About Us

It all started with this crib.

Picture off abandoned crib

 

No, really.

 

Let me take you back in time.   I had just had an accident and was diagnosed with PTSD and also severe depression.  It was a very tough year to say the least.  I wasn't sure about a lot of things, especially the future.  I already had an established career in Information Technology (nearly 20 years), but I was questioning everything. Depression can do that to you.  

My daughter was just two and half years old, and my wife was pregnant with our son.

During my sabbatical from the workforce, one of my sisters found this crib on the side of the road in our neighborhood.

She thought it would be a great project for me to work on to help me get out of the season I found myself in.

What I didn't tell her is that I really didn't want it, and had no desire or motivation to restore someone else's trash, when I could hardly find a reason to get up in the morning.  

Being my big sister, she brought it over anyways when I wasn't looking!

As the season lingered on, I found that I was drawn to the crib.  Something inside me compelled me to work on it.  At the time, I decided it was just me realizing that my newborn son would need somewhere to sleep and that I ought to do my fatherly duty, even if I felt very much like doing nothing.

It took awhile for my feelings to catch up with my actions, but eventually they did. It was at that time I realized that God had brought this crib into my life as an object lesson.

  • It was broken; I was broken.
  • It was unwanted; I felt unwanted.
  • It was abandoned; I felt abandoned.
  • It once had a noble purpose; I felt purposeless.

 

I needed to be restored just as much as the crib did.  Over the next several months, I took weekly turns at restoring the crib little by little.  Sometimes I'd miss a week.  Or two.  

Before long, I started working on the crib daily.   I started to get some energy back, and some motivation as well.  As it started to take shape, I started to take shape again as well.

I had to make it right for my son, because he deserved it.  That's when I started to realize that when I worked on something bigger than me, something more important than me, I experienced more recovery and more joy.

I started to find joy and delight in working with wood, and carpentry.  Something I never would have guessed I would ever be interested in.

Something about it allows my logical thought processes (honed over years in IT) to mesh and mix beautifully with my artistic tendencies.

Now that that season is in the rearview mirror and feels a million miles away, I find many people have gone through the things we have.  I see ministry opportunities everywhere.  

Opportunities to share our story, to give financially, to help channel awareness for people who are in their own unique seasons of crisis.

Every time I see his crib in the room, I remember why I do this.

When you buy from us, you're not just supporting a small business.  You're supporting a mission, and a purpose.  

A portion of every sale we make goes to support ministries in and around our community, including ministries whose sole purpose is to empower other ministries.

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So that's the story of the birth of Krüg Woodworks in a nutshell.  It's not a mission statement, it's not a typical "About Us" blurb.  

It's a story.

And it's the story behind every piece we make that comes to your home or is gifted to someone you love.

Everything we make is ready to take a place in your own life stories. 

 

A freshly painted and restored baby crib, painted in robin's egg blue, with a cream white accent color.