Our journalist visited the workshop of Maxim Pimenov - school teacher labor and a carpenter who specializes in the production of decorative telephone booths.

The red telephone booth is not only a symbol of London, but also a full-fledged element popular culture. In this capacity, he, like Eiffel Tower, has long been used in design and art. A person buying a miniature figurine booth, or putting the inscription TELEPHONE over the red front door, does not necessarily have to be an Anglomaniac; the image of a telephone booth in the interior does not require that all other elements be designed in the “British style”. Therefore, consumers and producers of English booths can be people with completely different interests.

Maxim wears silver rings and a corduroy jacket, loves Dan Brown and Perez-Reverte and teaches technology at a gymnasium in eastern Moscow. He lives in a new building in Odintsovo: in his house, each tenant has his own basement, and in his, of course, Maxim has equipped a workshop. I expected to see a whole parade of telephone booths, but it turned out that Maxim only makes them to order and sells them right away. Only one booth is kept by him and will never be sold: it was made by students as a special project in technology class.

Actually, says Maxim, this is where it all started. More precisely, at first he made a small lamp booth as a gift. Then he gave the schoolchildren the task of making a larger booth - half the original size. Well, then he began to make various custom-made booths: in the form of lamps, bookcases, chests of drawers and simply exact copies of London kiosks.

In general, as it turned out, there are almost no works by its owner in the Odintsovo workshop: Maxim immediately sells or donates everything he makes. The only things kept at home are the students' work and a model of Doc's car from the movie "Back to the Future." Maxim proudly says that he spent a whole year making it and that the copy turned out to be extremely accurate.

The student booth creaks when I struggle to open the door. An ordinary telephone hangs inside; Maxim says that the boys did not have enough strength for an authentic turntable. He himself, however, carves devices from wood that exactly correspond to their English originals.

A small booth costs about 25,000 rubles. You can order it through Avito, where I found Maxim’s ad. Wooden booth in life size costs twice as much, 50,000 rubles. When Maxim tells me how much effort he spends on one job, I understand that it cannot cost less. Buying boards, cutting, adjusting, inserting glass, filling the roof with a special solution, covering with paint - all this takes two weeks for a small booth and a month for a large one.

In parting, Maxim showed me another work of schoolchildren - a royal carriage with gilded wheels. I don’t know how much time and effort needed to be spent on this delicate work, but I’m sure that the students were very pleased with themselves.

Returning home, I decided to check if I could buy English booths some other way. A quick search showed that there are companies where the production of booths is on stream, but their price tags are completely different: iron booths cost about 150,000 rubles, wooden ones - about 80,000, and you need to wait the same month. If I'm going to install a booth in my garden, I will definitely prefer Maxim's work.

I sometimes go to the Business Youth website for interesting stories about who does business with what in Russia.

And I found it recently interesting story(molodost.bz/casses/211/) a girl (Elena Glukhova from Moscow), who has been making money selling red telephone booths from the UK for a year now:

And, according to her, she earns a net 450 thousand rubles a month.

She needed almost no money to start a business (except for 300 rubles for niche analysis through Yandex.Direct).

When she posted an advertisement through Yandex.Direct for the sale of red telephone booths from the UK, she began to receive many applications.

And rightly so, look at the demand for them (apparently, having a red telephone booth at home has become a fashionable trend):

After that, Elena simply found a supplier of such telephone booths, who restores and transports them from the UK to Russia.

It's a small matter - take money from the client, bring him a telephone booth, and keep the difference for yourself. (As I understood from Elena’s text, a telephone booth from the supplier cost her 400 thousand rubles, but for the client it costs 500 thousand rubles; that is, the profit is 100 thousand rubles for 1 telephone booth).

Then the clients hinted to her that they did not need the original phone booth, just a copy.

And Elena went to search on the Internet for those who could make such a telephone booth (entry on her wall dated July 17, 2012):

That is, Elena first found clients, and then began to look for manufacturers.

And she acted according to the principle: “Money in the evening, chairs in the morning” (therefore, initial investments in the business are not needed).

