduled for spaces in shows with a wall to my back. But I need
to plan for the future. And portability is important too.

There is of course the purchase pipe and drape option. My concern is
does pipe and drape look cheesy and unprofessional? If I put up 8’
pipe and drape on the sides will I cut down on customers seeing my
booth unless they are directly in front of my booth? Of course there
is always the options of 3’ pipe and drape along the sides.

Any websites or company recommendations would be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks!

Rick Copeland
Silversmith and Lapidary Artisan
Rocky Mountain Wonders
Colorado Springs, Colorado
http://rockymountainwonders.com

Rick,

I have an idea that I have not tried yet for making screens, but I am
sure would work for interior booth walls as well. At the local home
improvement center they have pre-fabricated shelf supports. The look
like an “H” with a bar across the top, plus a couple of extra cross
bars. The idea is that you can buy two of them and attach a shelf
board to each of the cross bars and have instant shelving that fits a
space equal to the length of the shelf board. My idea is to put
hinges on the long side of the “H” and attach three or four together
to create a folding screen. I think they could work for booth walls
too. I had planned on covering the panels with fabric for my screens,
but for booth walls you could staple on (They panels are made of soft
1" X 2" pine) hardware cloth, chicken wire, or some other sort of
screen material and use them for a display area for earrings,
necklaces, etc. You could also do a mix of fabric and screen. Hope my
discription is clear enough.

Theresa Bright

Your shows might be different, but all of the indoor shows I do
specify that you have to have tall (7-8 foot) sidewalls. Even if your
show doesn’t say, I would still recommend it. If you only have 3 foot
sidewalls, you are at the mercy of what your next door neighbors
decide to do. It wouldn’t be pretty to have to stare at the messy
back of your neighbor’s display all show! If you have your own side
walls you can control exactly how your booth and your work will be
displayed to the public.

I have the indoor booth system from flourish.com . I’ve used it for
a few years now and am very happy with it. Because it breaks down
into smaller parts (all 5 foot sections) it makes it really easy to
fit into my car. Also, I would recommend getting two 3 foot sections
in addition to all of the parts that come with the 10X10 setup. There
have been a few shows where I’ve arrived and my 10X10 space is really
8X10. But with those 2 extra sections, it’s very easy to still set up
by clicking together a 3 foot and a 5 foot instead of two 5 foot
sections.

Good luck with your indoor season!
Tahmi DeSchepper

And portability is important too. 

Purchased pipe & drape really doesn’t take up all THAT much space.
I’d say mine is probably about the same overall as my tent. It goes
up pretty easily, too. Easier than my tent. :wink:

There is of course the purchase pipe and drape option. My concern
is does pipe and drape look cheesy and unprofessional? 

In my opinion, no. If you get the right amount of drape, have it
evenly shirred onto the supports, have everything else in your booth
looking nice, the background drapes will be just that, background.
For the portability & ease of use (things you seem appropriately
concerned with), I don’t think it can be beat. Other things I’ve seen
have looked unprofessional, like shower curtains. But drapes, no.

If I put up 8' pipe and drape on the sides will I cut down on
customers seeing my booth unless they are directly in front of my
booth? 

Sure, if you have walls going all the way out to the front edge of
your booth, it’s not as visible from farther down the way as if you
didn’t have walls that far out. However, if your walls sit in a bit,
but your neighbor’s go all the way out, then you’re just as blocked
anyway. If your walls sit in a bit, and so do your neighbor’s, then
your booths will blend, and even when someone IS standing right
there, your booth won’t stand out as well on its own. Don’t hide your
setup in the back of your booth, have it at or near the front edge
(at least partially) and passersby will see it from pretty far down,
don’t worry. If you’re really concerned about it, you can get a
corner booth.

Of course there is always the options of 3' pipe and drape along
the sides. 

Actually, I don’t think that IS an option, if you’re doing a show
that wants you to have booth walls. If you need walls, you need full
height walls.

By the way, I purchased my pipe & drape earlier this year from
www.onlineeei.com. They seemed to have the best price, so I went
with them. In the end, I have a product that I am very happy with,
but they don’t have very good quality control. I would say they are
OK to order from, but be sure to give time to get things resent if
needed, and be sure to check your order ASAP. Just so you know what
I’m talking about, I ordered a simple setup from them, 4 2-part 8’
high verticals, 3 telescoping 6-10’ drape supports, and 9 8’ high
drapes, along with 4 bases. I went to set the pieces up for the first
time (practice, in my backyard, thank heavens), and two of the
verticals had halves that were bent & wouldn’t go onto the other
half. This gave me ONE working wall, not three. I called them & they
I opened those right away, and one of them was again bent! You’d
think since they’d sent those to replace faulty ones, they’d make
double sure that they were right. Guess not! Also, the drapes were
wrong, they were a couple inches too long. Seems there’s a mixup on
their site where the two-part verticals are with some sort of travel
set, and they are actually a bit shorter, and there are matching
slightly-shorter drapes. I was sent the regular length ones. All I
know is I selected 8’ high supports and 8’ long drapes. No confusion
there, as far as I was concerned. They were OK for my first show,
just a bit annoying, but then I sent them back & they sent the
correct ones before my next show. All is OK now, I’m pleased with the
end result, it just was a bit of a bumpy road to get there. Of course
they did it all at their expense, I never paid for the returns or
exhcnages, and now I have some slightly bent extra aluminum tubes in
my garage. :wink:

Lisa
Designs by Lisa Gallagher

Lisa,

By the way, I purchased my pipe & drape earlier this year from
onlineeei.com. They seemed to have the best price 

Thanks for all the info. I’m leaning more toward the pipe and drape.
BTW What color are your drapes?

