Introducing the Sand Castle!
The first step to Beachcombering the outside!
Yes! This is the same building!
Wait until you see it at night!
In the beginning...there was green.
Seperating the Store and the stockroom
Yikes! Where'd the ceiling go?
Ceiling Tiles Ready to Go
And then there was light!
This cash wrap needs help!
To the Left (Front of the Store)
Swing your head a little to the right...
Further on to the back wall...
Khussa Heels, Wedding Styles, Ethnic Sandals
Our First Customer (before we actually opened)
Well, our bulding used to look like a sand castle, but we've taken the first steps to making it our own.
We have a lovely sign coming along with 3 new purple awnings! Some light landscaping, a pet parking area, and we'll be ready!
It took some time, but how fantastic do the awnings and the sign look?!
Both the sign and the awnings we done by Vital Signs of Orlando FL.
One of the first pictures of our Store before we "Beacombered" it out!
The ceiling was black. Dark lime green walls and a black ceiling. Quite nice for the soap store that was here before us, but not Beachcombers at all.
We had to still run the business while re-modeling the store.
In order to hold all our inventory and have a shipping area, we needed to seperate the space into retail and warehouse.
We first went to work painting the walls and getting rid of the black ceiling tiles.
The lighter ceiling and light walls transformed the entire space. A word of note...if you ever need to re-do old ceiling tile...hire soemone! It's a dirty job, lol!
We couldn't very well do just plain white walls...we're Beachcombers! We did two walls with the most beautiful brushed pearl paint and I accented a couple of corners with hand-drawn henna inspired designs.
With our gorgeous new ceiling and lovely brightly painted walls, it was time for the floor to get a facelift.
Wait until you see how this turned out!
We added fixtures and displayed the product. Now we're ready!
This is the view of our new Store as soon as you open the door. Do you even recognize it from the first pictures?
Once you walk in, to the left you see displays and the henna display in the corner, along with our henna cooler.
On the far wall you can see our khussa and shoe display, along with the glass bangles down the center of the room.
Against the back wall you can see our Build-A-Bangle display.
The wall on the right contains the cash wrap and bindi display.
You can see our bindi display and a hint of the painted henna design on the wall by the door.
This area is where I help people find their proper bangle size. The cabinet contains storage, which is always at a premium in a small store, lol!
All the henna product is cooled and the henna accessories are on the shelves.
This is the COOLEST part of the Store! It took days to create this, but it's worth every single drop of sweat. The fabulous metal art on the front is by artist Ash Carl.
We had just set up our POS system, then went to introduce ourselves to some of our new neighbors. While there, we ran into our friend, Bobbi, shopping with her mom and grandmother. Well we invited them for a sneak peek of the shop and made our first sale to Bobbie's mom!
It's fabulous to have a talented florist for a neighbor! Forever Young Floral Design provided the most gorgeous classy flowers for our Preview Party.
We received compliments on these all evening. I let Beav have full control over the flowers since he is the expert. Thank goodness I did, because I wouldn't have gotten this stunning arrangement!
Don't you love this simple arrangement? So lovely and classy. Thanks, Joe!
Well we certainly had to have some purple with our flowers, yes?
My birthday was 2 days before the Preview Party, and this stunning tropical arrangement was from Asad. Like I said it is veeeery nice to have a florist for a neighbor, lol!
My dear friend and fellow business owener/artist, Tara, painted these wine glasses as a congratulations gift for our Store. They are one-of-a-kind and she called them her Beachcombers series! Her online business is www.ScarboroughSeashells.com and I can't tell you how much of her jewelry I have, lol!
This is our first customer the day we opened the doors to the public. Faye fell in love with glass bangles and got some for herself and a friend. THANKS, Faye!
We are a couple of blocks from the local high school and we had some high school shoppers on our first day of business.