URBAN BARN WORKSHOP

Last night I attended my first Urban Barn workshop. I have been having major FOMO when I see these workshops advertised because it would never fail that I had something else happening on the same night! Since this one landed on a free evening I called my sister in law and she was excited to check it out with me! The theme for last nights workshop was 'Summertime Hosting' and I was excited for some fun ideas since I'm planning a BBQ or two this summer.

We had a very small group at our local store, there were 10 people registered and only 4 people (including me!) were in attendance. They had a refreshments table and we were all entered to win a gift card (no luck this time!). First up we went over the colour wheel and how to select colours to compliment with a Canada Day theme. They showed up how placemats can spruce up an outdoor table (they don't have to all match) and how to bring indoor elements such as pillows and throws outdoors. One of my favourite tips was to "use what you have" and repurpose things from indoors such as a magazine holder. Our host for the evening showed how she uses a magazine holder to hold beautiful throws to carry them outside for those evenings that are a little cool. Or using a crate to carry cutlery, napkins and condiments out to your patio (would also be great to keep things from blowing away!)

The Gabriel Magazine Holder - I need to get this!

The Augusten Throw was one of my favourites, so soft and striped (you can't go wrong with stripes!)

I think I need this Canadian flag throw too!

For the centre piece of the table they selected lanterns (Urban Barn currently has an amazing selection on sale!). They mix matched the styles and rather than using candles they used battery operated string lights. It was so pretty and much safer than a candle, my mom gave me a few strings of tiny lights after Christmas and I am itching to dig them out of the Christmas boxes now! They also used tiny Christmas lights to wrap around a bistro table, so many fun ideas.

(So many lanterns - how to decide!!)

At the end of the workshop we were told that it was our turn to create a display. I have always dreamed of creating displays in stores - and quickly learned its not as easy as it looks!! They had different themes written on cards and we drew a theme at random, we drew the princess theme. Since we were both in awe over a set of beautiful pink dishes we knew we wanted to do a dining display. Finding the placemat was quick and easy, I selected a pretty white indoor/outdoor placemat. We went with a pink plate and bowl with a smaller grey plate to break up the pink. Our host helped us select some flatware and we tried several glasses before deciding on a plain wine glass (less is more). The centre piece was the really tricky part!! There were so many options in the store and we were allowed to use anything (too much choice is not always a good thing). We tried so many pieces and I kept saying "I really want this for my house" and finally settled on a pretty glass box with candles and a blue vase with hydrangeas.

Here's our table before!

After we were done our displays they took pictures of us with our finished looks and did the gift card draw. We also had to take a few minutes to take a selfie with Maurice the moose for the #findthemoose contest before going home. I am so excited to see what workshops will be offered in the fall and can't want wait to attend my next one.

*ALL OPINIONS ARE MY OWN. I HAVE NOT BEEN COMPENSATED BY URBAN BARN FOR THIS POST.