Meet Ben & Raena Dammann

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ben & Raena Dammann and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ben & Raena, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
When we purchased our first home, we had a difficult time finding furniture and decor that fit both of our aesthetic preferences & styles. So we decided to personally design our own coffee table, floating shelves, entry bench and so on and Ben got right to building. He’s active duty Navy but also has carpentry in his blood from his grandfather so after a few people visited our home & saw the pieces he created, their admiration and desire to have similar pieces motivated us to take a chance in doing custom woodworking locally. Between local customers as well as friends and family from east to west coast, we’ve continued to have so much support in growing this small custom woodworking business. We officially got our LLC in 2019 and the rest is history!

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
There’s really very few project ideas that we’ll turn down because we have so much passion in turning people’s ideas and visions for something into reality. Whether it’s a Christmas ornament or a dining room table, we work with our customers on every single detail and specification to ensure they get exactly what they want. We also do our very best to offer the best customer service possible including communication. Since Ben is Active Duty in the Navy & Raena is a stay at home working mom, running several businesses, life can throw unexpected curveballs so we do everything we can to make sure our customers are aware of and approve the timeline of turnaround time. We have of course faced some challenges along the way like supply/material cost increases, learning how to run an efficient business, Ben getting deployed & everything in between but we’ve learned so much about balancing life things, time management, value in our craft & just how much we love what we do and want it to be our life’s work.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
In Ramona, we love to go for hikes, grab some coffee & lunch at Ramona Family Naturals, watch live music at a variety of restaurants/wineries and be outdoors with our girls. In San Diego, we love to walk around Little Italy and La Jolla. We love going to the Safari Park & try to get to the beaches when we can!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
We wouldn’t have been able to gain so much momentum with influx of custom orders and social media/local exposure without the support of our friends & family, near and far, who gave us the opportunity in trusting us to create custom orders for them, in turn giving us experience and a portfolio of products to share with the public.

Website: www.willowooddesignsco.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willowood_designsco/profilecard

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/willowooddesignsco?mibextid=wwXIfr&mibextid=wwXIfr

Other: https://willowooddesignsco.etsy.com/