Solano County Business Journal: Solano business lets people get … – Fairfield Daily Republic
Briana Mason manages Board and Brush Creative Studio in Fairfield, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023. (Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic)
FAIRFIELD — Briana Mason turned her love of DIY projects into a career in a life-changing moment in 2021.
“I became a stay-at-home mom during Covid. I have always been a person that worked,” she said. “So being at home was a drastic change for me.”
Mason needed to do something, but it wasn’t until a trip to the hospital after giving birth to her last child that her life took a turn she never expected.
“I had the baby and the family was coming for a visit, but I ended up getting sick and going in the hospital,” she said.
The whole family had planned to go to a Board & Brush Creative Studio for a class. They would all work on a DIY home décor project, but that got canceled.
The family wanted to get together and do something after Mason recovered and went home. The idea of the DIY project had never gone away. She thought about it and decided to do the Board & Brush Creative Studio project with the family.
“In the car on the way home afterward, I realized I fell in love with all of it,” she said.
Mason called and emailed the Board & Brush Creative Studio company immediately, explaining that she wanted to open a franchise herself in Fairfield. It took a little more than a year, with a flight out to Wisconsin headquarters, but in February she finally held the grand opening for her own Board & Brush Creative Studio.
“I have been a manager for retail stores so I wasn’t worried about teaching people to do something, because that is what I did before,” she said.
Mason is a native of the Bay Area and has lived in Fairfield since high school. Her degree in business management, her years in fashion retail management, and her passion for DIY all came together for this new venture.
She and her husband work at it together but she admits he is not a DIY person.
Board & Brush workshops are great for experienced DIYers and newbies looking to be creative, learn new skills and empower themselves, she explained.
People can create hundreds of different items from signs and trays to porch planters and doormats.
Visitors get all the tools they need to get a project going and finish it within a few hours.
“They take it home the same day, unlike, say, pottery where you have to wait a week; this isn’t like that,” she said. “You take it home that day.”
Board & Brush Creative Studio is at 1500 Oliver Road, Suite C, in the Fairfield Corners shopping plaza. The plaza, tucked in a mixed residential neighborhood and shopping district, offers easy and ample parking.
Workshop capacity is 24, with most workshops taking place on the weekend. They are primary open for private parties during the week.
Mason teaches the classes, guiding everyone on power tools, painting, stencil art and assembly.
She wasn’t worried about her teaching skills and getting into her own business, but the back-end skills of running a website and getting information out to the public were a different story.
That turned out to be not such a huge learning curve, and with the help of Board & Brush it all came together. She can even update the calendar on her phone with ease.
Each “Pick Your Project” workshop lasts about three hours and costs $73 to $78, depending on needed supplies, with pre-registration required.
Board & Brush issues new designs on the first of every month. There are now more than 800 designs to choose from.
The Board & Brush franchise began as a holiday “girls’ night out” in Hartland, Wis., with wine and crafts in founder Julie Selby’s basement turned into a business idea and then a reality in early 2015.
Selby had a passion for helping women and couples follow their dreams to be business owners and empowering workshop attendees to try a DIY project to put them on a path to new confidence and creativity, according to a press release from the company.
The company was named the No. 1 franchise in the DIY/Paint & Sip Studios category for 2022 and 2023 by Entrepreneur magazine.
Board & Brush has more than 260 locations, according to Mason.
“They are all over, even here in California,” she said.
Mason visited with other franchise owners before opening her own shop to get a feel for being her own boss and how it worked.
“Everyone was so helpful and really honest,” she said.
The response and support she received made the move to open her own franchise an easy decision.
“People wanted to go to the studios but it is hard to schedule and so people wouldn’t drive 30 minutes to do it,” she said.
Mason said she hopes being close to one will encourage people to get crafty and learn new skills that beautify their homes.
For information, call 707-389-4156 or visit https://boardandbrush.com/fairfield. Updates can always be found on the studio’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/boardandbrushfairfieldca.