Inside Our Licensing Expo Booth: The Greenhouse

By: Bonnie Christine

Story Adapted From Pattern Magazine – Volume 2

Pattern Magazine is Bonnie Christine's quarterly print and digital publication for surface pattern designers, artists, and creative entrepreneurs who believe that how you live shapes what you make. This story first appeared in Volume 2, Rooted Rhythms, the autumn 2025 issue.

Designing the greenhouse.

It felt like coming home.

Every corner of our Licensing Expo booth was filled with pattern, touched with the personal of handmade.

Live florals draped from the rafters, papier-mâché birds floated overhead, and the chandelier flickered with the warm glow of the candles. Fresh roses overflowed from a garden bed in the center, filling the air with the most inviting fragrance.

The full effect was irresistible, beauty layered with one purpose in mind: share our story.

Photo by Lissie Teehee

This was our first time at the Licensing Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, one of the world’s largest licensing trade shows. Thousands of brands, both exhibitors and attendees, gathered under the same roof, looking for ways to collaborate. Hop over here for our biggest takeaways.

There was so much our team did not know as we prepared for the Expo. But one thing we knew for certain? We wanted to create an experience for each person who entered our booth.

We sat down with paper and pen to map out our vision. We pictured the space as an extension of our brand:

...Soft, rooted in the seasons, and soulful...
...Nature-inspired colors, rich and calming...
...There should be live florals, a balance of refreshing outdoors and cozy corners.

Our brainstorming sessions provided clarity. We would create a greenhouse, a space that beckoned people to delight in and enjoy beauty in our corner of surface pattern design.

It would be an experience for the senses, filled with personal touches and warmth. And each element would convey our story from inspiration gathering to repeating pattern.

This vision, as beautiful as it was, came with unexpected challenges.

We quickly discovered our greenhouse did not align with the standard trade show aesthetic of tech screens, sleek white backdrops, and metal materials. Our booth vision was welcoming, but could it keep up with modern and stimulating?

Multiple booth builders expressed their doubt, reminding us that aluminum structures with lightweight vinyl-wrapped walls are standard, the sleek modern look aligns seamlessly with the Licensing Expo requirements, and our greenhouse vision was not within our budget.

Instead of abandoning our greenhouse, we continued to ask: How can we make this work?

Finally, we met with a talented booth builder who both understood and valued our vision. This team jumped on board and patiently worked with us through every layer. It was a beautiful collaboration of creativity as we paired our artistic strengths, and under budget.

One challenge overcome. Onto the next!

With each handmade detail and live installation, we added another hour to our booth assembly. The night before the Licensing Expo was a blur.

At nine o’clock, we looked around us. Other booths were assembled and ready—professional entrances, grand displays, and booklets arranged just so.

Our booth? We had buckets of soil, wood stacked high, piles of fabric, and what looked like the beginnings of a haphazard collage.

We kept our heads down and our hands at work.

Some of us grabbed the Allen wrench and began assembling furniture. Others hopped on the ladder to string birds in the air. We hung fabrics on rods, one pattern at a time, and repotted plants with our arms deep in soil.

As we recoiled the vacuum and took out the trash, doubt began to win.

Our booth looks so different from everyone else’s. Are we sure we’re doing this right?

No one else did any DIY projects. Do we belong here?

Photo by Lissie Teehee

We showed up with courage the next day, confident of one thing: One booth felt like us. It was filled to the brim with glimpses into our world. Every inch of it was created to serve others in the way we know how to serve.

And the response at the Licensing Expo took our breath away.

Our greenhouse drew people in like a magnet. “I could live in this booth,” one person said. “It feels like coming home,” remarked another.

It told our story in the most personal, tangible way and to our delight and surprise, this resonated with others. It resonated profoundly with others.

So here is exactly how we created an immersive experience and told our story in a six-hundred-square-foot expo booth.

We started with the storyline of our inspiration.

Every Bonnie Christine pattern is rooted in nature and often inspired by gardens, so we created a garden inside our booth.

We built an open-concept sixteen-foot greenhouse with wooden beams. Then, we installed a canopy of fresh and dried flowers cascading over it. The entire room smelled like a florist’s shop.

Near the greenhouse, enclosing our meeting area was our garden bed, a long wooden planter that stood waist-high. We filled our garden bed with roses and rich soil, the winnings of a trip to Lowe’s and Home Depot. I had dirt under my fingernails, but planting these roses was worth it. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Handmade plaster birds—a nod to the inspiration behind many patterns—soared high above our greenhouse and in the entryway to our Expo booth. Their presence brought the outside indoors and beckoned visitors into our space.

Photo by Lissie Teehee

Alongside our inspiration, we shared the story of our process.

Each pattern begins with a story, a simple sketch, a motif painted by hand. So we took one of my pencil sketches and printed it floor-to-ceiling on the walls of our booth. As the pencil sketch wrapped around the wall, it transformed into an elegant, colorful pattern.

We arranged three mood boards on the other side of the walls, tucked just inside our meeting area—a delightful array of fabric, photos, and sketches. And written on the wall and floor of our booth were these phrases:

Created to create.

Create the beauty you want to see come alive in the world.

Words that capture the heart of our process.

The grand finale of our storytelling was our patterns, incorporated into every square inch of our booth.

We designed a fabric wall—our showroom masterpiece—with over three hundred patterns. Each pattern was printed on fabric, sewn into custom swatch sizes, finished with labels and grommets, ironed by hand, and hung on curtain rods.

Touching each design and seeing the scale and colors in play was something to behold. It was connection in the most necessary tactile way. We called it our Living Breathing Portfolio.

Photo by Lissie Teehee

At the center of our Expo booth stood a grand dining table with treasures from our Flowerie shop: embossed floral notebooks, hand-poured candles, garden aprons, and organic cotton blankets.

Each product was an invitation to delight and enjoy, an opportunity to step into our world and experience the intentionality we pour into everything we design.

The story of our patterns continued with pillows and seat cushions arranged throughout the room, and hand-sewn floral lampshades softening the space. Many of these were from Carriage House Printery.

It was an immersive experience, crafted with so much heart. Our booth was designed to feel like home, an invitation to pause, slow down, and enjoy.

It was cozy. It was handmade. It was personal. Like the best stories so often are!

We easily think, “People only care about the final product. They only want efficiency.” We look at AI and wonder if human-made work is as valuable. We doubt what we bring to the table. Is it sleek enough? Fast enough? Modern enough?

Is it still enough?

The Licensing Expo answered with a clear, resounding yes.

Our design industry is hungry for meaning and connection. Companies are craving artists’ personal touch; they want hand-drawn motifs and to know the story and person behind each one. They want threads of originality throughout your inspiration, process, and patterns.

Trying something new and showing up in a way that’s uniquely you takes courage.

Serving with heart and intentionality takes sacrifice. We experienced this firsthand.

But showing up and serving in the way you know how, in the way that tells your story, will resonate.

We filmed a documentary for you. Watch it here!

Wanting More?

This story comes from Volume 2 of Pattern Magazine, Rooted Rhythms. The whole autumn issue, with every story and photograph, is at bonniechristine.com/patternmagazine.