Soap Display Stand Challenge!!

Phew!! It's finally done!

After our success of making the trugs last year I thought I'd have a go at building a display stand for one of the shops we supply here in Portugal. The trugs we have are lovely- especially for things like markets and fairs, but we'd had some feedback from friends that in this particular shop display it was hard to see the soaps properly.
Right! Display Case-  'How hard can it be?'  (our normal answer to a new challenge!!) The truth is that actually this time it was quite hard!  Once we'd got the basic unit together (I have to admit to having a bit of help from the hubby for this bit!), it became apparent that the shelves weren't all that strong. Easy solution- we'll put some dowel up at the front of each shelf for extra support.

 The only problem with this idea was that Dowel is very hard to get in rural Portugal! We tried making the struts with pieces of wood which had been routed to make them less square but it felt too chunky. Had I thought about it I could've gone into Ishbels house here and nicked her curtain poles (just kidding Ish!), but i ended up having to bring them back in my luggage from B&Q in the UK!!

After fitting some corner triangles at the back of the shelves, and the dowel struts, the stand felt really sturdy  (hubby said 'thats strong enough to sit on, that is!' but I'll take his word for that!)
I blended some paint to get some nice fresh Spring colours, and got the local printers in the village to make up some vinyl banners with our lovely logo.
One final coat of varnish and it was finally ready for some soap!

This is what it looks like in situ, and it just happened to be the same colours as the spring display which was being put together as I arrived- result!!

                                                 You can find it in http://www.deklomp.pt/