Congratulations,

You've made it here and to me that’s a big deal. You are now a part of my dream. The journey to this point started when I was a child spending afternoons and weekends in an old metal shed with my dad. It didn't matter what we were building I was just happy hanging out with him.

Through the years, I always thought it was pretty normal to be taking apart a go-cart or expanding the number of engines my model rocket would hold. I was always afforded every opportunity to build, break and even destroy things in the name of learning how they worked.

A friend of mine was working on an industrial design project at Auburn University. She was well aware of my knack for looking at things and finding weak points and giving design input and asked me to look at a few drawings of a chair she and her partners were working on. I gave a few small suggestions and then went to the one-day build competition. It was fascinating! I watched people come across design challenges that didn't exist on paper; I watched people creating something in the world; I watched creation. I was very immersed into graphic design at the time and my friend made a lasting off the cuff comment "you should do industrial design, you'd be really good at it".

I didn't think about that again for years. I co-founded Branch Records and we quickly realized we needed a desk soon followed by an office/recording studio space. A daunting task for some was just another project for me to work on. This was my first opportunity working with salvaged material. We used everything from old metal racks for walls and flooring for a loft to old sliding hospital doors for our studio glass. When we finished it was pretty amazing what we had accomplished. Again, I didn't realize any of this until much later.

Fast forward to last year. My dad was showing me some pictures of a desk that he built for my brother. I remember thinking it was really beautiful. Then he mentioned something that really sparked my imagination, "it's made from pallets". At this point I knew I needed one. Once again I found myself taking lessons from my dad on how to take an old beat up oak pallet and tear it apart, mill it, and build it into something beautiful. Once my desk was finished I sat down and thought to myself "this is the most beautiful and well put together piece of furniture I've ever been in front of". I was hooked.

Over the next few months I started searching out reasons to make things out of pallets. I made a bed, shelves, and a bunch of cutting boards. I posted a fewpictures online and I started getting a lot of really positive feedback on a hobby I couldn't get enough of. Soon I was getting emails asking if I could build a coffee table, a bed, a dresser etc. I thought to myself, lets give this a try, and here we go.