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Dress up empty buildings with these creative window ideas

By Becky McCray

Even buildings used for junk storage can dress up their windows and contribute positively to your downtown. Photo by Becky McCray

 

Every small town has empty buildings downtown. Whether they are completely empty or just used for storage, they can make your downtown look vacant. If the building has windows, though, there’s an opportunity to dress them up a bit and maybe even promote another business at the same time.

In the picture above, a building used for storage is also being used to advertise another business that’s located across town. Here’s a previous display in the same windows:

Rather than leave the windows bare, the owner rented just the window display space to a retail store. Photo by Becky McCray

In Elkhart, Kansas, I saw two more good examples. For one, they made a custom banner to hang in the window and make it look like boxes in a display window:

Empty building with windows advertising a moving and storage business

The illusion of looking and seeing boxes stacked gives this ad more attention-getting power. Photo by Becky McCray

That’s definitely better than just empty windows or another vacant building.

In another set of windows, a local business used promotional items they already had on hand:

Empty building with windows advertising a satellite TV business

This satellite business used existing advertising materials (signs, stand-ups and banners) to fill the windows of this empty building. Photo by Becky McCray.

At first, I didn’t realize the building was vacant because the windows looked so lively.

In Hollis, Oklahoma, Betty Motley told me how a local group printed special banners to hang in windows. They found images online to use. This one is an empty building with an old-fashioned barber shop theme.

It’s all an illusion. There is no barbershop, no barber pole. That’s all on banners hung inside the windows.  Photo via Betty Motley

They even painted the door with barbershop lettering to complete the illusion. They also did another building using an antiques store as the theme.

Stacey Colledge from Central City, Iowa, sent me the photos below. They used historic photos of actual old-time businesses in their town, and printed them on static cling material so they can be moved when a building gets rented. A total of 9 has cost them about $2,000, she said.

Volunteers proudly pose with one of their historic photo window clings. Photo via Stacey Colledge

Not only did they put the window clings up, they put out a welcome mat, too! Photo via Stacey Colledge

Look into the future

So far, we’ve seen windows that featured businesses from the past and present, but what about businesses from the future? You know your town has a past, but do you spend enough time reminding people that your town has a future?

Here’s one town that did. Longview, Texas, used a window decal to show a vision of the building occupied by a future business.

This building would make a great boutique hardware store! Photo via Kevin Green, News-Journal Photo.

Read more about this one at the Longview News-Journal.

Window displays don’t have to be all business. They could be creative, too. Renton, Washington, did a series of window displays featuring a fairy tale theme.

Art is a smart way to dress up windows of empty buildings. Photo via Tory Franklin

Read more about it at the Renton Reporter.

Filling Your Empty Buildings

You don’t have to stop with decorating the windows. You can actually fill empty buildings with business, no matter how small your town is. Join Deb Brown and me for a 2-part webinar on Filling Empty Buildings at SaveYour.Town. The deadline to register is June 19, 2018.

Register Here

  • About the Author
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About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
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  • Video: How to fill empty car dealership buildings for the holidays - November 6, 2020
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  • The Idea Friendly Method to surviving a business crisis - October 6, 2020
  • Join me for the Rural Renewal Symposium online Oct 13 - September 26, 2020
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  • Refilling the rural business pipeline - July 7, 2020
  • Huge vacant buildings: grants to renovate? - June 9, 2020
  • Economic self defense for small towns  - June 7, 2020

June 11, 2018 Filed Under: economic development, marketing, rural Tagged With: arts, empty buildings, empty windows, future, history, marketing, window decorations, window ideas

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Comments

  1. Almatene Byrd says

    June 15, 2018 at 7:48 am

    Hollis, Oklahoma is really shaping up. Thanks to Betty Motley and her group of volunteers. HH HOL LL LIS HOL LIS Hollis, Hollis Hollis

    • Becky McCray says

      June 15, 2018 at 6:02 pm

      Thanks for the cheer, Almatene!

  2. Carol Ossell says

    June 17, 2018 at 4:01 pm

    It is time for our Building Owners to join together to
    create the energy needed to be recognized by our
    City government. There
    are 22 empty spaces in our
    Downtown that needed to
    be filled.
    Our Mayor & Council members feel that it is not
    their concern; that this is
    the Chamber of Commerce
    that should have the ideas!

    We have a 6 strong business owners that have
    “Gumption” . I have turned them onto your
    website. I have signed up
    for the webinar for the 19th; so will share it with
    them👍.

    • Becky McCray says

      June 18, 2018 at 8:47 am

      Hi Carol, thanks for joining in! I’m glad you and your 6 with gumption are ready to take action yourselves. You can’t wait for the city, the chamber, the mayor or anyone. Today individuals, people like you, are the ones who make things happen. Then those other groups will come along later when they see it working.

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