So… do you ever get bored and decide to switch up the living room by moving the sofa into the middle of the room, putting a bookcase behind it, adding a light and maybe a bean bag chair back there creating a brand new library?

Just me, huh? Well I guess I’m lucky I work here especially during holiday sets where I can get all of the room-changing shenanigans out of my system! At least for the time being.

Halloween takes up a huge space smack dab in the middle of the Garden Rooms. This is space that is perfectly happy housing all kinds of silk arrangements, containers and greenery throughout the rest of the year. Then we come along and blow it up! All of that merchandise is moved to other areas, the walls are repainted (black, naturally) and the furniture is completely rearranged with lots more added. Then everything is hosed down (not really… well, actually yes, some items do get hosed down), cleaned up and ready to go. As with any project, the demolition part is always the quickest.

I tried to take the “Now” pictures from the same spot as the “Before” pictures so you can get an idea of how different it already looks. The windows have been covered with black paper and the painting of walls to black has begun.

Once the walls are painted we then go back and apply different textured finishes to the walls. Some areas are draped with various fabrics, some are completely covered with cardboard.

The next step will be to build and install the largest, most transforming set pieces. There’s tons to do before we bring in even one piece of Halloween merchandise. You’ll see some of those additions in my next blog post. Stay tuned…

Oh, just one more thing. This is the view I had as I left for the day. All of the Halloween merchandise has come from the warehouse and now is sitting on pallates in the receiving area silently mocking motivating us!