Terrain for the Holidays: Sous Bois with our Field Visual Director

Every season, our visual store teams completely transform our retail spaces into enchanting wonderlands that honors the time of year with the most incredible displays. This year for the holidays, they looked to the forest understory for their inspiration, celebrating the colors and textures of that hidden world: dense carpets of mossy green; lacy fern fronds and climbing vines; a scattering of fallen cones; gnarled branches and weathered bark. We spoke with Melissa Bartley, our field visual director, to get a behind-the-scenes look at the creative concepts at our Glen Mills, PA, Devon, PA, and Westport, CT locations.

“Sous bois means ‘forest floor’ in French” Melissa explains. “Our creative director wanted to create a feeling of entering the store under the canopy of the forest with a firefly effect,” she says, to really explore the beauty of winter’s decay. To emphasize that feeling, the team layered Stargazer Nature Effects LED bulbs, mossy branch lights, Northstars, and Lightspheres into a canopy of foraged boughs and branches. Detailing on and under display tables with moss, mushrooms, and pinecone ornaments offer a lot to discover.”

Each store executed the concept a little differently, which makes each space feel special. Melissa says that “Styer’s canopy is cathedral-like with a peak, Westport creates a lower density bringing the ceiling height down, and Devon’s is a little more open. Each display caters to their specific space to create a unique experience.”

“Our store visual teams foraged for branches to create the canopy, the understory, and the trunks,” Melissa says. “If we knocked on your door to ask if we could dig up that big trunk in your front yard or forage branches from an old tree that fell on your property, then we just want to thank you for your contribution!”

Want to see more incredible installations from our store teams? Check out our Mini Moss Walls, Patterns in Nature, and Living Wreath.