Farmers Market DIY Display

In theOrganic Gardening blog spot (here) and under FARMERS MARKETS(2013) in my website I talked about the addition of a SLANTED DISPLAY area.  This was a great addition to displaying the "small amount" vegetables like to bunches of radishes, various types of onions, peppers etc.  The SLANTED DISPLAY at the Farmers Market gave me me approximately 284 sq. inches additional display area, 2 sq. ft.

This is how the booth looked before the new display.
 For those of you are unfamiliar with participating in shows whether it is taking your crafts to Art shows, setting up at a Flee market or other business venture where you buy a booth space, display area is critical.  The organizer will only give you so much space, standard is 8 X 8 foot or 10 X 10 foot.  The trick is cramming everything you have into that small space while trying not to make it look crowded or cluttered.  The space needs to lend itself to excellent eye appeal, to attract the optimum amount of traffic.

Our booth in 2011 used two 4 x 2 foot tables set up in a 'L' configuration.  This was 16 sq foot of flat space, by adding the slanted display I increased the same space  of 16 sq. foot to 18 sq. ft., so I gained approximately 2 sq. foot of space.  Plus I increased the eye appeal and appearance of the booth.

Not only did the slanted space give us more room and added eye appeal, it changed the look of the booth enough so that it did not "look" the same as 2011, that always gets people curious about "who is new" all public events become "gossip" central and the more you can positively affect the outcome of your traffic the better you do.  Same is true with internet traffic, same emotional response to stimulus.

BUILDING THE SLANTED AREAI am NOT an engineer so I used my eyes to construct this project.  I provided different measurements but these measurement came after the fact not planned in advance.  

MATERIALS 1 inch CPVC pipe, available at your local hardware store Display boxes Clips Clothes Pins Name badges TOOLS Plastic pipe cutter NOTE:  I have built things out of PVC pipe before so I did not have to buy this pipe for this project.  I put together the pipe I had on hand.  That means you will see pipe with connections in places where connection are not necessary if you are construction this out of pipe that has not been used before.  BUILDING Have the display boxes handy.  Measure the length of the boxes to get the length of your display.  Mine were 13.5 inches long. Measure the width of the boxes to get the width or slant of your display.  Mine were 10.5 inches wide. I used boxes that came with my canning pint jars when I purchased them, sturdy but not sturdy enough to withstand all the wear and tear of transportation and use. I use two boxes across so I have a total distance of 27 inches.  So I know my platform needs to be at least 27 inches wide. I have the boxes stacked three high so that gives me a height of at least 31.5 inches. So the makes a PLATFORM of at least 27 X 31.5.  Mine at finish measured 30" x 26".  My boxes were sticking off the sides (width) of my platform.  Not the best but remember I am using existing cut pieces and this was the closest I could get.  Better idea for the boxes to fit better the the slanted part of the DISPLAY. I constructed the PLATFORM first.  Having a 'T' connection at each end.  The back end will have the 'T' connection facing up to accommodate the RISER and the front of the platform will have the 'T' connection down. (Originally I thought this would slip off the table so I constructed a 'lip' with the 'T' to prevent sliding.  I did not need this, so NOT necessary) PLATFORM CONSTRUCTION     The platform is a "U".  The PVC connectors will take up around 1/4 inch of pipe so the 'cuts' you make have to be about 1/4" longer to accommodate for the connector and your measurement need to accommodate for the connector length.  Every connector will be different so you just have to experiment with the supplies you have to get the correct length. I added two connectors close to each other in the back of the platform so I could have a bar to complete the platform and a 'T' sticking up to place my risers pipe in. My RISER pipe is 13 inch tall at a 90 degree angle.  My display come apart into two sections so I did not glue any of the pipe.  At minimum only the PLATFORM and the SLANT SECTION need to be glued if you want your display to lay flat.  DO NOT GLUE the RISER pipe to the SLANT SECTION or your PLATFORM. SLANT CONSTRUCTION  Once the RISERS were cut and in place, measure across the top (should be the same as your support piece or bar in the platform. The TOP BAR will have 'T' connections so you can add the support bars for your angle (ANGLE BARS).  I have four ANGLE BARS with 'T' connectors at the bottom that act as 'stoppers' so my boxes don't fall off.  Constructing this top angle piece is just trial an error, unless of course you are better at this than I am. I put it together and if it didn't fit, tried it again until I got it.  As I said I was working with "used" pipe. THE BOXES This is the display with the boxes on it, before I beefed up the boxes, painted the boxes add clips for stability.  MAKING THE BOXESI used boxes that my pint size canning jars were purchased in.  They are heavy cardboard but glued together at the corners and will come apart with heavy use.  So I added glue and paper to them to make them sturdier.  If you are familiar with paper mache that is the method I used to 'add paper' to these boxes with a slight twist; I used wood Mozia Wood  glue because I wanted a water proof seal, then spray painted.  FAVECRAFT has quite a few paper mache projects if you want to know more about paper mache. Once I had the boxes done I spray painted them sporadically with green spray paint. PROBLEM:     The issue of the boxes being too big for the flat slanted portion became very evident.  Remember I said I was using PVC that was already cut and that the platform was turning out smaller than the size of the two boxes put together.  The boxes would fall off if I didn't not find a solution to bind them together.  Since I did not want one long box on three layers I had to find away to connect the boxes on the slanted platform. SOLUTION;     I use 32 mm binder clips to hold the boxes together. SIGNAGE: I also needed signage.  Some method of adding a price and name to each box.  Something that I could take off and store, something that would not be permanently attached.  Remember this need to travel in a compact manner. SOLUTION:Clothes pins and name badges.  I clip the clothes pins on the individual boxes and slide the name badge on that snugly, voila removable signage. Now the entire new display was done and looks like this: Much better.   In this picture foreground zucchini, going back are bags of green beans, then collards, the seed packs and dried chili pepper on the hangers.  On the slanted area on the first row left to right, sweet onions, collards and radishes.  Second row, red onions, and beets.  Third row white onions and turnips, on the left of the new display are red new potatoes.

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