the empty string

I recently made the framework for a flower wall that Snapdragon Studio will use for weddings. Making it was fairly simple; basically I used two pieces of peg board bolted to a couple 1″×4″s (check out the bottom of the post for more details). The fun part was making sure that it was quick, easy, and obvious to put together and take apart.

 

No tools

There are a lot of moving parts when setting up flowers for a wedding, and I didn’t want the Snapdragon folks worrying about “Crap, we forgot the socket wrench for the flower wall!” I used wingnuts to fasten the bolts, so the whole thing can easily be put together by hand.

Labels

Ideally, the orientation of the boards wouldn’t matter—you could put either board on either side in any orientation and it would still work. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible because boards I was working with weren’t straight. :/ So I had to ensure that the boards would be put together the right way with … LABELS!

The key thing to keep in mind here was to not make all the labels too overwhelming. I started by labeling the top and bottom of the boards with text labels and arrows. Easy enough.

I marked the middle where the two pegboards meet with text and arrows. I also marked the two pieces with diagonal lines that align when the pieces are matched correctly. (I learned that trick from my dad when he helped me put in some laminate flooring.)

For the placement of the two boards, I didn’t use “left” and “right” because 1) that’s too much text, and 2) left and right are confusing when you can look at something from the front or the back. So, I opted to mark the two boards with two different shapes. The same symbols on the pegboard indicate the correct placement. This works great because it’s less of a cognitive load to match shapes than to read and interpret text. You can do it without thinking about it.

Requirements & Solution

Finally, if you’re interested here are all the requirements I had to meet and the solution I came up with.

Requirements

• large enough to cover a doorway and serve as a photo backdrop for people standing in front of it.
• small enough to fit inside an SUV.
• easy to store when not in use.
• made of material that allows flowers and greenery to be wired to it.
• sturdy enough to hold up to the weight of all those flowers (which can actually get quite heavy).
• secure enough that it won’t slide or tip over.
• leans almost upright against a door or wall.
• does not have ugly hardware visible from the side, such as an A-frame or a base coming out the back.

 

Additionally, I put on my UX designer hat and added some more considerations:

• People can get pretty smashed at weddings. Taking a selfie in front of a flower wall only adds to the rambunctiousness. The wall needs to survive drunk people falling into it, hanging off of it, etc.
• As outlined above, it should be easy, quick, and obvious to put together without tools.

  

Solution

• Size — 4′×7′, cut into two 4’×3.5′ pieces. The 4’×7′ would have fit in the the SUV, but cutting it into two pieces makes it easier to store and maneuver.
• Material — Peg board allowed flowers to be easily wired through the holes.
• Sturdiness — The peg board needed something to keep it from sagging when leaned against the wall. Plus, since we decided to cut it into two pieces, it needed something to join the two pieces together. Two cheap 1″×4″s on the back of the peg board did the trick.
• Security — Since I couldn’t build any structure coming off the back for aesthetic reasons, I had to get creative. Two eyehooks attached to the top of the 1″×4″s allow a cord to be tied from each hook to the door—this prevents any chance of it tipping over. Rubber pads on the bottom of the 1″×4″s keep them from sliding. I had a couple other ideas to keep it from moving, which you can see in the sketch above. But the rubber pads were actually enough to hold it in place.