Local Business Gets Own TV Show
Springville business Rustica Hardware was recently featured in a show on the A&E television network. Slated for several more episodes and met with an enthusiastic response, “Rustic Remodel” follows Kate and Paul Allen as they use their creativity and know-how to help families with remodeling projects.
The brainchild of the Allens, Rustica Hardware, opened its doors in 2007. The showroom was created four years ago from what was originally a service station built in 1938. They also have a production center that houses a wood shop, metal shop, shipping department, paint shop, and offices
Although they do more business online in a global way, the showroom is a must see, with its jaw-dropping, second story boxes in which the many types of doors they make are suspended on a pulley system. The Allens want customers to have an experience when they enter. It is, at once, elegant and kitschy, polished and appropriately dusty. It smells of engine grease, wood, and scented candles.
Many of the customers who walk in the doors say things like: “We drive past here every day and finally decided to come in. We had no idea this place was so amazing!
Praise for the business culture of Rustica Hardware is also found in spades among the company’s fifty plus employees. Mary Faris has been employed by the Allens for over five years in various capacities. She says, “Paul is the creative genius and Kate is the business mind and together, they are the perfect person.”
Employee NaeLyn Kearsley adds: “They are such good people,” and explains that it’s a very uplifting work environment.
Constantly creating new and different things, Kate and Paul prefer the term “DIT” (“Do it Together) instead of DIY. Paul loves to mix metal and wood and has recently started making alder-topped tables with uniquely shaped metal legs.
The latest trend in the corporate world is open concept, but designing the workspace in that way can result in some challenges, especially a lack of privacy. Looking beyond their offerings of desks and conference tables, the Allens were commissioned to create a privacy booth—a beautiful and functional soundproof conference room. They also designed a comfortable and private lactation station to be used in the workplace.
Faris explains Paul’s extensive involvement in every aspect of the company: “Paul dreams it and creates it, and then the production center makes it.”
The Allens are known for their work ethic, creativity, and a mutual love and respect that has spanned the years.
The show, “Rustic Remodel,” required over two hundred hours of film to create the forty-minute episode.