Dwell on Design Show 2017

For the past month our company has been hard at work getting ready for the Dwell conference in LA June 23-25th. We got invited to decorate the interior of the VIP Press Lounge and were able to partner with Raydoor, who did the exterior. Although we’ve been to many trade shows as spectators or even as speaker(s), this was our first as an exhibitor. We knew it was going to be a ton of work, but we were up for the challenge!

For the VIP lounge we decided to build eight cocktail tables out of reclaimed pine, two newly designed oak coffee tables, and a 10′ family farm table in walnut. Ian Sklarsky (@thesingleline) painted the murals for us, and Article provided us with the couches, rugs, and chairs.

The family farm table in solid walnut will always be one of our favorite pieces!

Along with the VIP booth, we had the opportunity to showcase our line of furniture and home goods in our own booth. The booth was simply a 20’x20′ empty space taped out on the floor of the convention center, so early on we had to plan out the design and all the pieces we would need to fill it. We decided to use antique pine to build the structure of our booth and for the floor we milled up ash, cut out tongues and grooves and voila. We went this route because we could bring all the wood back to Waco and use it again to make furniture! The furniture we decided to fill our booth was: our 10′ pedestal farm table in antique pine, a 5′ round walnut melissa table, two newly designed reclaimed oak side tables, and a melissa console table in ash. After the planning was done we got to work, packed an 18 wheeler to the top full of crates, and headed for LA!

Part of our team flew out early Tuesday morning to get the process rolling. Andrew, Maddie and Clint arrived first to start putting the floor together and building the structure of our booth. Later that night Kristin and Kelly joined them to unpack all the home goods and get to staging. They worked long hours Tuesday through Thursday setting everything up to get ready for the show. But don’t worry, they made it a fun time and got to see some fun parts of LA in their down time!

Fast forward to Thursday and Carmen, Britt, and I hopped off the plane at LAX to join them (insert Miley Cyrus song here). We took a taxi straight to the convention center to help with some last minute tasks and make a game plan for the weekend. Once done, our company, along with some Raydoor friends, headed out to dinner at LA Prime at Westin Bonaventure. It was a really cool place with a beautiful view of the city if you’re ever looking for a place to go…not to mention the food was amazing! After dinner we headed back for an early night: Kristin and Maddie had early flights back to Texas the next morning and the rest of us needed our rest to gear up for day one of the conference.

Friday through Sunday were filled with lots of pictures, talking, and exploring. There were so many talented designers with cool booths that we enjoyed getting to walk around and check out. Clint’s favorite was a company that made wooden bikes-they were legit! We had a blast getting to meet new people and share our story with them.

Taking on this project was HUGE for us and we are so proud of what we were able to put together in such a short time frame. Clint and Kelly were definitely the masterminds behind it all, but it took the hands of each of our 20 employees to make it happen. We love our team!! Here’s a look at our booth and some new pieces we built for the show (that will be added to our line soon!):

This is our 10′ pedestal farm table in antique pine. Mohawk Home supplied the rug and the amazing black chairs are from Article.

These side tables and coffee table were made from reclaimed oak and are new designs Clint came up with for the trade show. They will be added to our line soon so stay tuned!

Here’s a closer look at our new side table design. The cacti print is also fairly new to our shop and is handmade and available in three different designs!

This is seriously the comfiest chair ever and is offered in numerous colors through Article! All the other fun products you see are handmade by us or one of our local partners.

We love our melissa round table in antique pine but decided to try something new and make one in walnut….WOW! This may be our new favorite table!

Here’s a look at how the ash console table turned out…and of course the trip wouldn’t be complete without some candlesticks!

I promise Clint didn’t force us to all match in our green t-shrits, it just worked out that way ha! We definitely stood out, but we had a blast getting to dine at The Perch!

We loved LA but are glad to be back home in Waco, TX. Our team will be busy cranking out projects in this 100 degree weather and gearing up for filming that is just around the corner. In case you haven’t heard, our pilot got picked up by the DIY Network and will be airing sometime early 2018. We are so excited about Wood Work and hope you are too. Stay tuned!