By Becky Feikema July 15, 2024
Rescue, repair, refinish, refresh, repaint, reuse, repurpose – it’s ReBorn! Giving new life to furniture has led to many memories over the years. It has been a wonderful journey to start and watch this business grow from a glimmer of a dream and blossom into what it is today.
ReBorn really started out of a gift and appreciation for learning how to see the beauty and potential in something that others might miss. The quality, craftsmanship, and history behind old things makes for unique home décor that is both timely and timeless. It is the thrill of the hunt and the exhilarating feeling of seeing the transformation from trash to treasure that inspired us and still excites us today.
The blessing (or curse, depending who you ask) of “junkin’” was probably both born in us and trained into us. Grandpa was a wood craftsman. I spent many hours growing up watching him in his basement workshop, fascinated with his tools. Grandma was a thrifter and a garage sale expert! She would always find time to stop and search for bargains. When she was on a mission, any garage sale signs on the side of the road would lead to brakes slammed on, the car pulled over and slowed down to read the sign – traffic signals, speed limits, pedestrians – all disregarded in the pursuit of a bargain. Even better was furniture on the curb – totally free! It did not matter if you were in your good clothes on the way home from church in broad daylight – stop and load it up! Mom also continued this tradition with us girls. Many of our 4-H projects were furniture that we bought on a garage sale or auction (or the curb) and repaired and refinished with Mom and Dad.
When we got older, the focus shifted to furnishing our first dorms and apartments and eventually, our first homes with repurposed items. Ask Abbie how she managed to pick up a table and 6 chairs and bring them home from Brookings in her 2 door car. We soon got a van, affectionately called “White Lightning”. This 15 passenger van with all the seats taken out hauled a lot. Abbie is the queen of packing a van full of treasures – sometimes to the cheering of a crowd when fitting it all in!
The transformation of a bedroom set for the college bound brother was the affirmation that the idea of turning this hobby into a business could work. The teenager was not impressed with the furniture that mom found for his apartment and declared that it was not coming to college with him. A new coat of paint changed his opinion. If we could impress him, we could impress anyone!
After many years of painting and finishing wood for residential homes, Mom and Dad were looking for a change. Over the years, Dad had become quite the handyman and craftsman and that paired with Mom’s talent with the paintbrush made for a great team. I came on board and built our first website and got the ball rolling to start the business. For the name of the business, we were inspired by the butterfly, who starts out as an ugly caterpillar and turns into a beautiful butterfly. This became part of our logo. Also inspiring was the Bible verse, 2 Corinthians 5:17. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!”
ReBorn was “born” with $500, a website and business cards and after exploring consigning items in Sioux Falls and trying out a few craft shows we then considered options for a store front in Luverne. We were able to find a reasonable place to rent – right next to the Palace Theater on Main Street, a unique, historic building. We were only open on Thursday evenings and one Saturday per month. That was about all we could commit to – I had an infant and a 2-year-old and Mom and Dad still had their painting business in addition to farming. Many people were skeptical about us making it with being open so few hours, but we stuck to our plan to grow into the business. We survived by keeping the costs low – I mean, really low – we had electric heat in a poorly insulated old building, and we were COLD!
Another way we kept costs low was by finding our inventory in the most inexpensive, and … interesting ways. Word got around that we would dismantle old houses for the wood trim, doors and light fixtures and that we would help to clear out estates for people needing to downsize. Our first big purchase was the Jim Veland estate in Luverne. We acquired several pieces in various condition. The family had a dumpster out front as they cleaned out the house and Dad snuck into it to retrieve some legs from a dining table and we officially welcomed him to the dumpster diving club that us girls were proud to be a part of!
Some of our most notorious adventures were given a name: The Cat Poop House where we navigated several heavy pieces around an obstacle course of cat poop. Mom and I hauled a trailer’s worth of furniture up out of the basement and over a stairway while two seemingly strong, healthy men watched. The Hoarder House with so much stuff packed into it that there was a little walking path through the rooms and every surface was covered with stuff. The Mouse House. We knew we had a potential PR situation when the newspaper showed up and was taking pictures of us removing furniture while a crew in hazmat suits demolished it. The Creepy House where 6 month old Jackie sat on a blanket in the rain while 2-year-old Cathryn “helped” grandpa take out a fireplace. The details of these adventures should probably remain private as to not to trigger a visit from child protective services.
Not all of our inventory procurement adventures were hilarious though, some were bittersweet. As we sifted through the treasures of a 100-year-old woman who saved everything – each article of clothing, each greeting card, each photo from her entire life, we got distracted from our mission and got caught up in imagining the occasion that this or that dress was worn, reading the birthday greetings, appreciating the photos. The daughter was overwhelmed with the enormity of her task of cleaning out her mothers’ house – so many memories but no room for them all. Tears were shed as she took comfort in knowing that some of her mother’s earthy treasures would be enjoyed by someone else.
