Welcome to the story of the couple behind Barnwood & Leather, Mike and Brenda Clark! This is the story of us, a couple whose lives came together at a very early age. (In all honesty, it began at birth, and we think it was all in God’s plan from the start.) We were born one day apart in the month of July in the same year, at the same hospital, delivered by the same doctor, and both from the same small town of McCool Junction, Nebraska. Mike is the youngest of seven siblings, and I, Brenda, am the oldest of three sisters. McCool Junction is a very small town, and as in every small town, no one knows a stranger, so we knew each other well growing up. We started dating at 16 years old and were married just after we had turned 21. That was not unusual for people growing up during the early 80’s; it was the norm in McCool Junction. We started our family right away, too. First came our daughter, Renee, then our son Jacob, and last was our son Mitchell. Our dream as newlyweds was to stay on the farm, take over the reins of the hog operation that Mike’s older brother and father had started in the 70’s, and to live happily ever after in McCool Junction. However, as life often teaches us, plans change. Those life changes landed Mike on a totally different career path in the early 90’s and they nudged me towards going back to school. In 1997, we sold our acreage and moved to Lincoln. Mike had already been working in animal nutrition as an account manager for several years, so relocating our family to the “big city” when I was accepted into graduate school seemed like the next logical step to take on our life journey. After graduate school I began working as a Speech-Language Pathologist for the public schools.
Some folks might say, “Whew, that was a lot of change for a young couple who had planned to be a small-town farm family raising a bunch of hogs for the rest of their lives.” (Ha! Honestly, many folks back in McCool Junction said just that!) Nonetheless, the curve ball thrown at us all those years ago—though we didn’t see it at the time— was exactly what we needed. Not to sound cliché, but it made us realize that change wasn’t so bad after all, and heck, it was even good for us. We settled into our new careers, finished raising our children and sent them out into the world to experience their own change. As the years ticked by, our aspirations of starting and owning a business that we could work together kept nagging at us and kept us contemplating, “What’s next?”
Trust me, it wasn’t as simple as, “I know what we should do—let’s start a retail business together!” We tossed around many ideas through the years from owning a car wash to starting a specialty coffee shop (Mike’s years of traveling up and down the road had resulted in a fondness for a tasty morning latte). It was when we were looking to replace our furniture in the basement of our new home that a small seed was planted. That grew into the adventurous notion of us bringing Barnwood & Leather to Lincoln. We found a store in another state while on our search for furniture that started our wheels turning. They were selling furniture that certainly fit well in a mountain cabin, but it also conveyed an energy that drew us in—unique, comfortable pieces that made us feel right at home. They carried high-quality leather and fabric furniture, pieces built from reclaimed barnwood that brought history with it, solid wood occasional tables, and inimitable décor that leaned to the rustic side. It was exactly what we were looking for. After trying to convince them to open another store in Lincoln—which they resoundingly said no to—we found ourselves asking, “Could we do this?”
And so it began! Our conversations with the owners of that store caused us to dig deeper. They shared great tips with us and directed us to reputable resources for us to investigate. When we were 9+ months into the exploratory phase on our journey, we made the decision to look for the right location to house Barnwood & Leather, and if we found it, it was meant to be. In December of 2018, almost a year later, we did. Economic times were looking up, too, and a trip to the Las Vegas furniture market in January 2019 as an observer set our plans in stone. We were doing this! In September 2019, we officially opened our doors. To say we had no idea what was ahead of us is a colossal understatement. We thought we had done our due diligence with exploring all of the challenges that may come our way as new business owners—well, at least what we thought we would need to know to get us up and going. However, we all now know what 2020 and the next couple of years had in store for everyone.
The great news is that we and Barnwood & Leather survived those years! That’s the take-home message today—we took the big leap, opened a new retail store that specializes in bringing you the same warmth we felt all those years ago when we were furniture shopping, AND we made it through the obstacles thrown at us during some very, very hard times. Yes, changed, but here.
Our standard at Barnwood & Leather is simple—“Crafting Comfort.” Our goal for each of our customers is to do just that, from helping you design a gorgeous sofa to snuggle up on or to find just the right wall décor to hang in just the right spot in your home. We’d love to help you craft comfort in your home. Come into the store sometime, let us show you how we can help.
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