Today we’d like to introduce you to John Brady.
Hi John, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
Our business started from a love story: My wife and I met in our early 20s. We were like-minded and full of energy. My wife was moving out of her family home and needed some furniture for her empty apartment. The idea struck! I found a truckload of pallets and tore them down to the individual boards. With a hammer and nails, a pallet coffee table was made…. After the coffee table came side tables and an entryway table.
By this time the 400sqft apartment looked like a faux room display from a big furniture store. To that end, the apartment was DevlinLee Design’s first display. We opened in 2016 selling one design, a pallet coffee table that was built in the basement of a rental house. Realizing that cutting and pulling pallets apart was not as practical. We began to source wood from a local sawmill.
The mill used beetle-killed forestry to make flooring. The beetle-killed wood had very distinct staining and was beautiful. The wood was so beautiful we began to build dining room tables. And at this time my wife and I had bought our first house. Naturally, we began to fix up our old house and in doing so the beautiful beetle-killed wood became our new kitchen cabinetry.
Since we opened, we have studied comparable designs and wood materials; and our products are amazing! Not just the designs and the prices, but the real value is in the craftsmanship. Our furniture is made with real wood, not particle board and stickers. DevlinLee Designs source a variety of woods from local tree services and use a local sawmill. DevlinLee Design’s kitchen cabinets have an integrated design and are made with timeless performing plywood with real, solid hardwood doors and drawers.
This standard of craftsmanship follows through to our construction projects as well. We still produce our furniture today, but our larger focus is on custom carpentry, kitchen cabinets, and larger furniture pieces such as dining room tables.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being an entrepreneur means starting and running your own business. An entrepreneur should be defined as someone who’s not afraid of challenges or does not shy away from obstacles. Starting we were embedded with self-doubt. Are we doing this right, should we be doing something we are not? The dreaded bad review used to bring us down, but now we can understand it is just an opinion.
It is difficult to put yourself in the spotlight of being ” the expert” but We, DevlinLee Designs, are the experts when it comes to the designs we make and the furniture we build. If we weren’t the experts we wouldn’t be running the business. The challenges associated with growth are always around. Just when we had enough supplies, you are out again.
Every challenge felt like trying to hurdle over a ladder until we had a true mountain to climb. In late 2019 we had a fire that shut us down for the better part of 2020. DevlinLee Designs didn’t fully reopen in 2021 and it was like starting over from day 1. Sure we had the designs, knowledge, and craft, but our following momentum was our customer base was gone. I am blessed to say that today we continue to outgrow our workshop.
A friend and mentor of mine used to say ” Ain’t nothing to it but to go on and do it”, though we were talking about something completely different than a business that saying fits when it comes to operating my business, what I don’t know I’ll learn.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We are quickly known for our kitchen designs and custom cabinetry. We specialize in sourcing and incorporating naturally beautiful wood into our cabinets. In the industry of cabinet making, wood is typically sourced, ultimately, from sustainable forests.
At DevlinLee Designs, we like to source our cabinetry wood by salvaging trees that are removed from the local area. In our latest kitchen design and remodel, we built gorgeous hard maple cabinets by salvaging a large tree removed from that property.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Preserving the natural beauty of wood. I view wood differently. When wood is cut it shows its life in the character of the grain. When I build something from wood I want to preserve and bring out the natural beauty because it deserves to be admired for generations. This is only possible with a timeless design and heirloom quality.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.devlinleedesigns.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/devlinleedesigns/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Devlinleedesigns
Image Credits
Hogan’s Photography and DevlinLee Designs
