Flatpack fest

It feels like a lot has changed in the shop in just a week.

The walls are almost painted, and the new flooring is down - the whole place looks so much brighter and cleaner! (OK, so it wouldn't have been hard, but still...)

K and his brother have been working hard: laying lino, painting walls and building a wall at the back of the room for the kiln to hide behind.


Or me!

We also took delivery of our tables and chairs, which arrived in such a number of boxes that the delivery man actually called me up to check I hadn't mistakenly added an extra nought onto my order.

NB: the following pictures may only be exciting to other similarly disturbed types like me who love putting flat-pack up...

Oooh, boxes!

Mmm, pieces o' pine!

Instructions read in full, pieces categorised, and armed with my tiny allen key, the fun commenced. Before long we had our first table and chairs.


The great thing about having done this is that we've been able confirm how many tables will fit in the shop. Having previously worried that we might not even fit eight tables in, it looks as if they'll fit comfortably - with possibly room for even more.



The To-Do list is still as long as both my arms (and one of my legs) put together, but with the help of a lick of paint and a little furniture, it must be said that it really feels like the shop is starting to come together!

Half a small forest

We just placed a whopping order for our shop furniture. After much to-ing and fro-ing, humming and hawing and running down every furniture supplier the internet had to offer, we went with a very plain set of tables and chairs from Homebase...

(photo brazenly swiped from their website)

...ten of them. Yes, ten. These pine babies will arrive unassembled, so I'm anticipating an orgy of flat-pack this weekend - which is good, because I have an unhealthy love of putting this stuff together. (If the business ever falls through, I am available for hire for all your flat-pack needs!)

They fall into the 'sturdy and inoffensive' category, which is what we wanted given that the main focus of the shop is to be the products themselves. Initially we'll probably only have space for eight, but wanted to get two extra in case we expand in future, and it'll be good to have the back-up of extra chairs in case things get busy.

The process of ordering them online was strangely stressful - whilst I know why the anti-fraud measures many banks have introduced in the last few years need to be there, they now mean I dread placing any orders over the internet, particularly large and costly ones using soon-to-expire discount codes. There's something mindblowingly frustrating about being at the mercy of a tiny little text box on a small glowing screen.

Meanwhile, K is making progress getting our signage sorted out, and we're moving closer to being able to place our first big stock order. There are so many things we need, and a couple of very competitive suppliers, which makes the whole process pretty complicated. Lucky then that my talents don't stop at furniture assembly, but extend to writing complex price comparison spreadsheets....