A year ago, I realised that lockdown may not be over as quickly as we first hoped! I thought about a new project for the family, bearing in mind shops being closed and supplies were limited. We had two dirty old pallets left over from an extension and we converted them into a pallet bar! We scouted around the house and garage for props every time we decided on a new theme to decorate it! My family all celebrated our birthdays at our Lockdown Bar as well as numerous other special events and as hospitality venues start opening up - we are looking forward to going outside of the garden but will always be fond of our bar and the special memories it helped to create during a very difficult year. Also, we look forward to welcoming friends to our bar – socially distanced of course!
These old planks have kept us sane and occupied over the last year!
I decided to share the images on social media following a suggestion from Jo Lee at Marmalade Marketing, who said it was good to share non-business-related topics ideally with a recurring theme!! Over the last year I have posted 54 pictures of the bar in its many different guises, celebrating a wide variety of occasions and uses – it has been viewed 57,545 times on LinkedIn over the year. However, when it was decked out for Glastonbury, it reached over 58,000 just on Twitter and NBC News in USA asked to use the photo! The posts reached so many people I had not spoken to for ages and in some cases for decades! Being in Lockdown meant having the time to reconnect and hear how their careers had progressed.
We have tried to share it with friends and neighbours even in Lockdown by delivering them Pimms, meals, cakes and G&Ts to brighten up their days! We also used it as a potting bench and planted sunflowers which we delivered to doorsteps – people enjoyed nurturing them and seeing them grow and then we had a sunflower party and decorated the bar of course!
We also took the opportunity to raise much needed money for several charities and, when allowed, invited friends to join in.
We celebrated in all weather and seasons!