HOLLAND, Mich. — One Holland family's hobby of building custom furniture out of barrels has taken off since they first started five years ago. Their storefront The Stave and Barrel at 12330 James St. b50, is set to open next Friday evening. It's years of hard work for Tara and Ed Schrotenboer that has finally come to fruition.
Creativity is a commonality for the Zeeland High School sweethearts.
"She comes up with crazy things that she wants me to make. I have to figure out how to make them work," joked Ed in Holland Friday.
The hobby began half a decade ago, when Tara came across the concept of barrel furniture online.
"She wanted a half barrel wine rack that she's seen on Pinterest," Ed said. "I started doing stuff in the barn. Like, well, if I can make stuff and sell it, I can pay for tools in the barn. And so that was the idea."
That idea turned into Leisure Time Designs and business boomed from there.
"Somebody had a, what they called a multi family garage sale in their front yard, and that's where we started selling some of this. We started selling some of this, and we've kind of realized then, oh, we might be on to something," said Tara. "We try to make everything around barrels, barrels that are also purchased locally. So, we have a brewery out in Grand Haven that we work with and purchase them."
As a tradesman, it's up to Ed to assemble the furniture.
"We've found a process of how we can make the doors, we can make them quickly and efficiently, and it's been a very long time since I have scrapped a set of doors," Ed said.
Tara is the brains behind the designs. She also varnishes, stains, and finishes the custom pieces of furniture.
"The best step I feel like is getting the raw piece of material and then putting that stain on and seeing the wood grain pop out," said Tara.
Things are good in the barrel business.
"Last year, we did 40 different shows in one year," Ed said. "It's just a lot of work, and it's a lot of miles, and it's so, when we're going on weekends and we have a 12-year-old daughter, so this kind of stinks. But we knew that that was, that was it wasn't guaranteed, but we knew that business model worked. So it's like, alright, let's keep doing that. We refine our products, get our name out there. The next step is the storefront."
Tara said their current custom order list is scheduled out into June.
"We're about going through three to 400 barrels a year," added Tara.
They also make everything from decorative signs to custom-made furniture like bar stools and tables.
"We decorate a lot of basements, a lot of man caves," Ed joked.
The Stave and Barrel will have their grand opening next weekend.
"Friday and Saturday. April 11, 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. very, very excited about it. We're going to have giveaways going on, and, yeah, we've got a Facebook event and stuff," said Tara. "It's crazy to think that this little hobby that we enjoy doing so much is actually our job."
It's easy to do when you get to work with your best friend.
"It's a lot of fun to get to work with my wife," Ed said. "All's this going to do is just strengthen the relationship."
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