This past year at Life In Bloom, we invested in some flexible and customizable bar bases. We typically rent bars out on over half of our weddings. But the inventory in the Chicago market is limited and you can only use the same wedding bar so many times before it starts to feel stale. So by making these bars, it allows us to customize our decorative bars from scratch without the cost of building from scratch. In November, I challenged myself to think outside the box and design one new bar per day. I called it the 30-Bar challenge! That said, life got in the way, and I only designed 23. Better than zero, I suppose.
I chose to keep the backbars the exact same for each design, changing only the color or finish. I would keep the size the same (16′ long), and the placement. Beyond that, I had complete flexibility to swap out the finish of the bar tops and the bar surrounds. I also got creative with different lamps on each bar that worked with the overall style of the bar.
In some of the applications, I opted for a graphic. In others, I used fresh floral. I built custom panels, and I even did some upholstered surrounds. This exercise did two things for me. First, I was able to create a mini library for our team of quick options to go to the next time they need a unique bar for the wedding or event that they are designing. Second, it allowed me to eliminate the idea of a ‘default’ from my mind. Each time we design, we should truly design with a blank slate.
We hope you enjoy these renderings and hopefully the next time you put pen to paper, remember to use a truly blank sheet.
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