Balloon Column Rental in Arlington Heights: Uncharted's Merry Market Entrance
Chicago Flower Wall rents balloon columns and entrance installations for stores and venues across Chicagoland, including Arlington Heights. The installation in this post was styled by our sister company, The Pretty Party Boutique, for Uncharted's holiday edition in Arlington Heights: two freestanding organic balloon columns in stacked bands of pink, red, light blue and green, flanking the entrance to the store's Merry Market. Chicago Flower Wall rents the same balloon work for retail openings, holiday displays and brand events throughout the suburbs.
The Setup: Two Columns Framing a Holiday Storefront
The storefront does most of the scene-setting. Black-framed glass doors and windows run the width of the shop, the store's number — 330 — sits over the doors, and red scalloped awning decals on the glass announce "the merry market @UNCHARTED." Through the windows you can see shopping carts lined up inside and the holiday displays beyond. It is a working retail entrance on a shopping day, not a closed set.
Against that glass, the balloon work is a matched pair. Each column stands on the concrete just outside a front window, clear of the double doors between them, and each is built the same way: an organic stack that runs pink at the base, then red, then light blue, then green at the top, mixing large rounds with small clustered fillers so the silhouette stays irregular and lush rather than stacked like a spiral. The pair is symmetrical in palette and height but not mechanically identical — the left column leans a little fuller in the red band, the right a little fuller in the blue — which is the difference between organic columns and the twisted-spiral columns of older party decor.
Color Bands Instead of a Mixed Garland
Most balloon columns swirl two colors together. These do something bolder: each color gets its own horizontal band, stacked like the layers of a holiday display window. Banding is a deliberate choice for an entrance. From down the corridor, a mixed garland reads as texture; a banded column reads as stripes of color — pink, red, blue, green — visible at a distance, in the order your eye travels up the column. Shoppers register the installation before they can see the store's signage.
The palette itself deserves a note. Red and green say holiday; the pink base and the light blue band are Uncharted's kind of twist — the same soft pink-and-blue language the Merry Market uses inside, carried outside so the entrance promises what the shop delivers. When you order a balloon column and entrance installation rental, sending the brand colors or a photo of the display the balloons should match is what produces this result, rather than a default red-and-green column that could belong to any store in the center.
Why Entrances Get Columns, Not Arches
An arch over a retail door is a problem wearing a costume: it has to clear door swings, signage and sprinkler heads, and it puts balloons exactly where carts and crowds pass closest. Columns solve the geometry. They stand to the sides, on floor space the store is not using, framing the doorway the way two planters would — and the doorway itself stays fully open, fully visible and fully shoppable, as it is in this photo.
Columns also photograph the way stores actually get shared. A customer posing at the entrance stands between the pair with the shop's name over the doors; a passerby shooting the storefront gets color on both edges of the frame. For an opening or a seasonal launch — this store's Merry Market was its holiday debut — that threshold photo is the one that travels, and it is composed by the columns before anyone poses. A fuller treatment is available when a wall, not a doorway, is the photo target: a flower wall backdrop rental gives an interior wall the same framed, branded treatment at full width.
Where Is Uncharted in Arlington Heights?
Uncharted's Arlington Heights store is at 330 E Rand Rd, Arlington Heights, IL 60004 — the number over the entrance doors in this photo — in the Rand Road shopping corridor. Uncharted is The Paper Store's sister retail brand, a discovery-style gift and lifestyle store; its Arlington Heights location opened in November 2025 with the Merry Market, the holiday shop-in-shop concept whose name is lettered on the entrance glass here. This installation dressed that entrance for the holiday season. See the brand's website at uncharted.com and find the store on Google Maps.
A Second Uncharted, A Second Kind of Installation
This is not the first Uncharted the sister companies have dressed. An earlier post in this series covered a flower wall display at Uncharted's Oak Brook store — a full floral wall inside the shop, built for browsing and photos among the displays. Arlington Heights got a different tool for a different job: no wall, no interior footprint, just color at the threshold while the store traded. Retail decor is not one product; the right installation depends on whether the goal is an interior photo moment or an entrance that pulls people in.
That distinction is the useful planning lesson. Square footage inside a store is revenue space, and holiday selling floors are packed — an entrance installation asks for none of it. Two columns on the concrete outside the windows, installed around opening hours, changed how the storefront read for the whole season without moving a single display. Brands planning a launch across several locations can mix the formats the same way: a wall where a store has the room, columns where it does not, and a favor-style station — a flower bar cart rental has anchored in-store events the same way — where guests should leave holding something.
Who Styled This Installation — and Who Rents the Work
The Pretty Party Boutique styled Uncharted's Arlington Heights holiday entrance; the caption's words are "Uncharted's Holiday Edition!" and it is Chicago Flower Wall's sister company. Entrance columns, organic garlands and storefront balloon work in a brand's own palette are Chicago Flower Wall rentals for retailers, restaurants and venues across Chicagoland. Send either team your storefront photo and your colors, and they will confirm the format that fits your entrance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can balloon columns be built in a store's brand colors?
Yes. These columns stack Uncharted's holiday palette — pink, red, light blue and green — in bands. Send your brand colors or a photo of the display to match, and the bands are built to order.
Do entrance columns block doors or cart traffic?
No. The pair stands outside the front windows, clear of the double doors, so the entrance, signage and cart path stay fully open while the store trades.
What is the difference between columns and an arch for a storefront?
Columns frame the doorway from the sides and need no clearance over the doors; an arch spans the entrance and must clear door swings and signage. For a working retail entrance, columns are the practical format.
Which company styled Uncharted's holiday entrance?
The Pretty Party Boutique — Chicago Flower Wall's sister company. The balloon columns and entrance work are Chicago Flower Wall rentals, and either team can start the booking.
Get a Quote for Your Storefront Balloon Installation
Send Chicago Flower Wall a photo of your entrance, your opening or launch date and your colors — the team will confirm columns, garland or a full entrance treatment and reply with a written quote. Start on the quote request page and mention your store or venue in the message.