Showroom renovation in Batumi: display, lighting, shopfront

Where we start: what will stand in the showroom, and how

We start a showroom renovation in Batumi with the exhibits, not the walls. A furniture showroom builds complete room sets from a sofa, a rug and a floor lamp. A bathroom showroom needs displays with running water, a kitchen showroom needs sockets for appliances that are switched on, and a car showroom needs a floor that takes the weight of the cars and an opening through which a car can drive in. The services, the floor and the ceiling depend on this list, so we discuss the wall finishes last.

The second question is how often the display changes. A shop rearranges its shelving every few years, while a showroom changes its collection every season or after a supplier's trade fair. If the showroom has no spare sockets, fixing points and lighting circuits, every change ends in chasing and fresh paint. If the brand issues its own requirements for the showroom (wall colour, lighting, logo position), we work to them, and if there is no concept yet, start with interior design.

A flexible display: floor boxes, plywood backing, suspension points

Flexibility is built into a showroom at the rough stage, before the screed and the ceiling go in. For changing displays we usually provide:

• a grid of floor boxes at 3–4 m centres, each with sockets and a cable for a screen or a terminal;
• plywood backing behind the plasterboard across the whole display area, not just at the points on today's plan;
• lighting track and suspension points on the ceiling around the perimeter and above the islands;
• demountable display platforms and framed partitions that are not stuck to the floor;
• spare modules in the distribution board for new circuits.

With plywood in the wall, a basin, a wall cabinet or a TV can be hung at any height, and once an exhibit moves on, the wall only needs filling. We record the layout of the floor boxes, backing and circuits in the handover file, so that a year later nobody has to hunt for them with a hammer drill.

Lighting the display

The general rules of retail lighting, the lighting layers and a separate circuit for the shopfront are covered on the page about shop renovation. A showroom has more accent lighting than general lighting: every display set gets its own light fittings, and they are turned whenever the display is rearranged. That is why we base the showroom on lighting track. We run the track with spare length and split it into several groups, so that the area where the collection is being changed can be switched off on its own.

Tiles, sanitaryware, lacquered kitchen fronts and car bodywork all shine. A light fitting directly above a glossy surface leaves a bright spot on it, and the customer sees the lamp instead of the surface. We light these displays from the side, at an angle, and set the final tilt of each fitting once the exhibits are in place.

We keep good colour rendering and a single colour temperature across the whole showroom, just as in a shop. Tile, fabric and paint showrooms also have a sample table: above it we hang a light fitting with adjustable colour temperature, from warm evening light to neutral daylight. The customer sees the sample as it will look in their own home in the morning and in the evening.

The shopfront and an opening for large exhibits

A showroom shopfront is often made full storey height, on a warm, thermally broken aluminium profile. In a residential complex the shopfront is part of the facade, so we agree its replacement with the developer or the owners first. In daylight the glass reflects the street, and exhibits by the window are harder to see than in the evening. To make the front row readable from the pavement, we light it more brightly than the back of the showroom.

We also think through how large items will get in: a corner sofa, a kitchen island, a cast stone bath, a car. We make one section of the shopfront openable or fit double doors without a central mullion. We size the opening for the largest exhibit and for the route from the street over the kerb, the steps and the threshold. Otherwise the glass has to come out for every delivery.

The floor: a backdrop for the display or an exhibit in itself

Furniture hardly covers a showroom floor, so every lip between tiles and every crooked joint is on view. Most often we lay large-format porcelain tiles: there are few joints, the backdrop is calm, and furniture legs, removal men's trolleys and daily mopping don't bother them. Slabs of 120×240 and larger are carried in and laid using their own method, described on the page about laying large-format porcelain tiles. We mark the floor boxes out against the tile layout, so that each lid lands in the centre of a slab or on a joint rather than cutting it at a random point.

Microcement and resin coatings give a floor with no joints at all. They need a dry, strong base, and over time scratches show in the walkways.

In a tile or parquet showroom the floor itself becomes a sample. We lay each collection as a separate field with a trim profile along its border, so that when the range changes, one field is relaid without touching the ones next to it.

Meeting room, samples and back of house

Customers stay longer in a showroom than in a shop: they sit with a sales consultant, leaf through catalogues, look at a 3D design of their kitchen. This needs a consultation area with sockets by the tables, a screen and a coffee point with water and a drain. Price is easier to discuss in a meeting room, which we separate off with a glass partition in aluminium framing. The glass keeps the view of the showroom, and it holds back sound if the framing is fixed rather than sliding and has seals all round the edge.

Samples of tiles, stone and kitchen fronts are heavy. We fix the shelving of the sample library to the walls through the backing, and place the library by a load-bearing wall or a column. Besides the showroom itself you need a stockroom, a toilet for staff and visitors, and somewhere for cardboard after unpacking. A windowless back room is connected to extract ventilation, otherwise the stock of samples sits in stale, damp air.

Bathroom and kitchen displays: water and power

In a bathroom showroom some of the taps and shower systems are shown with running water. We bring water and drainage to these displays at the rough stage, into the display wall or under the platform, with an isolating valve for each point, so that changing a model doesn't mean shutting off the whole showroom. Waste from basins on the islands runs in the screed with a fall, and if the floor build-up isn't deep enough, we put a waste water pump under the platform.

A kitchen showroom needs power for appliances that run during demonstrations. The displays can have five or six induction hobs, so we size the circuits from the list of appliances that will be on at the same time. Cooker hoods on displays usually have no outlet to the outside. But if the showroom hosts cookery masterclasses, it needs a real hood that vents outside, and we agree the duct route in the same way as for a cafe renovation.

How much a showroom renovation costs in Batumi

A turnkey showroom renovation with labour and materials costs from 1,020 to 1,440 ₾ per m². The price includes rough work and services, floor boxes, the floor, the ceiling, wall finishes and installing the lighting. Retail equipment, display furniture and the sign are not included.

An aluminium and glass shopfront or entrance is shown as a separate line in the estimate: it costs from 780 to 1,080 ₾ per m² of glass. A glass partition for the meeting room costs from 830 ₾ per m². A large-format porcelain floor is made up of the laying, from 140 to 180 ₾ per m², and the tiles themselves, from 205 to 300 ₾ per m². Lighting track installation costs from 27 to 30 ₾ per linear metre; that is the price of the labour.

A showroom in white frame with a level screed, where the display stands along the walls and floor boxes are needed in only a few places, comes out closer to the lower end. A showroom with a grid of floor boxes over the whole area, water to the bathroom displays and microcement across the entire floor is closer to the upper end. From a plan and a list of exhibits we send a preliminary estimate within 24 hours on business days. The final cost is set after the site measurement, once the estimate is agreed.