Reclaiming style and spirit the groovy way
By Lisa Casinger -- Home Accents Today, 7/1/2005
Chris Bruning
The Back StoryJeff Singleton and Chris Bruning met at a Texas A&M keg party as freshmen engineering students and had no idea they'd someday be business partners selling furniture and home accents crafted from reclaimed farm implements and teak. Though the friends kept in touch, they followed different paths after college. Jeff started a business traveling to places like Thailand, Indonesia and Nepal to buy product he'd then sell in Dallas stores. Chris joined the corporate world, three-piece suit and all, as a commodities broker in the gas and oil industry. After a few years he realized that wasn't the life for him, so he bought a one way ticket to Thailand to explore the Far East. A phone call from Jeff asking Chris to join him on a buying trip was the catalyst that brought the friends together again and led to their business partnership.
In 1997 Jeff was on a buying trip with his company, Adventures in Paradise, and Chris joined up with him in Bali. At that time the business was buying and selling smaller home accent items, like the carved cats and animals still in the line. During that trip, Chris noticed the vendors were displaying products on shelves and tables made from antique wagon wheels — something that spoke to the Texan in him.
Chris's idea was to buy these castoff wagon wheels and farm implements that were seemingly abundant and repurpose them into furniture and other functional pieces. Chris became a co-owner and the pair were off and running. Jeff handles the business side while Chris tackles design.
"That's how Groovystuff happened," Chris said. "We literally said, wow, look at all this groovy stuff we could use to make furniture. Jeff is the 'stuff' and I'm the 'groovy'."
In the beginning the line had a decidedly narrow market for its rustic wagon-wheel tables and other products, but later Chris had ideas for teak and rosewood furniture as well as using shag bark and giant roots. The material makes it suitable for indoor and outdoor use, and Chris's designs make it suitable for just about any environment.
Design Process and InspirationThough Groovystuff still has a strong base of Western and lodge/rustic dealers, today you'll find its product in garden centers, mainstream furniture stores, home accent stores and entertainment stores — yes, there's even a Groovystuff billiard table. In fact, the soon-to-be 40-year-old Chris's favorite design is the Cattle Baron's pool table.
"The Cattle Baron's was actually my first design," Chris said. "But it took a few years to gather the materials for it and have it made."
The product offering is almost Zen-like with its East meets West story as the natural elements of one continent are transformed into home furnishings for another. So how does an engineer go from the corporate world to furniture design? It's all about passion.
Chris's design inspirations come from the wood itself, as well as the product it might once have been.
"I don't want to buy and sell or make widgets," Chris said. "That doesn't involve passion. Working with this wood, these materials, and working with someone in another language to bring out my ideas, that's what gets me excited."
Chris's free spirit and zest for life have taken him all over the world. He's always lived in "funky places," he said, from a tree house in Australia to a 40-foot shipping container on the North Shore of Oahu.
"I like the fact that we're using reclaimed wood and roots, discarded materials like wagon wheels, yokes, farm equipment and not destroying something," he said. "That's the biggest bonus; otherwise it would rot my karma."
This connection with natural elements and found objects has always been a part of Chris's life; he even has the spoke and part of a wheel from the wagon his ancestors used when they moved to South Dakota.
He's a self-described "intellectual bulimic." He stores up ideas, then goes to Thailand and throws them down on paper. This plethora of ideas turns into at least 30% new product each market as well as custom designs galore.
"The biggest influence in all of this is working for myself," Chris said. "Jeff and I having our own business is a big motivator. I'm proud of the fact that we're professionals when we need to be but we also have fun with our work. Doing good business is a buzz to me, it's a win-win situation when we've met all our customers' needs and they have a good experience with us."
Groovystuff has come a long way from its early days of design, and though more and more retailers are finding this product fits their groove, Chris said the biggest challenge still is getting out of that niche. All in all, Jeff and Chris have turned a chance meeting at a party into a fun and successful business.
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