As I read though the recent article about Outré in The Indy Star, my mind floods with memories of what it was like growing up around our furniture manufacturer, Mastercraft. When I was 5 and 6 years old, I can remember going into work with my father on a Saturday and running around the showroom. Jumping and bouncing from sofa to sofa and chair to chair; hiding from others that were there working, as if I was in my own little world. I can close my eyes and picture the showroom exactly as it was back then. My Grandfather’s office was in the very southwest corner of that showroom and had been there for 12 years before I was even around. He was a genius. He knew furniture and he knew business, I think the only thing he didn’t know was how to beat ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). That awful disease took him in October of 1990.

Fast forward 13 years. 2003. My days of running around in the showroom are over and I have since held several jobs at Mastercraft. None of these were plush, I assure you. Mainly I worked in or around the thousands of rolls of fabrics, in a 35,000 sq ft facility that, for the most part, had no room for forklifts. It always seemed like Roadway showed up right before lunch with about 400 rolls for us to unload, tag, and inventory. Hand carrying 75 lbs rolls of fabric 400 times on your shoulder gets pretty old, especially in the summer. This same summer would be one that would almost break Mastercraft. The night of July 3rd, early morning of July 4th, an arson would set fire to both our factory and our showroom. Two separate instances that were intentionally set to destroy a family company. However, because of the resolve of both employees and management, Mastercraft is still around today and the story continues.

Now fast forward almost a decade and here we are. A living breathing testament to what my Grandfather had envisioned some 40 years ago. Mastercraft still largely services the RV industry, but now also has an outlet to show off its hundreds of years of combined experience. Outré isn’t my vision of what I wanted a company and my furniture to look like. Outré has been directly impacted by my love for Mastercraft and the awesome opportunity I have been given by my family. These are the details that you miss when you look through the glass and into the Outr? showroom. Our pieces all have names and personalities not because we want to be clever, but because we legitimately love and care for each piece that we create. This is family and we take it personal to be good at what we do.