From barware to cribbage boards: Templeton couple creates a buzz with woodworking business

A new small business is generating quite the buzz in Templeton.

Bees Boards, a garage-based woodshop established by Paul and Bee Jones in 2021, has been creating handmade boards and a variety of custom wooden products for their customers online, at craft fairs, and at several local stores.

And it all started when the couple, who have been married since 2005, decided they wanted to restore an old butcher’s block in their kitchen, according to Bee.

“I thought, 'OK, I’ll go get a new one,' but then I saw the price of them, so I said, ‘How hard can this be to fix?’” she said. “And that’s literally what started all of this, was trying to figure out how to fix this butcher’s block so I didn’t have to buy a new one.”

YouTube University taught them what they know

After consulting a few online how-to videos about restoring old butcher’s blocks (“YouTube University,” as Paul puts it), the couple decided to practice their skills first by making some cutting boards. As it happened, a dog rescue organization that the couple is involved with was looking for raffle items for a fundraising event.

“Six or seven cutting boards later, they raised $3,500 and paid for a dog’s medical expenses, and we started having people asking us if we could make them a cutting board – and it kind of blew up on us from there,” Paul said. “We went out and got an LLC registered, became a business, and started looking for craft fairs and projects and things we could take on and do for people.”

More: What to know about the 2023 Country Road Holiday Tour - where to shop and what you can win

Templeton couple convert garage into woodshop

After converting half of their garage into a working woodshop, complete with CNC and laser capabilities, the couple – neither of whom had any real prior woodworking experience – went to work, producing cutting boards, cheese slicers, signs, utensils and barware.

They also began making specialized cribbage boards after learning that the game was rather popular in New England. Paul, who is from the U.K., and Bee, who is from Ohio, were not familiar with the game prior to moving to the area in 2006. But after selling hundreds of them at the Big E in Springfield, the couple decided to make cribbage boards a permanent part of their collection.

“I don’t play,” admitted Bee. “I had to actually Google what a cribbage board looks like because I’d never seen one before.”

Bees Boards keeps it local

Soon, their products, which were crafted mostly from locally sourced lumber, were gracing the shelves of several local businesses, including Smith’s Country Cheese in Winchendon and the Red Apple Farm in Phillipston.

“We’ve expanded far beyond making a few cutting boards,” said Paul, who has a day job in security sales engineering for a large IT company. He said Bees Boards often recruited local help to produce some of their side products. “The storage bags for the cribbage boards are sewn by a friend here in Templeton, the metal discs we use for the peg storage pocket is locally made in Templeton by another friend – if we can keep it local, we do.”

More: Tour of former Templeton school a trip down memory lane for retired teacher

Allie Catlin, owner of Smith’s Country Cheese, said carrying Bees Boards products in her store was a “win-win” situation for everyone involved.

“(Paul and Bee) are very easy to deal with on a wholesale side; they’re attentive, they’ll check in on their displays, they really care about how everything looks in our store, and they have a quick turnaround time, and you can tell they make a quality local product, which we love in our shop,” Catlin said. “And they’re really wonderful people.”

Tom Collaro, retail manager at Red Apple Farm, said the farm's Country Store carries a variety of Bees Boards items, including charcuterie boards, whiskey smokers and mini-cribbage boards. But he said their most popular item is the coffee scoop clips.

"Any time we get in new Bees Boards products and post about it on our social media channels, customers get excited," said Collaro, who added that Paul and Bee are longtime visitors to Red Apple Farm. "We absolutely love having them as a partner and collaborator, and our customers love seeing what's new in their section of our store."

Woodworking couple's rule of thumb: 'Keep it fun'

As for their future plans, the pair are planning next year on attending several bigger craft fairs, including a Christmas craft fair at Mohegan Sun, and making a return visit to the Big E.

“We’re always looking for opportunities to get our products in front of people because people like to touch and feel this stuff – they don’t just want to see it on a website,” Paul explained.

The couple, who recently joined the Greater Gardner Chamber of Commerce, will continue creating their specialized wooden products as long they are having a good time.

“Our rule of thumb is that it has to be fun,” Paul explained, adding that they especially enjoy collaborating with local businesses. “We started doing this because we found we enjoyed it, but it always has to be fun. I don’t know if we’re looking to expand. We’d love more shop space, but shop space comes with rent, and I like not paying rent for shop space.”

Incidentally, Paul and Bee said they have yet to get around to restoring their butcher’s block.

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Templeton's Bees Boards sells wood products at Big E, Red Apple Farm