help me build a market booth

April 17, 2009 7:25 PM

I want to help my wife build a small market booth for selling her art. It needs to be about 4x4 feet in size. It also needs to be portable so that she can set it up on her own and fit it into the back of a station wagon.

The booth is for keeping the rain and sun off so it needs rainproof tarp overhead, plus it's got to be stable enough not to tip over from occasional gusts. An umbrella is okay but most of them seem to go over when the wind kicks up. She's got a station wagon so any structure has to be broken down into pieces no longer than about 65" long. Bonus points if it is light and looks cool. Stable and keep the rain off are the main priorities plus fitting into the back of the car.

posted by diode to Work & Money (8 answers total)

PVC strikes me as the classic solution. Make a open box that is 4'x4'x6.5'. Use 45* angle connectors to make a frame for the roof. (A flat roof collects water). If you use a slip t joint for the top of the "walls" then you can slide the roof connectors on top. Sew long pockets in roof that you can slide the pvc pipe in and out. I would also make some sandbags to lay over the bottom edges to help keep it anchored in strong winds.
posted by metahawk at 7:55 PM on April 17, 2009

um, sorry, what kind of art? if it's like paintings, we made a 3-sided folding stand with thicker gauge wire mesh in wood frames so that the pieces can be hung on them as we like. It's very light, looks quite nice with the good stain on the frames, plus it lets the air through so when the wind picks up, it doesn't pick the stand up with it.
posted by lizbunny at 9:43 PM on April 17, 2009

Something like this?

See also Canopy Safety for anchoring tips.
posted by ctmf at 9:51 PM on April 17, 2009

Yep, what you're looking for is the EZ Up. I'm typing this two blocks away from the largest farmers' market in the country, and this is standard. I've seen smaller versions. Perhaps she could collaborate with another vendor to share a larger space under a single tent, too.
posted by Madamina at 5:44 AM on April 18, 2009

Go for ease of use and get an easy-folding multi-legged tent. I use 60 inch wire shelves tied together in zig-zags or columns (using cable ties) to hang my goods on, but I wouldn't use them - or wooden doors or screens or commercial display racks - as a base for roof-top covering. It reduces the display space and moe importantly could get top heavy, slippery, and if something goes wrong, it could possibly damage the goods.

By the time I pack away my goods, unassemble my displays, and get them packed away, I just want to toss it in my car - not have to spend time disassembling anything else. Folding it down like a folding canvas chair is a fabulous thing.

If you get a tent that has grommets around the canopy flap, then you can bring tarps to clip to it for when the rain is coming in at a 45 or 30 degree angle.
posted by julen at 9:51 AM on April 18, 2009

At 4X4 it's going to be much taller than it is wide, so it'll be unstable in the wind unless you include some system for weighing it down.
posted by jon1270 at 12:45 PM on April 18, 2009

Tangentially - check the seller criteria of the places/events where she'll be selling most often; many of them no longer allow non-commercially produced overhead/enclosed setups and require EZ Ups or their counterparts.
posted by faineant at 3:09 PM on April 18, 2009

Response by poster: Okay, some good ideas here. Thanks for the info.
posted by diode at 8:47 PM on April 18, 2009