Build a brand. Leave a legacy.
I’m Stephanie. Wife to Jake. Sister in law to Henry. Mother to the 3 most amazing boys you will ever meet. I am small town born and raised. I love the sunset, I love the changes of the seasons, I love all things pretty, I love shopping, I love my family. But, enough about me. Let’s get this story started…
Soon after building our first house, Jake and I went shopping for furniture. Jake’s dad was a carpenter and cabinet builder. He did exceptional work, and Jake had grown accustomed to his standards of woodworking. So this is what we were looking for when we were out shopping. Good quality furniture, solid wood in nature. Everyone kept telling us that solid hardwood furniture no longer existed, only pieces made with solid wood product. We knew this statement was not true. Jake’s older brother in Canada had a furniture store specializing in Amish built furniture. This furniture was built of solid hardwood boards. Exactly what we were looking for.
A few conversations later, Jake approached me with the idea of opening up an Amish furniture store in Amarillo. It would be something the marketplace could use and needed. It took a bit of convincing for me. I had the same misconceptions that people still have when they think of Amish furniture:
- Not my style
- Old fashioned
- Plain and not stylish
However, I was wrong. We decided to take the leap and included Jakes brother, Henry in our plans. We found a retail space that would do. It was an old bookstore. Filthy. We cleaned it up, painted, and dreamed about what we could do with this weird triangle-shaped space. We boarded a plane to meet some of the Amish craftsmen that we would be dealing with. We fell in love with their furniture, their lifestyle, their community. We knew that this endeavor would be amazing.
When our first order arrived by semi, we stood there bright-eyed, waiting in anticipation of what this new chapter would mean for us. Already dreaming of where we could and would take this business. We opened the doors the first day, highly expecting to be flooded with traffic…and we weren’t. We had a few people come in here and there, but nothing like what we expected. Until we had saved enough money to advertise. It was then we started to finally see an increase in traffic. And everyone was loving what they were seeing. People were impressed by the quality. And we were very pleased.
We all knew that this small retail location would not be our last stop. It was too small and we dreamed of owning a bigger space to show a larger variety of items. So after much prayer and discussions, we purchased land on Interstate 27 and took an even bigger leap than before. This was such a whirlwind of a year. Jake and I had just built another house. We had our last baby boy. When he was 3 months old we broke ground on the new location. We had to move out of our old location right after the first of the year, so that became crunch time for us to finish the new location. There was still so much to do! We announced our opening date and literally would not have made it had we not had help from our friends and family. I think Jake and Henry worked all night the night before we had our grand opening, but finally, it was finished.
What an amazing grand opening we had! People were excited to come see the new showroom. We had lots of new visitors, old customers, friends, and family galore. Everyone wished us well and enjoyed the new space where we could show so much more furniture than before. I think people were genuinely impressed. However, we still struggled to get away from the stigma of what people perceive Amish furniture to be. Many people told us that it “wasn’t their style”, and wouldn’t even come in to see for themselves. We had to do something about this.
We landed on the decision to rename ourselves. We changed the logo, took the Amish out of our name and Rockwood Amish Furniture became Rockwood Furniture Co. We were still the same great team and store that we were before, just modernizing a bit to keep up with the times. We still carried Amish built furniture, but we had incorporated a few other American made lines to add to our selection. From the beginning, we’ve always valued our customers’ opinions and felt that it was equally important to act on the feedback we were hearing. We knew we had built this store this far, on loyalty and wanted to continue to serve our customers by honoring their requests.
Once again, we began the process of evaluating our store from the inside out and quickly knew we needed to bring in an even larger variety of styles. We still needed to combat the thought that many people are still having, that we only carry one style and that it was not “their style.” Over the last year, our showroom has exploded with an even wider selection of styles, designer lines, an extensive selection of accessories, the top mattress brands, and so many one-of-a-kind statement pieces. You might have also started noticing that many things outside of the store are changing as well. We knew that change couldn’t just happen inside, and once again we needed to elevate the Rockwood brand and communicate what we were doing.
Rockwood Furniture Co. 2019
As a family, our number one priority is to communicate that we are listening to your needs and requests and to reassure everyone that although our store is seeing this expansive change, we will always hold true to our roots and will always carry American handcrafted furniture, that started it all. We’re the same family-owned business and the same great Rockwood team you’ve grown to know and that will never change.
During the last 12 years, we learned many things along the way. We learned how we want to run a business, even if it’s different from what society standards are. We value people. We want to build relationships, fix problems, and help you make memories in your home with those you love. We want to be the store that is known not only for having the best product but for having the best customer satisfaction and service around. We want your visit to our store to be an experience. One you will enjoy, a place where you will feel at ease. A place you will want to come back to and tell your friends about. I encourage you, if you have never been in or it’s been a while, come visit us! We would love to meet you and show you around.
