The core idea of Homeforest was to produce small decoration for people that don’t have much time to take care of plants but would like to make their room cosier by adding some nature.
The idea derived from personal experience after seeing rooms of university students. Most of them don’t want to waste time for housekeeping. Their days are mostly filled with studying. However, placing some sort of plant on their desk or windowsill could make their environment more pleasant for learning and living.
The initial idea was to create closed ecosystems inside a lightbulb or small flasks, but because of time pressure and not having enough resources to make these we evolved our idea into making stylish glasses containing easy-care plants in different designs.
We agreed that our group didn’t like to use any artificial plants. The production time for every glass was different. The most challenging part turned out to be constantly creative because we wanted every glass to be special and unique. The other tricky factor in the production was the complexity of the design. Some of the products required precise work so that they finally looked professional and appealing. This didn’t imply that the simpler ones were less valuable or good-looking. We always tried to design them as creative as possible.
We bought all-natural material from our business partner, a florist in Kirchbichl. Those materials comprised several kinds of mini branches, mosses and a big piece from a bark of a tree. In addition, we also put decorative stones in the glasses as a base. To find suitable containers was also a difficult task to manage because we wanted to keep it simple, yet attractive for the customer. The glassware was supposed to be plain, decorative and low in costs; therefore, we looked in various shops for the right ones. As a result, we found many types of glasses with different forms and heights.
Finding customers in the Christmas season was quite easy because Homeforest was the perfect Christmas present for relatives and friends. Besides, our final product was less expensive than in a flower business, but still, it was as lovely as what you get in a florist’s shop. We also thought about selling our Homeforests in the flower shop and on a Christmas market, however, because of time trouble, we abandoned this idea and sold them individually.
