DIY Market Set Up!

We are right in the middle of our favorite time of year - market season! We always love markets as it's a great opportunity to interact with all of you face-to-face, and see what our small business friends are up to! Amidst this, we decided it was time to upgrade our set up. Of course, we wanted to keep this as natural and sustainable as possible, while still looking professional. We believe we found the perfect solution. Follow along as we learn, using wood scraps sourced from a local sawmill to design, and assemble a cute display!

The first thing we did was gather inspiration both online and in person. When we decided the look we wanted to go for, we reached out to a local sawmill looking for any scrap pieces they were willing to give up. We got a good selection of wood, and were very happy to be able to repurpose these pieces!

Next we drew up a plan. We wanted to keep it simple, while still looking elegant. We decided on a basic 20" x 16" x 7" shelf design, with three compartments. To fit a variety of products, we opted for an 8" compartment on the bottom, with two 4" shelves on top. We recessed the upper shelves an inch to give a better view of the bottom shelf. The shelves were 6" deep to fit about 2 rows of product.

Once we drew out our vision it was time to start constructing. We loaded the wood into our woodshed where we sorted through to find the best pieces. Then we started putting our plan into action. We measured each board and penciled in where we wanted to cut. We moved to the table saw, and aligned the boards to cut to the perfect dimensions. During this we realized that some of the boards were not straight, and had to swap them out so they would fit together nicely.

With our boards sized and straight, we could move on to sanding. We did a quick overall sand, with an electric sander, knocking the edges off to reduce the chance of splintering. Then we pencil marked where the shelves would sit and marked the screw holes. We predrilled each hole to help prevent splitting the pieces. It was then ready to be screwed together! We used 2 ½" deck screws to hold everything together, and a speed square to ensure the whole unit was square.

Lastly, we sanded some areas, to ensure everything was flush, and removed the pencil marks. It ended up looking uniform and finished!

We hope you enjoyed learning along with us in the creation of our newest shelf! We were very pleased with our final design. We hope this project inspires others to create or try something new! It's amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it. Follow along for more DIY projects and fun creations in the future.

Love&Light,

Rea and Marisa Vriends

Twinkle Bees Natural Products