Elena created one of the pages for selling phone booths on the free service pen.io (I wrote about it in the article How to create an Internet page in 10 seconds) - redphone.pen.io.

By the way, this page is very well indexed and for the query “English telephone booth” it is on the 1st page in the Yandex search results.

That is, it is once again confirmed that it is easy and profitable to be an intermediary.

Benefits of Mediation

1. You don't need money to start a business.

2. You can always change one niche for another (just close one Internet page and start another).

3. If there is high demand (even if there are competitors), you can always make money.

By analogy with the red English telephone booths, you can create thousands of similar niches to create cash flow.

Technology for finding profitable niches

1. From your head or by selection method, make a list of several niches.

2. Check demand using search query statistics (for example, wordstat.yandex.ru).

4. Looking for suppliers of goods.

5. Collect money from your first customers and deliver the goods to them.

6. After this (when the niche has already been verified, suppliers have been found, the interaction technology has been worked out), you can already create a serious page (even on pen.io) and increase your cash flow by expanding your advertising campaign.

When the fashion for English telephone booths passes, you can find another niche (including developing several niches in parallel).

For example, in the West it has now become fashionable to make housing and retail outlets from sea containers:

I checked the Russian demand for sea containers:

It's even higher than phone booths!

And although there are proposals, but also to an ordinary person it is quite possible to wedge in here, as another participant in Business Youth did - Konstantin Ryabushinsky (from Ufa) - molodost.bz/casses/209/. Starting from scratch, I managed to earn 200 thousand rubles in the first month.

You can do the same. No risk, decent income, business flexibility.

You just need to first decide, then move a little and finally bring the matter to a streamlined procedure.

is based on typical associative series associated with the main city of England. What evokes indispensable associations with London? Red telephone box, British flag, London policeman, Big Ben, London double-decker (double-decker bus), Tower Bridge. Proper use of these symbols of London will definitely help you create a memorable and bright interior in London style. I’ll say right away that it’s traditional english style in the interior, a much more conservative direction, practically not intersecting with what is commonly called the London style.

Interior design depends on many little things, and only a few manage to make it the way they intended it without the help of professionals. Most people should still turn to those for whom creating unique residential interiors is not just a hobby. If you are a fan of England, then the legendary red telephone booth in the interior will certainly tell your guests about it. There are a variety of home decorations designed to look like phone booths, such as bookends, clocks and mugs, but there are many other ways, including examples using stylized doors, sofas, and wall decals.

Examples of London style vinyl wall decals

We can say that the legendary double-decker bus is a win-win option for interior design in London style. A wall sticker with his image will enliven and diversify the design of a living or office room. Huge selection The colors of the sticker will allow you to match it to any interior. Price: 620 rubles for a sticker of size 492 X 600 mm. You can buy it.

Big Ben is another well-known symbol of London. A vinyl wall sticker with his image will be appropriate when decorating the interior of a living space in London style. Price: 1689 rubles. You can order.

This red phone booth door doesn't need much introduction. Price: 771 rubles. A variety of colors are available to order. You can buy it.

In addition to walls, you can also decorate the door with a sticker. It is possible to choose from 24 different colors. Price: 2237 rubles. Order .

Besides living rooms, you can also decorate your kitchen in London style. Stunning refrigerator stickers with images of the British flag, the famous telephone booth or the silhouette of London will help transform your interior beyond recognition! A large selection of magnetic and vinyl refrigerator stickers, including those with the image of London, can be found on the website - stickerdecor.ru.

Examples of magnetic and vinyl refrigerator stickers in London style

Stylish magnetic panel sticker for the refrigerator “British flag”. Can be placed on the front door of the refrigerator or on the side walls. Price: 1500 rubles. For sale.

Telephone booth and London streets. Great solution for registration modern kitchen. Magnetic panels for refrigerators are quite durable, because their thickness is 0.5 mm. Price: 1500 rubles. You can buy it.

