Today we’d like to introduce you to Gary Buckner
Hi Gary, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up in East Dallas and went to the University of Texas where I got a degree in history with a minor in business. I grew up contracting work with my dad as a kid into my teens, which gave me an education on how to build things and run projects. I took this knowledge and started my own business in custom fabrication. It all started with Enos Pizza and Matt Spillers hiring us to build the furniture for the upper level of the restaurant. We built out Enos and then quickly started Oddfellows soon after that. We built Oddfellows with 90% reclaimed materials from the industrial trash bins in the tile district of Dallas. This led to me seeing the massive gap in our fabrication industries locally and inspired me to start making furniture and other things for more restaurants and other local businesses. I started Stash Design in 2010 and have been making furniture, art, decor, lighting and many other things over the years, We have worked with a broad array of clients all over the city from Stephan Pyles to Starship Bagels. Stash Design can do many different kinds of projects but one of our main clients is Raising Canes. We have been building their patio and other furniture for over 5 years now and have done hundreds of store for them at this point and look forward to building many more.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It had definitely not been a smooth road. I choose an industry where it is hard work and hard to please people. We have been able to make it through all of the hard times which has only made us better. I started this business so that I could build and create things but soon found out that my time was gone. I found out that owning a business means that you have to wear all of the hats of the business in order to make it successful and you have to hire really good people to get things done. In the beginning and throughout most of the life of my business I tried to cut too many corners and had too many ideas that I was trying to accomplish. This led to many problems with my business because I was not focusing on the big picture and I was scattered in too many places. Once I started focusing on what we were best at….I was able to get my business in order and run the business more efficiently.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am many different things and you could say I am a jack of a lot of trades. I would like to call myself an artist but I am not known for my art. I have not pushed my art as an individual as I have focused more on my business than my art. My art is in my work with Stash Design. I am a self taught designer. I have come up with a process for creating shop drawings and I have designed and engineered thousands of pieces of furniture, art, decor and many other things for concepts and individuals all over the states. I like to try things and explore ideas. I paint, sculpt, weld, do woodworking and I explore many other ideas and mediums. I would say the work I am best known for is my work at Oddfellows and places like Chicken scratch when it was around. We built a stage back ground with over 500 pallets. The stage stood for many years and was iconic to the area until it was torn down when a new concept came in. I would say one of my most proud moments and projects was working with Stephan Pyles at Stampede 66. We built some really cool sculptures of a rattlesnake and a tree which were the main features of the restaurant. It was great to work alongside an amazing person and professional like Stephan Pyles.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
I am happy when I am free to create and when I am out in nature. I like to build things without plans. I find that I have the most fun when I am able to free form and build things with random things I find. I seemingly always find a way to piece things together to make something interesting in the end. I believe that we are told throughout our lives that we need to be in a box and we are constantly told how to think feel and be. I am happy when I am able to show how things can be done when most people think they could not be done.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.stashdesign.com
- Instagram: @stashdesign
- Facebook: Stash Design