Rick Copeland
Silversmith and Lapidary Artisan
Rocky Mountain Wonders
Colorado Springs, Colorado
http://rockymountainwonders.com

Rick,

I purchased a ProPanels booth setup (www.propanels.com) from a
retiring artist and can honestly say that I LOVE it. It’s easy to
transport and store, sets up quickly, looks amazing and has allowed
me to transform my booth into a “living room.” Let me tell you what I
mean by that…

The sides are lightweight, but rigid. Embedded in the sides are the
slotted metal verticals that you use for repositionable shelving,
which can easily (and darn near invisibly) be exposed with a utility
knife. That has let me put up shelves at varying heights on the walls
of my booth. The shelves are covered with the same material as the
booth sides, by the way.

I also have varying-height pedestals covered with the same material,
and a collapsible podium used for point-of-purchase operations.

The tops of the panels have cross-bar connectors for stability, but
they’re also ideal for track lighting, allowing for overhead lighting
without significant shadow issues, even when the booth is crowded.

As a result, instead of having showcases in the center or border of
my booth, I have an open, carpeted area that invites people to come
into my space to browse (and buy). (I use an old-but-nice 8x10
oriental carpet to coordinate the colors and provide a homey and
inviting look.)

I’ve had a HUGE increase in traffic by people in wheelchairs (they
can more easily navigate and aren’t rolling over others’ toes), and
have noted that people tend to stay longer, relax, and chat more. I
firmly believe that the environment (more of a living room than a
display booth) helps with that.

My booth sides are a dark “oatmeal” color, and I use deep red and
black accents.

You can see a picture at:
www.nolimitations.com/images/booth.jpg

I’ve since revamped a bit to move the table across the back under
the shelving and replace the white cloth with one that is an exact
match to the booth sides, while raising the table height a bit. But
you get the idea.

I should also mention - these are ProPanels… they also have
something called ProPanel KnockDowns, which are exactly the same, but
are half-height and stack vertically to create the booth. Because
they are only 4’ high, they are easier to transport, and easier for
one person to assemble… but the look is virtually identical.

Hope this helps!

Karen Goeller
No Limitations Designs
Hand-made, one-of-a-kind jewelry
www.nolimitations.com

Thanks for all the info. I'm leaning more toward the pipe and
drape. BTW What color are your drapes? 

Glad to be helpful, Rick. The color of my drapes is “beige”. The
type of fabric is called “premier” on their site. Don’t get the banjo
cloth, I got samples & thought that stuff was horrid. That would be
my suggestion, by the way, pick out a few colors you think might be
interesting, and request samples. You’d hate to order something that
critical just by what you see on your computer monitor. They were
very nice about sending 6 or so samples of what I requested. Then, I
could confidently order what I wanted. By the way, a picture of my
booth can be seen at:

http://www.lisagallagher.com/GenPics/BoothDisplaySetups.html,

it’s the bottom one on the page. It shows the drapes as I got them
at first, a little bit long. I didn’t get a good picture of the last
show I did, where I had proper length drapes. It was all but outside,
and I had to do some tricky things with my drapes to keep them from
blowing all over the place. The drapes do have a rod pocket at both
the top & the bottom (there is no real “top”, vs “bottom”), which at
that show proved VERY useful! Imagine lots of lath & baling wire
being used. Creative minds at work. :wink: Oh, and by the way, you’ll
see in my booth picture I have a bar going across the front to hold
lights (also one across the middle & a third connecting them). I
engineered those from electrical conduit & various patched together
hardware bits (I’d be happy to take a close-up & explain them if
anyone’s interested), but I wish I’d gotten a fourth “drape support”
to be that front one. Just easier, plus it holds the frame together
better than something added on.

Hope that helps some more!

Lisa
Designs by Lisa Gallagher

Indoor booth walls made of wood 1 x2s was mentioned by someone.
That’s what our outdoor show booth walls are made of and then one
side is covered with plastic chicken wire (poultry feneing). WE used
black but it also comes in dayglow orange. To dress it up we use the
matchstick shades in the natural color. They could be painted black
though. Our panels are 3 feet wide and so are the shades. It ia a
lightweight and easdy to handle set of walls the bolt together with
wing nuts but could be hinged. We have used them indoors too and they
worked great. Good luck with the show!-)

Barbara in Norfolk

We have a pipe & drape indoor booth with black drapery to give to
the first person who will pick it up in Westchester County, NY or pay
to have it shipped. Has been in storage for 7-8 years at a relative’s
house who would like to get rid of it. Apologies to whoever was
looking for something like this earlier; we had to make sure
everything was intact. Please contact us offline.

Thanks. --Chris & Sandy Boothe
Exotica Jewelry
www.ringsforever.com