Magnetic sticker panel for the refrigerator with the image of London and a red double-decker bus. Especially suitable for high-tech kitchens. Price: 1500 rubles. You can order.

Another interesting option refrigerator design. Price: 1500 rubles. You can order.

But this London telephone booth is no longer a magnetic panel, but vinyl sticker. Its advantage is large selection Available colors to order. Depending on the design of your kitchen, you can choose not just a red booth, but, for example, green, purple, yellow or any other. Due to the fact that the picture of the booth itself is made very accurately and the picture itself is easily recognizable, any color of this sticker will be appropriate. Price: 1960 rubles. You can buy it.

Stylish interior items in the London style can be found here, and.

Newspaper "British Flag". Size 34 x 17 x 32 cm. For sale.

Wardrobe system"Red telephone booth." Height 156 cm.

Pouf-box made of artificial leather for storage. Maximum load up to 200 kg. Dimensions: 38 x 38 x 38. .

A piggy bank in the shape of a red telephone booth. . Material: rubber.

Stylish, practical and inexpensive quartz wall clock"England". Body material: wood. Price: .

An elegant newspaper rack with a British flag on light wood legs. Elegant and functional.

Or the same one, but with a London style print.

Bar-office in the form of a red legendary telephone booth from the Maitland Smith brand. Made in France. Price: 573,300 rubles.

Royal mahogany CHAIR. Brand: Deco-Home. Price: 29.472 rubles.

An interesting life-size mirror in the shape of a London booth door. Brand: Kare. Manufacture: Germany. Product height: 210.5 cm. Price: 25,740 rubles.

An absolutely charming chest of drawers made of wood with a Union Jack paint job. Although this is not a booth, such a chest of drawers really helps create the right British atmosphere. Brand: Charleroi, France.

Red telephone boxes (public telephone kiosks) were designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, can be seen in many places throughout the UK, and in current or former british colonies all over the world. But traditionally, it is a symbol of London. The red color was not chosen by chance; it is the color that is easy to notice at night and in the almost constant London fog. London style in the interior is unthinkable without this booth.

Red K6 Telephone Kiosk Replicas come in the form of TVs, bookcases, teapots, teapots, doors, sofas and many other items, and are popular around the world for installation in places such as bars, restaurants and offices. Many people order vinyl ones with the British flag and other symbols of England and London.

There are a few typical British images, which seem to be instantly recognizable around the world. Queen, The Beatles, London Double Decker Bus, London Taxi, London Map and Red telephone box are part of British heritage and are universally loved by Britons and visitors to the city.

We are unlikely to be wrong if we assume that the mention of London makes your imagination draw a gloomy landscape, covered in gray haze, through which the spire of the Elizabeth Tower peeks through. The general bleak picture is enlivened only by the bright red double-decker omnibuses scurrying through the streets. Apparently, it was precisely because of the increased “nebula” of Albion that the British, acting contrary to their love for restrained tones, always tried to give expressive colors to the key objects of their capital: simply so that they could be easily seen. Along with the bus, another element of the urban environment of London was destined to “dress” in scarlet: it became the English telephone booth, which subsequently turned from an ordinary utilitarian thing into a recognizable symbol of England.

So, the red booth, designed for private telephone conversations, has now been forced out of London streets mobile communications, migrated to interiors, falling under close attention craftsmen. And no wonder - such an exclusive item is difficult to manufacture; you cannot put it into series: furniture manufacturers rarely include this interior attribute in their “price list”. The popularity of the London rarity is consistently high, especially among restaurateurs and adherents of design with elements of kitsch. What can we recommend to those who have decided to make an English telephone booth with their own hands?

“Reincarnation” of the English telephone booth in interior design

Created in the distant 20s for clearly defined purposes, the red telephone booth in most cases continues to be used in the same way: it is installed in offices, restaurants, bars and other public places, setting up an intimate meeting area. The only difference is that previously the London payphone was an exterior detail, but now it demonstrates its worth as an interior accessory. However, implementation in interior space An accent spot like a scarlet booth requires a certain delicacy - few styles will match it. In its “native” shade, the London kiosk harmoniously interacts with design in the style of Retro, Vintage, Pop Art and Steampunk, in brownish wood - with Neoclassicism and Modernism.

