Our goal for our NEW Shop Talk series is to highlight different makers & crafters, incredible small-shops, inspiring entrepreneurs, and motivational individuals or families!
There couldn't be a better time than this as supporting local and small shops during these stressful times will make a MASSIVE, positive impact on makers' personal and family lives.
Today we are thrilled for you to meet Sarah, owner of Timberwood Designs! It's a full family affair at her company, and the collaboration between siblings and children is soooo inspirational! If you are looking for quality and original wood children's products, this is the shop for you!
(Be sure to follow her on her business Instagram here and check out her website here!)
Timberwood Designs started in my brother's basement creating wooden pieces for our children. We then started making them for friends and family and decided to create beautiful heirloom quality pieces for everyone!
This business has quickly become a fundamental part of our family. It started off as a brother - sister duo, and quickly enveloped our spouses. It is a part of who we are and who we are raising our children to be. Between my brother and I, we have 5 children under the age of 12, and we love wooden pieces in our homes. We are building a family business based on reputation, responsibility, and quality we can be proud of.
Our biggest challenge is finding time to complete new designs and pieces. We all have full-time work and then have Timberwood Designs as our creative outlet. We have so many new ideas to test and tweak but between work and our kiddos, sometimes there just isn’t time.
We started with Building Blocks, to Engraved Name Blocks and now have branched out to Name Scripts and Tracing/Sorting boards. As a personal customer of Cara&Co for teether materials for my children, I knew exactly which products I wanted to use to complement our wooden pieces. All of our rainbow boards are made to fit the Cara & Co felt balls and our number counting boards are made to fit their silicone beads. We always shop local, and with Cara & Co just in our neighbouring city, it makes it even easier for us and our customers.
The greatest joy we have in our lives are our children; watching them grow into eco-conscious, caring citizens. Some of the oldest children have even taken to the business side of things, learning how to sand, seal and even design some pieces for themselves. The youngest of our children is one and learning to speak and after working so hard on our latest Name Script Products, can now say Ayla lol. It is a future dream of ours to have the children grow up and run the business with us.
Balancing our personal life and growing our business has been a bit of a juggling act. With COVID restrictions, we weren’t seeing a lot of friends, so family became the forefront of our personal lives. Being in a social circle “bubble”, we spend a lot of weekends together, loading my family up and bringing them to my brother’s so that we can explore new ideas and pieces. Thankfully the kids love Kraft Dinner lunches, and everyone gets some enjoyment during “working” hours.
We have also made so many great connections through social media, with customers and other small businesses. The Small Shop community is strong and helpful. We have gained insight by observing others, encouraging them and engaging with them. We love the community over competition movement, which is why we also include a Local Love section in our Shop where we feature another Small Business.
With love, from our family at Timberwood Designs ♡
