Creative Ideas for Using a Frame-Only Product in Commercial Settings

Kay Park offers frame-only picnic tables as an opportunity for parks, recreational areas, and other outdoor spaces to customize the experience and involve the community in a subtle but rewarding aspect of the space. Below you will find out some reasons why a frame-only picnic table can be such a popular and interesting offering from an outdoor furniture company. 

From the ability to engage with artists, designers, and craftspeople in the local community to create a unique draw for your public space, this is a new way to improve overall visitor satisfaction while improving community relations at the same time.  

Why you might want a customizable product in a outdoor public space

Having a unique draw to an outdoor space is crucial nowadays, in a world where increasingly more time is spent by individuals indoors. As tastes change and on the back of a couple of tumultuous years with regards to public spaces – it’s important to improve the draw to your public areas and increase visitor satisfaction. 

Being able to compel visitors to repeat their visit and setting your space apart from the rest improves the bottom line – whether that bottom line is revenue-driven or satisfaction/engagement driven. 

A customizable piece of outdoor furniture that is essentially plug-and-play, aside from the logistics of the finishing touches (more on that later) gives you an easy way to appeal to the visitor through uniqueness and creativity. 

When the public knows about a unique fixture or finish in a public space, that public space often goes viral. Virality, in the sense that your public area is popular, means you get PR – and good PR is an excellent way to improve funding, increase engagement and solidify legacies. 

A craftsperson or a community interactive art project can be a fun way to improve community relations. It is also an effective way to re-engage with community members at a minimal cost basis. Finding artisans, craftspeople, and innovative members of the community means you get free press – you get free interactivity, and you can push the strategic goals of the organization more easily. Clearly, a properly constructed campaign of outreach and creative implementation is an avenue toward more impressive results across a wide spectrum of goals. 

Some tips and concepts to help you achieve the results you’re looking for with a frame only product

You need to be aware of a few points that can ensure success when working to complete a frame only installation, both from a practical and a creative perspective. Below you can find some tips to help improve overall outcomes. 

• You’ll need some creativity – so look for creative people. Woodworkers, craftspeople, or groups in the community that are interested in the challenge are a good place to start
• You’ll need some publicity – so engage with social media outlets for groups in the community, including, but not limited to local nonprofits, non-governmental orgs, church groups, and local builder/maker spaces. The free publicity will not only improve your community recognition, but help source a competent partner for the installation
• You will need to have a checklist and timeline for the “maker”. Just because you are engaging with a community member, does not mean that you cannot implement accountability. You should also have a backup plan and some funds to enact it if need be
• Materials will cost something, so budget appropriately. You could also ‘reward’ a builder through a design contest, with a ‘prize’ to complete the project. Alternatively, you could engage with famous, or well-known artists in the area (or beyond), to get some name recognition associated with the project, and help improve throughput with the artists own followers/fans
• Don’t forget to leverage the important relationships you’re building in the community for future events and to help broaden the visitor profile for your outdoor area
• Did we mention it already? Have a backup plan. Things happen, so be prepared to handle them
• Consider ideas that are weather resistant or utilize superior-quality products. The last thing you want is a beautiful project that doesn’t look great after 3 months in the sun, rain and other elements. Hardwoods, metals, quality composites, and cement are all good options, provided you can finish them appropriately to improve wear/durability/weatherproofing characteristics
• Reinforcement and securing the tabletop and benches to the frame structure is an absolute – you need to maintain that mitigation of liability and improve visitor experience – always work with your internal team to set standards for the project and explain the minimum standards to any provider of the finishing pieces for the picnic table.  
• OUTREACH! Tell the community about the special installation – be proud of the effort, promote the piece and improve the throughput of your visitor flows

Customization of your outdoor space sets you apart and endears visitors to you and your space

Having a unique space is, first and foremost, an effort to improve overall satisfaction and utilization of your public space. But more than that, it helps to put you on the map or solidify your legacy as a community-centric space and organization. This is true of governmental agencies, private organizations, and other entities. If you engage with the community you serve, they are more likely to re-engage with you. 

Having artists, creatives, or even sponsors (be careful not to allow such sponsorship to push hard agendas or become too commercialized) involved with your projects makes you a solid community partner and a subject of good PR. It’s a great opportunity to prove your value to users of your space. 

Important notes about sourcing, implementing and staying within compliance and liability guidelines for your area and installation

Real-world liability exists. Real-world standards exist. It’s important to make sure that a cool, innovative project doesn’t end up becoming a costly error in judgment. 

Here are some final notes that may help to ensure your cool, creative project utilizing a frame only picnic table goes smoothly:

1. Require full finishing and sealing of the product – whatever it is – as this will minimize scrapes, cuts, breakage, and other concerns with the general public
2. Make a checklist of standards and ensure that the provider of the tabletop and bench seating materials can meet those standards
3. Help the person/group chosen to do the work along in the process to make sure that the final product can be used in a public-facing installation
4. It’s OK to pay a bit more for these projects to get what you need out of it. There are VAST benefits to working with a company like Kay Park to get a fully finished outdoor furniture product, like a picnic table that is fully usable from the factory. Either way, you may not be able to have a “fairy-tale” interaction with the broader public in sourcing the finishing touches, so it’s OK, to work with a local business to secure the tabletop and seating pieces, too
5. Demand the highest quality materials and finishing. Aesthetics are great, but lasting durability and quality for a piece that will be public facing is what’s most important 

In the end, it’s important to engage with the community properly – and to build relationships for a public space. With a frame only picnic table and other core product offerings in the outdoor furniture space from Kay Park, you can make that interaction easy, fun, and innovative. We look forward to helping you create an ideal space for your people, organization, and areas.