The clock started ticking for us at 7.30pm on Saturday 29th February leaving us just 8 days to get our Covent Garden store back and operational ready to work on Monday 9th March.

Saturday 7.30pm...last time the store would look like this...

 

An ambitious timeline for sure - especially as this included taking out and putting in a whole new engineered wood floor, rewiring, building a new wall...and of course to be able do this we also had to figure out what to do with all of the stock and existing display materials in what were very cramped quarters.

Astonishingly in less that 7 hours we had gotten the store emptied of stock, furniture ripped out and ready for the builders to start work on Sunday morning...

From then on whilst we beavered away downstairs with manual tasks such as refurbishing display units with polish, cleaning poles with white spirit as well as staining and recovering belt displays and repainting the staff area, the guys upstairs ripped up floor, opened up walls, rewired, built new furniture, painted and decorated...

When that was all over on Saturday we started on making it all pretty again - reinstalling displays, hand finishing our new cash desk and coffee counter with special rust effect paint (a 4 stage, 24 hours process!), hanging over 15 posters and 4 mirrors...and of course cleaning (again and again and again).

Thanks to the building team and all of our ER team (with special mention to Andrea) who have worked tirelessly to deliver this project on time. As for me, lots of aches, cuts, bumps and paint spattered clothes - but a sense of great satisfaction at seeing my conceptual design come to life and our beloved store transformed, refreshed and ready for the next 15 years!

All the best,

Justin

Day 1...Store gutted...a damn mess but floor coming up and wall being constructed

      

Day 2 begins...

Day 3...a little neater

 

Day 4...new floor and some colour...

Day 5 - Furniture construction

Day 6 - wrapping the new furniture with Lincrusta textured linseed paper

Day 7 - Display poles back up, exotic wires up, first paint layer onto the desks

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Day 8 - Rust paint onto desks, pictures going up...

Day 8 - Rust effect taking effect on desks...

Day 9...Back in Business

Now we can focus on doing what we do best - helping you find amazing belts and have a great time in the process!

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