Our vocabulary was also something that we needed to be careful about. The shed where we stored our furniture was called “the morgue” – as in dead furniture waiting to be “ReBorn”. Many casual listeners who overheard us saying “let’s check the morgue” needed a quick explanation.
A couple of years into our business, Mom discovered Annie Sloan Chalk Paint on a trip to California to visit her sister, Joan. Wanting to update her home, Joan had planned for mom to help her paint a few pieces and suggested Chalk Paint. After one project, Mom was in love with the product that had everything she was looking for- virtually no prep, bonds to multiple surfaces, durable, water based. They visited a stockist in California and called me to discuss bringing this paint to Minnesota. 4 weeks later we were on a plane to the Chalk Paint workshop in North Carolina to learn about the product. We placed our $5000 order and had the paint on our shelf. This was a leap of faith considering our annual profit at that time was about $5000. This part of our business grew quickly as Annie Sloan Chalk Paint became well known. We were able to expand our business to Sioux Falls with our partnership with Jessica at Aviena. We would weekly deliver paint and furniture to her to sell.
One morning in February 2014 after getting Cathryn out the door for school, I got a call from the business next door that something was wrong at ReBorn. There were icicles hanging from the awning and a frozen lake outside the door. I packed up 4-year-old Jackie with her yogurt and a spoon and headed to town. After sitting Jackie in a chair in the next door business, I went inside the store to see water everywhere. I was walking in water, it was raining down on me and on our furniture. I called mom and dad to come with the van and trailer to try and move things out to salvage what we could. In the meantime, the city workers came and helped us move our entire store across the street to an empty building where volunteers tried to dry everything off. We ended up being able to save about half of our inventory. There were tears and questions about what to do – give up and close? Or look for another location? We were able to find an empty building and with the typical grit in which we tackle problems, went to work painting the new space, building a check -out counter and finding what we needed for the new space. We opened in the new location 2 weeks later.
With the new location we wanted to expand our hours but we needed another person to help at the store. A conversation at Bible study leaded to Kristi Stroeh joining our team. She was a perfect fit with her creative mind, bringing new ideas for macramé and décor to the store. A move to a third and current location a few years later allowed us to expand even more.
Retail always has its ups and downs, shifts in trends and customer demand. One “down” that we did not expect was COVID. We, like everyone else, closed for months. An unexpected turn of events trapped people in their homes and staring at the same four walls inspired people to paint and change décor. It is said that boredom inspires creativity and it appears that COVID did just that. Many clandestine meetings happened in the back alley where desperate customers picked up paint for their projects. We were both in pajamas (no one bothered to get dressed really), COVID hair – don’t’ care, wearing masks, the customer would pick up the paint sitting six feet away and leave the money in an envelope. In any other situation people might have called the police but this was our normal for a while.
So, what have we learned in 15 years? We have learned how to start a business from scratch and evolve over time. We didn’t even know what we didn’t know. With an attitude of “figure it out” we did just that. Just like we were willing to tackle the seemingly impossible restoration project for a customer, we were willing to tackle all of the challenges that came our way. While we have learned a lot about furniture, we have learned the most about ourselves and each other. Mom has developed her talents and is a true artist following her passion. Dad likes to refer to himself as the “chair gluer” but he is an actual craftsman with his repair and restoration skills. Larissa was an eager learner with a great work ethic and an eye for style. Kristi took our store to a new level with her décor ideas. Uncle John has an eye for quality furniture and a good deal; so much of our inventory was found by him. Abbie is the garage sale queen. The next generation of kids is getting involved as well. We truly are a business family – and even if you are not related by blood we consider every one on our team family.
For me, this journey has allowed me to focus on family first and then juggle business and farming alongside. 15 years ago I had recently stopped working to stay home with our two girls, an infant and two years old. It was a time of long, challenging days of a colicky baby and an independent toddler. (fun fact – their nicknames at this stage were Screamin’ Demon and Evil Knievel). A few hours a week of time to be creative and inspired was just what I needed. When they got a little older, they often came to work with me. On Thursday evenings they got dropped off at the store after school, they did homework, we had pizza, they helped around the store, they watched. They watched me run a business, make phone calls, interact with customers, create and design. I know they learned more from what was caught than what was taught for those years. Now that they are teenagers, I can see that they know more about business and “stick-to-it-ivness” (I know- made up word, but it has always been a part of my vocabulary) that can be learned in a class.
Through it all, we really do reflect on the idea of being a new creation. So many times, as we are working on a project we say things like “potential” or “it just needs a bit of work” or “a coat of paint will cover a multitude of sins”, we see the connection to what Christ has done in us by His work on the cross. We were dead in sin, needing more than a bit of work and a coat of “paint” - His blood- to cover our dirty, sinful lives and make us a new, clean, refreshed creation. Yes, we are still having fun rescuing furniture; transforming it to bring our customers high quality, vintage furniture with style at an affordable price. But even better than that, we celebrate our own lives as new creations. Here, furniture- and we ourselves - is not just restored, it’s ReBorn.
