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Date: 3/1/2021
SOUTH HADLEY – The Board and Brush Creative Studio has become a fast-growing do-it-yourself wood sign workshop franchise with over 250 locations across the U.S. In September of 2019, Karla Pratt and her husband, David, opened a Board and Brush studio in South Hadley on 19 College St., suite 4, in the Village Commons.
“Board and Brush is an instructor led, do it yourself workshop where you can pick your own project from over 400 designs. We walk you through the steps of distressing, sanding, staining, peeling of the stencil and painting,” Owner Karla Pratt said. “Everyone gets to choose their own stain and paint colors to match their own decor. We offer public workshops every weekend and we also do private workshops for birthday parties, team building events, fundraisers, bachelorette parties, holiday parties, etc. Any day of the week.”
Founder Julie Selby created Board and Brush in 2015. It began as a neighborhood holiday party making wood signs in her basement that eventually turned into a business idea when the first studio opened in Hartland, WI. Karla worked as an occupational therapist for 22 years and her husband is police captain in Holyoke. Although she loved being an occupational therapist, Pratt said lifting patients for 22 year had begun to take its toll on her and she was looking for a new career.
“I’ve always liked art growing up and I enjoyed making things for others as gifts,” Pratt answered. “Dave and I went to our first Board and Brush workshop because I wanted to make a house warming gift for my friend who had just brought a house. We had such a good time that we wanted to bring a Board and Brush to Western Mass.”
Pratt continued, “We went home that night, looked into the franchise and applied to open a studio. About a month later, I received an email from the corporate office asking me for an interview. After the interview, they offered to meet with us in Wisconsin for an in-person interview and it was there that they offered us the ability to open a Western Mass studio.”
Pratt strongly expressed how they wanted to give the people of Western Mass a place to go out, have fun and enjoy themselves with their family and friends. She told Reminder Publishing it’s a great place for people to come in and create their own custom piece of decor for their home or to make something as a gift while they listen to music. It’s also a BYOB studio where they can bring any adult drinks in if they would like, as well as food. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Board and Brush South Hadley can only have 10 people in the workshop currently, where before Pratt said they would have a maximum of 20 to 22 people. They socially distance everybody and make sure everything is clean, sanitized and there’s no sharing of materials. They even purchased a UV (ultraviolet) light to kill any extra germs.
“We had to close for four months, so that was a struggle especially being a newer small business,” Pratt told. “We are basically working at 50 percent less than what were last year. When we had looked at our quarterly report from September to December and compared 2019 to 2020, we were down 56 percent.”
She continued, “It’s been slow. We had to cut back. We don’t have as much staff working because we don’t have as many customers. We don’t have as many people coming out to the public events because everyone is weary, but it seems like people are starting to come out now and are more willing to be in public places.”
This year, Pratt said she is looking forward to normalcy and getting back to having at least 18 people in the workshops. Most importantly, they look forward to continuing to have a good rapport with the community so they can have a place to relax and unwind at the end of the week.
Board and Brush South Hadley are open Thursdays through Sundays.
To register for a public workshop, go to boardandbrush.com/southhadley where residents can pick their own project. For a private event, email southhadley@boardandbrush.com or call at 504-2676.