Despite the operating model that was once set, creative thought has found many more uses for the English telephone booth. Shower stalls and columns for built-in refrigerators, book and wardrobes, buffets, bars and showcases - the lattice structure of the booth looks impressive in any interpretation. By turning the red telephone box over onto one of the side faces, you can build an extravagant chest of drawers, a cabinet, or even a frame for upholstered furniture. Most affordable way organic inclusion in the interior of a London replica - installation interior door red with a crate typical of an English payphone.

Another well-known technique, widely used in interior design to achieve expression, is changing the usual scale of objects for decorative purposes. Agree, a lamp in the form of a telephone booth will look quite unusual - a miniature analogue of a carmine payphone can take the form of a night light, sconce or ceiling pendant. The significant mass of glazing built into the London kiosk serves as a good basis for the chandelier's shade to work well as a light source, scattering the rays emanating from the electric lamp.

DIY English telephone booth: what to make it from

Although the first London kiosks were cast from cast iron, you can often find an English payphone in the interior wooden structure, less often - metal. For home production For cabins, the optimal types of wood - inexpensive and easy to process - include pine, alder, cedar, and birch. A telephone booth made of oak or ash will cost more, and it will be more difficult to manufacture, but it will be the owner of a good quality appearance. It is especially important to choose a breed with a beautiful texture when you plan to finishing coat varnish, wax or oil, rather than painting the box scarlet. However paint and varnish materials, emphasizing the natural structure of wood, require filigree grinding of parts, otherwise all surface flaws will appear doubly. Decorative coating booths in red are an easier option, but it is not so simple: small roughness and burrs under a layer of paint will turn into an unsightly fringe.

DIY English telephone booth: difficult aspects of detailing and assembly

As with any other piece of joinery, you need to start working on the London payphone with a drawing. All construction of its parts is best done on a scale of 1:10: the format is optimal for designing small structural units. Of course, it is advisable to have at least the slightest drawing skill, otherwise on paper the complex configuration of the booth risks turning into a puzzle for you, creating additional difficult moments. Regarding design features English telephone box, then it load-bearing elements protruding walls consist of frames, lower panels and glazing, assembled from pillars and transverse wooden blocks.

To form a connection, grooves are selected at the inner ends of the vertical strapping parts, and the jumpers are equipped with elongated tenons (ridges). Flat combs, which are traditionally used for assembling cabinet furniture, can be replaced with insertable cylindrical tenons - dowels. The most difficult thing in the procedure for manufacturing a “groove-ridge” interface is to achieve an exact match of the mating parts, that is, so that the ridge fits tightly into the groove, without play. Perfect lapping connecting elements at the time of product assembly is possible only if a professional tool is used at the stage of turning them - a double-sided cutter.

Another difficulty in the process of assembling the sides of a telephone booth is making recesses for installing the panel in the strapping jumpers. The ridge of the panel should not rest against the bottom of the groove, for which the ends and edges of the panel itself undergo lengthy processing with a special cutter. It is also not easy to carefully tuck the glass into the frame of the box: the glazing element is inserted into the quarter, which is made manual router on the inner edge of the planks after assembling and gluing all the structural parts.

As a rule, to fasten glass in quarters, figured layouts are used - glazing beads - which are nailed to the side frame with small nails; This is not an easy task, since you can split the bar itself and ruin the strapping. It is also important to fit the layout to the quarter exactly, without gaps. If you glue a lattice structure of slats directly onto the glass - creating the appearance of an internal binding - then with reverse side The sidewalls will need exactly the same part, otherwise glue stains visible through the glass will not look entirely aesthetically pleasing.

