Stepping into her house is like being transported into a world of crafts and handmade decorations. Whether it is the Christmas tree made of cedar wood planks, or the big barn-red star on the brick fireplace with tiny tea lights wrapped around, the house is a dream of any decorating enthusiast.

These are the own creations of Annie- Leanne Stowe, owner of the home-run business Annie’s Barn- a name that reflects on her childhood nickname and love for barns. From upcycling old vintage finds to making signs with customized slogans or phrases on them, Leanne does it all. She has seen her business grown to what it has become today.

Beginnings and First Sale

Leanne began her business in the summer of 2012. For quite a while before that, she had been exploring and collecting items through estate sales.

“My garage was full of things that I had collected and I wanted to sell them but I didn’t know how to,” Leanne said.

She began looking for ideas and came upon a fixed-price auction sale through the internet. This involves selling items at set prices on a first come, first serve basis. Leanne knew that it was the best way to start out selling her products.

“I thought it fit me perfectly because it’s built on trust and building a community which is what I’m trying to do,” she said. “I decided I was going to start my own [auction] and that was on July 25th. I opened my own page- it was called Annie’s Barn.”

About a week after opening her page to customers for the first time, Leanne held her first online auction.

“I sold about 67 dollars worth of stuff,” she said, “which isn’t very much but it was pretty cool because it was the first time anyone ever came and bought the things that I had.”

Leanne focused on trying to find older, vintage items that are unique and would be popular among customers.

“I try to get the finds. I try to get the unique things that you can’t buy anywhere else.” she said.

Leanne expanded her business online -through an online store and through social media- and began selling more and more.

“Last year at Christmas I was thrilled because I had 500 people on my website and Facebook has grown to over 2000 people in less than a year.” she said.

Signs

Most of Leanne’s revenue comes from wooden signs with words, quotes, or phrases painted on them. She makes several signs a day in her home workshop, and sells them at three locations: direct sales through her auctions, on her website on etsy.com, and through two stores who carry her items in the area.

Brooke Baron helps Leanne make the signs when it get busier.

”Well I know Leanne from church, and I’ve been kind of following her story, and it’s been very fun to watch her through this process,” Brooke said. “One day, I ran into her in the store, and she asked if I might be interested- she asked if I might help her a little bit part time.”

Brooke comes to the workshop about two afternoons a week to help Leanne go through the process of making the signs.

The process involves painting pre-cut and pre-sized wood pieces with a white primer paint. After, Leanne cuts out the phrase or quote that she wants to paint on the sign through a computer-operated vinyl cutting machine that she has. On this, she can customize letter size and font to make the signs more personalized.

”The thing about the signs are that they are really a hot decorator item right now, and you can buy them anywhere, at big box stores,” Leanne said. “But I can actually customize the signs and make them look really rustic and that’s what people like about them.”

Then, Brooke or Leanne will take the vinyl and place it on the board, and “mask” it so that only the vinyl letters remain. The letters are then painted over and left to try. They peel the letters off and the phrase will remain in white.

Sara Stowe-Eskilson, Leanne’s daughter, and sophomore at Blue Valley Southwest, will also help her out with the signs when she finds time.

“In the beginning I helped her develop all of the different ways that she makes them to make the process more efficient.” Sara said. “Now that I’m busy with school, I’ll help her peel the letters off. Or sometimes I’ll paint some of the boards white, helping her out with the prepping process.”

Leanne says her favorite things about the whole process is learning about the reasons behind people’s purchasing the signs.

“I love doing all the picking and creating, but one of the super cool things [about my job] is that, when people contact me to make a sign, there’s always a story behind it.” she said. “I’ve had people develop a sign for their family, and they just, they love the signs, and they’re telling me the stories of their life when they’re picking them up.”

Do What You Love

Leanne enjoys doing what she does because of its artistic elements.

“I would say the tagline for my business is ‘Do what you love, love what you do,’ and seriously, I get out of bed in the morning everyday and I come down here and work or I go to an estate sale, and I do love what I do, because it’s so creative.” she said. “I can try anything and put it out there and people will either buy it or they won’t and it doesn’t hurt my feelings because its something I love.”

Leane does face some challenges occasionally. One of these is planning ahead and knowing what she wants to sell during a specific season of the year.

“You have to start planning three or four months in advance,” she says. “You can’t just go out and buy things a week or two before, because everybody else is buying the exact same thing.”

She also has to know what kinds of products will appeal to her customers so that she can make a profit selling more popular items.

“It’s a guessing game understanding what your customers want and what they’ll pay for it.” she says

However, since her first sale back in 2012, Annie’s Barn has been growing through word-of-mouth and Leanne’s online store. She is looking at two expansion projects in the future to keep up with the growth.

Leanne says she’ll never stop doing what she does.

“There’s a creative element to it -I really enjoy creating things. So I think that, to me, to take something old and make it new again, is the part that’s really exciting.”