Central Interiors won the Bain Cup for the best decorated shop as part of the festival. Owners Grant and Dawn Sutherland were thrilled to have their work recognised but the win was about more than that.
Seeing people stop and smile when they observed the scene made it worthwhile, Mrs Sutherland said.
She came up with the theme which captured what the festival was all about to her. A picnic on a rug, children playing and eating ice cream and a beautifully gowned princess complete with tiara were all elements of the town’s traditional welcome to spring.
Like many creative efforts, the win was not without drama.
Folding the many, many flowers took more time and crepe paper than anticipated. Urgent calls to their supplier had more specialty paper on an urgent courier but to meet the deadline a family member was dispatched to Queenstown to retrieve the essential material.
The wallpaper mural was initially on one wall only. Despite other suggestions Mrs Sutherland was determined only more of the mural would do for the other wall. Unfortunately, it was handmade in Belgium. Ever the perfectionist, that did not deter her and it was created and dispatched directly to them rather then through their New Zealand supplier, as usual.
Mr Sutherland was not exempt from being called on to fine tune the perfection of the setting. He was called back into the shop one evening to adjust the spotlights to highlight the scene to its best advantage.
Aside from the time there was a significant cost to achieving the perfect vision. How much was not something they counted, Mrs Sutherland said with a laugh.
"We don’t talk about that."
Encouraged by this year’s success they have their sights on an even bigger, collaborative effort next year.
"If we start now it will be fine," Mrs Sutherland said.
