The Owner

The bio and the background of Owner & Product Designer Jennifer Braidwood

Before BRAID & WOOD

In 2018 Jennifer Braidwood left her Director of Marketing position in the non-profit sector in order to start her own brand and business. Jennifer and her husband Ryan made a decision to leave their careers behind them, and their home, in order to pursue a different type of lifestyle all together.

The couple sold their home and moved into a small two bedroom apartment, and they left their steady jobs in order to explore the unknown. While Ryan went to work for a small technology start up, Jennifer was left to figure out her next steps on her own.

Plant Hangers Were Not The Plan

Armed with over a decade of experience in branding & marketing and a deep love of interior design she dove head first into starting her own design firm. She spent a lot of time meeting with other design professionals and networking. Jennifer built her own basic website and started an Instagram account. At the time she didn’t have a clear direction in regards to what she was going to actually do so she did a little bit of everything in those first few months. From interior design and styling projects for a few clients, to product and lifestyle photography for other businesses.

Everything began falling into place when shop owners started reaching out to her asking to stock a DIY plant hanger that she built and posted on Instagram. At the time it was just a one-off simple craft project, but there was interest, a lot of interest. 

The Business

BRAID & WOOD as a business. The past, the present, and the future.

Building the Business

In the year that followed Jennifer focused all of her energy towards learning the intricacies of manufacturing products at scale. She also spent a significant amount of time rounding out all the pieces and parts of building a wholesale and product manufacturing company from the ground up.

At the beginning of 2020 BRAID & WOOD premiered three modern indoor plant decor product lines at the Las Vegas Winter Market, an industry only trade show for retail buyers, interior designers, and other product manufacturing professionals. BRAID & WOOD left Las Vegas Market with a growing stocklist of close to 130 small to mid-size retailers within the United States and Canada and the award for BEST NEW HOME DECOR PRODUCT.   

The Pandemic

Enter March 2020 and a global pandemic. Overnight every retailer that was stocking BRAID & WOOD products had to shut its doors. Orders, progress, and business growth started to dry up. Jennifer decided to open up another revenue stream and began focusing on developing her own eCommerce marketplace.

At the time, March and April of 2020 were BRAID & WOOD’S biggest sales months since the inception of the company. 

From Apartment to Warehouse

In October 2020 BRAID & WOOD transitioned order fulfillment, product design, and business operations to an industrial office and warehouse space. Previously, BRAID & WOOD was run entirely out of Jennifer’s two bedroom apartment and a small rented storage closet. In March 2021, product building & assembly moved from BRAID & WOOD’S facility into one of their manufacturing partners facilities 45 minutes south of the California/Mexico border.

The Future of BRAID & WOOD

As for the future of BRAID & WOOD, Jennifer says she plans on continuing to expand the BRAID & WOOD product line by designing new and innovative products and offering their current product lines in new color ways. She is also excited about exploring more B2B partnerships and well as having BRAID & WOOD products in as many plant loving homes and businesses as possible.