Event Design Inspiration: Everyday Objects, But Make It Glamorous

For Earth Day in 2019, Absolut celebrated the launch of its sustainability platform with a New York event inviting attendees to exchange recyclables for cocktails. An installation promoting the campaign depicted the Absolut bottle as land surrounded by water; the wall was created entirely with recycled straws. Team Epiphany handled production. See more: See an Absolut Bar That Accepted Recyclables as Currency

To emphasize the target consumer for its then-new EveryDay credit card, American Express turned ordinary everyday items into creative visuals at a New York event in 2014. Custom-designed wallpaper featured common household items like toilet paper, deodorant, gum, cleaning products and pizza, all coming together in fun geometric patterns. The bar, meanwhile, was a take on an American classic toy—the Lite-Brite. Backlit and filled with several thousand straws that spelled out the #EveryDayMoments hashtag, the unique space became the focal point of the event. See more: Why American Express Used Grocery Items as Decor

For the official New York launch of Kendall Jenner’s 818 Tequila, Rose Gold Collective built a summery space that incorporated the brand's logo in subtle, stylish ways. The event, which took place in Shelter Island, N.Y. in 2021, included floral installations that incorporated 818 Tequila shipping boxes. The cardboard packaging also showed up along the staircase, on a step-and-repeat and on the DJ booth. See more: 10 Subtle Branding Ideas From the Launch of Kendall Jenner's Tequila Brand

During the 2019 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, conference and online platform Create & Cultivate hosted its Desert Pop-Up at the Ace Hotel. The day included panel discussions with creative business women, along with summery decor from Slaack Productions. Sponsor LaCroix created an on-site photo booth made from the brand's colorful cardboard packaging. See more: Coachella 2019: 6 Design Trends to Steal for Your Next Event

For a 2012 wedding at the New York Public Library, AAB Productions designed a chuppah made of books. The team used books to create the wedding canopy by building spirals and "shelf" across the top. A canopy of hanging lightbulbs, as well as deep red draping, completed the elegant, library-inspired look.

Stacked books also created an unconventional look at Novita Communications and Maiarelli Studio's vignette during Diffa's 2019 Dining by Design event in New York. The installation aimed to connect reading with the feeling of empathy. Instead of plates, open overturned books covering the topic of AIDS occupied the place settings, and stacks of books served as table legs. See more: 18 Dining and Tabletop Ideas From Diffa's 2019 Dining by Design

At the Unicef Hope Gala in Chicago in 2016, Kehoe Designs put an elegant spin on a childlike theme by creating a canopy of suspended neon Slinkys above the dance floor. See more: How to Design a Childlike—But Still Elegant—Event

In a slightly creepier twist on the idea, the 2017 premiere party for It, the remake of the Stephen King classic, featured a 10-foot chandelier composed of kids’ items like toys, bikes, stuffed animals, hockey sticks, instruments, clothing and more. See more: 9 Spooky Ideas From the 'It' Movie Premiere

In 2017, the inaugural Art Bash fundraiser for the Art Gallery of Ontario featured event decor and art installations inspired by the infamous parties of Andy Warhol’s Factory—the Pop Art pioneer’s New York studio in the 1960s. The museum committee partnered with Fifth Element Group to create event decor, which included a wall installation of paint cans dripping a rainbow of colors. See more: 11 Imaginative Andy Warhol-Inspired Ideas From an Art Benefit

Paint containers—2,710 of them, to be exact—were also used for a 2017 event that celebrated a partnership between Martha Stewart and craft store Michael's. To showcase the versatility of the new products, David Stark Design and Production built a colorful house facade out of bottles of home-decor paint and watercolor-craft paint. Guests were invited to grab paintbrushes from window boxes, then go to work painting everything inside the house—including rugs, couches, lampshades, duvet covers, nightstands and more. See more: See a House Made of 2,710 Bottles of Martha Stewart Paint

At the 25th anniversary of Montreal's Daffodil Ball in 2018, one of the co-chairs was an executive at aluminum foil producer Rio Tinto—so designers Total Events decided to include their product into the event while also nodding to the gathering's silver anniversary. Designer Lorne Levitt created a 150-foot-by-20-foot ceiling structure that featured an abstract wave with miles of silver foil panels. A combination of LED wash lights and moving spots brought it to life throughout the event.

At Diffa's Dining by Design in 2013, Gensler and Herman Miller's vignette was surrounded by walls covered in thousands of Hershey's Kisses wrapped in purple foil. Attendees were invited to take one as a symbol of the "many hands it takes to spark positive change." See more: 30 Steal-Worthy Decor Ideas From Diffa’s Dining by Design in New York

Toilet paper isn't necessarily associated with the glamour of New York Fashion Week, but in 2016, Cottonelle hosted an offshoot event that showcased its product in a creative, decorative way. The toilet-paper brand hosted a beauty lounge that offered pampering, photo ops, gift bags and small bites for celebrities, media and influencers—plus, a feature wall created with rolls of toilet paper, which was designed by BMF Media Group. Along with serving as an ornamental element, the wall was a backdrop for a photo booth that encouraged guests to pose with hygiene-related confessional signs. See more: See a Decorative Toilet-Paper Wall Created for New York Fashion Week

David Stark and his team designed the sixth annual Brooklyn Museum's Artists Ball, which took place in 2016 at the New York museum. Inspired by Constantin Brancusi’s sculptures, particularly the “Endless Column,” Stark transformed the space with towering totems made from stacked rolls of household and industrial paper goods. They rose from the dining tables in varying heights, up to a soaring 21 feet.

Freeform and ABC Signature Studios hosted an event for TV show Grown-ish in 2019. Working with AOO Events, the team transformed Lombardi House in Los Angeles into a college frat party, complete with lawn chairs as seating, oversize games and an ice luge. In one clever idea, an on-theme step-and-repeat was made from red Solo cups.

As part of Diffa's Student Design Initiative in 2013, five of New York's top design schools created installations for the showcase, under the direction of industry mentors and within a strict budget. Students from the Pratt Institute, working with mentor Arpad Baksa, used Pegboard, twinkle lights and individually placed test tubes to create a sparkling rendering of a world map. See more: 30 Steal-Worthy Decor Ideas From Diffa’s Dining by Design in New York

More than 5,000 T-shirts created a colorful canopy overhead at the Jewish Museum’s Purim Ball in 2014. The custom tees were painted with tongue-in-cheek takes on classic slogans, like "Frankie Says Relax It's Purim" and "Got Spiel?" See more: How 5,000 T-Shirts Served as Decor

To celebrate its Marvel TV series Legion, FX Networks hosted an immersive art exhibit in New York in 2017. Different artists were commissioned to interpret different scenes from the show. In a forced-perspective art piece created by Michael Murphy titled "Suspension of Disbelief," a variety of household items—including silverware, aluminum foil, spatulas and oven mitts—were strategically hung to spell out the title of the series. (Scroll down to see the result.)

Attendees could stand on a floor marker to see the materials align perfectly to spell out the title in FX's style. See more: See FX's Comic-Book-Inspired Art Exhibit

At the 2021 Robin Hood Benefit in New York, guests entered the event through the “Turnstiles Gateway to Opportunity,” a tunnel of 10,000 MetroCards, each with a $33 value, which will be distributed to Robin Hood community partners—ultimately providing 120,000 rides to get New Yorkers back to work. See more: Robin Hood Benefit 2021: See What It Takes to Produce New York's Largest Annual Benefit