I worked in the Mizzou theater to help pay my way though college. In my freshman year, I worked in the scene shop making sets and props: it’s where I first used power tools. I helped make step units, platforms on legs, wall units, and all sorts of oddball things like giant crown molding and a curved staircase handrail.
Everything in the scene shop was made for the shows, and the pieces were retired at the end of every show’s run. Temporary constructions.
Flash forward for a, uh, few years, and I was asked to make promotional furniture for a limited run at Circle K.
Some branding events were being developed for certain stores in North Carolina that served “Simply Great Coffee,” and I was asked to help change the look of the stores for the events. Instead of the plastic counters, they wanted real wood counters. They wanted engraved signage. And, they wanted the pieces to be mobile so they could move from store to store.
An architectural firm in North Carolina was hired to go measure the stores and take reference photos. My client developed renderings of what they wanted, and then left the woodworking to me.
OK, go.
I made 9 pieces:
- A 2′ x 10′ counter, made to slide on top of the existing counter. The trickiest part of the design was the in-counter trash chute that had to mate up with the existing trash chute.
- Three 1′-9″ x 5′ pieces, called “parallel toppers” that were to slide on top of existing desk-like counters, each covering one of the plastic counters and its associated back splash.
- Two 24″ diameter round engraved signs to hang in the windows.
- One 30″ coffee table, also engraved.
- Two highboy cocktail tables, which needed to come apart for travel.
My engraver, Lavene & Co, added some engraved napkin holders and coasters to complete the look. She also engraved the signage and the coffee table, as you will see.
The pieces needed to be completed in 30 days, and then picked up from my house wrapped in packing blankets for transport to North Carolina.
I made the deadline, the pieces journeyed safely across the country … and the results were exactly what the client wanted!
