Meet Brian Perry of Wooden Craftcoctions

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Perry.

Hi Brian, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve always been a creative person. Although my talent rarely actually met my ambitions. Through the years, I’ve dabbled in drawing, writing, nature photography, and woodworking.

In 1998, I sort of accidentally fell into the commercial construction field, and spent over 25 years in various administrative roles. This turned out to be a financially rewarding career, and I learned a great deal about running a business. I also cultivated some long-term close relationships that I will never regret. However, it was a hi-stress environment that never really checked those boxes that everyone dreams about. The idea of a job fulfilling a passion, bringing joy, or even providing a work-life balance was a foreign concept to me.

In 2023, at the age of 50, I found myself burned-out, depressed, and absolutely hating my job. It was a difficult decision, but I ended up retiring early. Then my wife and I purchased a condo, and I spent three months renovating the kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, storage, and several other areas. Soon after completing the renovation, we achieved a 5-star “Superhost” rating on Airbnb, which we still proudly maintain two years later.

The condo was slowing becoming mostly self-sufficient, so it was time to start looking for a “real job” again. Unfortunately, after a little over a year of searching, and over 200 applications submitted, it was clear that my skillset and this job market weren’t exactly aligned. While I continued the job search, I started tinkering around in the garage with woodworking again.

Ideas for handmade wooden home décor started coming to mind. Particularly I have been focused on unique tissue box covers and lantern-style candle holders. I found prototyping my different ideas to be exhilarating and couldn’t wait for the next opportunity to get back to the garage. I also started getting some positive feedback from friends and family. Then I started to wonder if I could actually sell these items.

I have barely started this new adventure. I’ve only had an Instagram page for a few weeks, and an Etsy shop for a few days. I still have much to learn when it comes to marketing and promoting handcrafted woodworking projects, but I feel like I’ve finally found my passion. Everyday I wake up, eager to get to work, a feeling I’ve never experienced before. I know this will require a great deal of effort, and there is a lot of competition in the handmade woodcrafts field, but I’m optimistic and excited about pursing this path, and can’t wait to reveal each new creation.

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?
The biggest struggle for me is time.

My wife, who has been extremely patient with my early retirement, has been the sole provider of our household for over two years now. Much of my time is allocated to: looking for work, household responsibilities, family obligations, and cleaning up after guests when they check-out of the short-term rental property. And I recently accepted a part-time position at Lowes, so that will be taking up 20+ hours each week. Additionally, each build takes 3-4 weeks to complete. I need to figure out how to build these creations faster.

My shop space is limited, so every time I work on the crafting projects, it takes about half an hour to set things up, and another 45 minutes to break things down and clean up my mess at the end of the day.

Each project I build is a little better than the previous one, so I’m happy with the direction my talent is moving.

It’s really just all about time.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Wooden Craftcoctions?
My focus with Wooden Craftcoctions is creating unique designs for household items that serve a function. I want my designs to not only be aesthetically pleasing, but to also have an actual purpose. I have prototyped eight different tissue box covers, and have another nine or ten in the early design stage. I am currently working on designs for lantern-style candle holders. I’m also interested in creating gaming paraphernalia, like card holders, dice towers, and other gaming equipment.

Everything I create is handmade in my garage, using typical woodworking tools (circular saws, jigsaws, handsaws, drills/drivers, etc.) Nothing is mass produced, and nothing is made on a CNC machine. And I only use water based stains, as I don’t want the potentially hazardous VOCs from oil based stains to come into contact with the facial tissue.

I’m particularly proud my beach house themed tissue box cover, as I think it’s my most artistic design to date. I had to stretch my creativity to carve the wood into a small sand drift against the bottom of the house, and coming up with the surfboard designs was fun.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
My childhood was a LONG time ago. My parents were wonderful. I have a brother who is two years older than me. Most of my life it was just the four of us.

I have many fond memories of watching my dad work on household improvements. He renovated the basement in our home in Colorado when I was very young, and I remember my curiosity being piqued. I was too young to truly understand what he was doing, or how he was doing it, but I still wanted to be able to participate.

My dad was in the Airforce, so we moved from Colorado, to Germany, then to Arizona. I was too young at the time to appreciate the educational experience that living in Germany provided, but I look back on it with fondness now.

Pricing:

• Right now I’m pricing my issue box holders between $65-$85 depending on the complexity.
• I also have a rustic Jack-o-lantern that can hang from a door, or sit on the ground for $50.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wooden_craftcoctions/
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/WoodenCraftcoctions?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

Image Credits
N/A All photos are mine.