The making of Porter & Wood
It's a Bit of a forrest gump story
A furniture maker by accident, and a clothing trader by necessity! Read on to learn more about the story and how it all came about....
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THE P&W STORY
At 24 I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do for a living.
I had a University business degree under my belt, but for me the best outcome from that were the College party memories rather than a meaningful career direction.
I took up Personal Training, and came to a conclusion after a couple of years it wasn’t my passion. I then aimlessly took on labour jobs to keep my head above ground, living a life I could liken to Forrest Gump’s (I was all over the shop doing one thing after the other). I wasn’t in a good head space and was hitting rock bottom here. I’d unavoidably compare myself to my three other brothers who had an actual career direction as mechanical engineers, to only make things worse of course.
THE P&W STORY
The best place for me to get my life on track I decided was to go back to my hometown of Cecil Plains.
I found a steady job on a cotton farm that was close to my parents and my Grandmas cornflake biscuits! I grew up on a cotton farm so I had somewhat enough experience to be put to work as a farmhand on another.
It was this farm that gave me an unfurnished cottage to live in, and also an old abandoned workshop. Believe it or not, unknowingly it was the combination of these things that would make things start to lookup for me! This was because I decided in my spare time as a farm-hand I would build furniture myself for this cottage by using the old workshop as the space to do it. Two things happened here:
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By chance I had finally found my passion! (Building things out of timber!)
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The furniture orders from others started rolling in!
THE P&W STORY
I knew this was something I had to keep pursuing, so I landed a mature age carpentry apprenticeship for a construction company in Toowoomba. I also wanted to supplement my apprentice wages, which lead to the birth of ‘Porter and Wood’. I setup a new workshop in an old barn on my parents cotton farm, and in my spare time, I continue fulfilling the furniture orders.
On the journey, I found a way to source timber to answer the reclaimed timber furniture demand, by carefully pulling down old barns on neighbouring farms in Cecil Plains that contained suitable hardwood.
THE P&W STORY
In the mix of all this, to get my name out far and wide I got some merch in the form of caps on the go. With the business being hidden on a cotton farm, this was a great way to get more exposure. The caps were also the stepping stone to later develop the clothing merchandise, and to embrace the differences of the brand, I sourced Australian Cotton, (the very thing grown on the farm the business is located on) to make the garments. Just like the furniture, I’m stoked I can provide another product that connects the consumer to the source!
I would of never have thought when first starting out in that old abandoned workshop, that it would lead to me having a furniture/clothing business!
