Simply Rustic Bed Swing
What’s s more quintessentially southern than a front porch swing? In our sweet southern town, a front porch swing is a must. It’s a place for relaxing, it is a open invitation, and a place that initiates heart felt conversations. Pretty high standards for ‘just a swing’. I knew I wanted the swing on our front porch to be special, I intend for it to be a sentimental place in the future for our family, so I thought it would be perfect to have a little piece of sentimental history involved in our swing too.
I have my grandfather’s spindle turned bed that I didn’t have any use for, but I couldn’t bring myself to part with. My grandfather owned a car dealership, and when my father was a toddler, he would go to work with him. Every afternoon they would come home for lunch and take a nap together in this bed, and my father would tell my grandfather “don’t get up and go to work without me!”. They would lie down for a nap, and my grandfather would sneak out to get back to work. I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to get much accomplished with a toddler at a car dealership!
That story is tied to this bed, so instead of parting with it, I knew it would be the great components of a swig bed! My friend, Billy, from Simply Rustic is the swing extraordinaire! The result is better than I ever imagined and also one of a kind! Billy was a friend, turned real estate client, now local artisan! Its been such a joy to get to know his family, and more about what ignites his creative spirit.
How did you get into woodworking?
Growing up on a farm, carpentry work was one of those things my dad taught me early in life. The more detailed woodwork came from my wife(Catherine)seeing things she wanted but didn’t want to pay the retail price. So I started building things for her. Once people started seeing what I could build, it turned into a hobby business.
What made you get into swings?
We had a screened porch in our last house, so my family wanted a bed swing to relax on. Once I built ours, I had a customer in the Adelaide subdivision that wanted one. That has now turned into 8 swings and counting that I have built for customers around Starkville, MS.
What should we know about Simply Rustic?
I am a one man hobby shop with a full time job on top of it. Woodwork is a great stress reliever for the pressures that come with my day job. Sometime I take on more projects than I should, so I am thankful for patient customers who are willing to wait a little longer than normal to get their order fulfilled. Also, none of this would be possible without the tremendous support I get from my wife and two daughters.
How can people find you?
My Etsy store is simplyrusticms. At this point, I only sell cedar planters in the store, but I have built and shipped those all over the United States.
***Simply Rustic has been so gracious to offer 10% off swing orders with the code: SRC10 or mention Sarah Ryder Collective. To contact Billy call or text: 662-769-2041.