Do-it-yourself English telephone booth: a budget option for making it from door panels

Looking at the red telephone booth without bias, you will notice that its walls exactly resemble paneled doors - this is the clue that will allow you to make an imitation of a London relic with the least effort. In the absence of professional tools, without which the production of a conference booth is virtually doomed to failure, you can use ready-made door leaves with a sheathing reminiscent of a classic London payphone from the 1920s. With this cunning option for assembling an English telephone booth with your own hands, all you have to do is make a base in the form of a plinth, then install and rigidly connect three doors with confirmations, cover the structure with a lid, and tuck it into the opening door frame, and put the fourth canvas on hinges - budget option ready. If desired, to make the result of your architecture more similar to the original, you can decorate the roof of the structure with semicircular pediments, paint the cabin crimson, use a stencil to apply the image of the English crown and the white inscription “TELEPHONE”.

Red telephone booths in Great Britain are street kiosks with a public telephone that have become a symbol of the country. They can be found not only in Great Britain - especially in London or somewhere in the outback - but also in the “sponsored” territories of the kingdom, in former colonies - in Malta, Bermuda, Gibraltar. Since 1926, telephone boxes have been decorated with the Tudor crown, symbolizing the British Raj. It was first executed in the version Kiosk No.2, or simply K2, invented by the architect Giles Gilbert Scott.

Giles Gilbert Scott belonged to the Scott architectural dynasty and was the grandson of the major Victorian architect Sir George Gilbert Scott (Albert Memorial, St Pancras Station, Foreign Office Building). Giles Scott became famous for buildings that were not as famous as his grandfather, but still implemented several landmark projects: the Battersea Power Station in London, the Cambridge University Library, Clare College, and the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. Perhaps his worldwide fame was brought to him by two small buildings, replicated throughout the 20th century - telephone booths K2 (first place in a competition organized in 1924; the results were summed up in 1926) and K6 (project of 1935).

The telephone booths are painted a bright, “currant red” color to make them easy to spot on the street. Kiosk dome - distinguishing feature Scott's projects - is a direct reminiscence of the family crypt of Sir John Soane, the most prominent Palladian architect of the Georgian era and the Regency period (built the large-scale Bank of England in London). Scott was an admirer of Soane and a trustee of his museum in London.

Kiosks made in traditional style, were modern and functional for their time. A sophisticated ventilation system was installed in the dome (perforated holes). The glass was divided into small parts (18 glasses on three sides) for quick replacement if they were broken. Scott initially proposed making the K2 kiosk a lightweight structure made of mild steel, painted duck egg blue, but the project's client, the British Post Office, insisted on cast iron and red. It is noteworthy that the residents rural areas asked to repaint the red kiosks, like a scarecrow in a field, in green- and somewhere this requirement was fulfilled (nowadays finding such options is a great success).

Kiosk K6 is a modernized version commissioned by Scott in 1935 to celebrate King George V's Silver Jubilee - his 25th year on the throne. In this regard, the K6 is sometimes called the “anniversary” booth. This kiosk is smaller and lighter than its “big brother” K2 (height 2.51 m versus 2.82 m; width 0.9 m versus 1.07 m; weight 0.69 tons versus 1.27 tons) and is cheaper to manufacture. Doors with cup handles are made of teak wood, the base is made of concrete, the main structures are made of cast iron. In addition, here the Tudor crown on the dome is no longer metal plate with ventilation holes, as in the K2 project, and is designed in the form of a bas-relief without holes. The ventilation is hidden under a matte illuminated sign. The distribution of windows has been changed: instead of 6 rows of glass in K2 there are already 8, the central windows have been enlarged for better lighting. In general, the project corresponds to the spirit of the times when Art Deco was popular in England (modernism had difficulty taking root in the Islands in the 1930s): the appearance of the kiosk is laconic, simple and with a minimal set of classical details.

The K6 is the most widely produced version of telephone boxes in the UK, with around 60,000 installed between 1935 and 1968 (compared to around 1,700 K2s). These red kiosks were widely used outside London and became symbols of the country. In London, the working original, for example, can be found near the Royal Academy of Arts, but for the most part the booths are no longer used for their intended purpose.

Red Kiosk at the Royal Academy of Arts