I know you have all seen them about 100 times on the blog here, but let me tell you the rest of the story.
It was Summer 2010 and I was working the above guest room for a client. My good friend Cheryle Rhuda had a workroom and was helping me with all the soft treatments. We got along great and often toyed with the idea of starting a joint business together. We would frequently sit on a rock in my yard after a tough install and toss around ideas, but nothing ever took root. Every idea seemed to have been done already or felt too forced.
Back to the picture. I had just painted and dressed up a pair of old IKEA Pax wardrobes with a piece of mirror, some crown molding and some vintage fretwork panels found at a flea market for a client's guest room. When Cheryle came over to deliver the pillows and draperies and I showed them to her. Neither one of us couldn't get over how these fretwork panels transformed the once drab inexpensive cabinets into something so high end and custom looking. We had other clients that we wanted to do this for too, but we couldn't find anymore panels.
And just like that the lightbulb went off, our unexpected "Aha" moment. We had found our niche. We would make fretwork panels that would fit standard flat furniture. It took about a year of designing and scouring for resources, endless road trips to IKEA measuring drawers and doors and a whole lot of wine until O'verlays were born. We realized that we could still be sitting on that rock searching for inspiration, but it was those two cabinets and some flea market panels that accidentally led to our big "aha!" moment and forever changed our paths.
So, what is your moment? I want to know.
