Jan 4, 2025
SKIN1004 asked for a booth that felt like its product: calm, precise and rooted in nature. The finished stand looked simple. Getting there took six stages of work in our La Mirada shop before a single piece went on the truck.
This is the build, step by step.
The brief
One idea had to carry the whole stand: a deep-ocean dome set into a curved white wall. Around it, soft organic furniture in one pale blue, and white coral and shell forms telling the nature story without copy. Every surface and every prop had to land on the same specified Pantone color.
1. Carpentry: the shapes come first
Nothing on this stand is a straight box. The oval island, the S-curve and kidney tables, the column pedestals and the arched display tower all started as CNC-cut profiles. Our carpenters built ribbed frames and wrapped them in bent plywood skins, so each curve holds its line under load.
Raw builds on the shop floor. Every piece is marked by name, so it goes back together the same way on site.
2. Stucco: texture you can feel
The design called for a soft, stone-like surface. Instead of a printed texture, we hand-applied real stucco over every curved face. It hides seams, catches light softly and reads as one solid piece from the aisle.
Stucco over plywood. The display tower’s niches are masked so their insides stay smooth.
3. Paint: one color, two finishes
We sprayed the stucco in the client’s specified Pantone. Textured outer faces got the stucco finish; the tower’s shelf niches stayed smooth, so products sit on a clean surface while the shell around them keeps its texture.
The furniture after paint. Same Pantone, matte texture outside, smooth inside the niches.
4. Props: matched to the same Pantone
The coral, shells, nautilus bowls, driftwood and starfish were sourced, not made. Off the shelf, each came in a slightly different white. We primed and repainted every prop so none would drift from the booth’s palette under show lighting. The hanging shells were wired and test-hung in the shop to set their spacing.
Every prop repainted to the specified Pantone, then test-hung and staged before packing.
5. Shop pre-setup: built once before the show
Before anything shipped, we stood the curved wall, the ocean dome, the dimensional SKIN1004 letters and the arm lights up in our warehouse. Pre-setup lets us check graphic alignment, light angles and fit at full scale. On site, the crew installs a booth they have already built once.
Full pre-setup in our La Mirada warehouse: dome, curved wall, lettering and lighting checked before packing.
6. On the show floor
The same crew that built it drove it to Orlando and installed it. Because every piece had already been fitted in the shop, install time went to finishing details, not problem-solving. The result read from across the hall: one arched dome, one curved wall, and furniture and props in a single, exact color.
Built in-house, start to finish
Carpentry, stucco, paint, prop finishing, graphics, freight and installation all happened under one roof, by one team. That is how a booth stays true to its design from the first plywood cut to opening day.
Planning a beauty or retail activation for your next U.S. show? Reach out to our team to start planning your next build.
