Today we’d like to introduce you to Jared Foster.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
How it all started… I moved to Atl to go on tour with artist Lecrae 7 years ago. I was the singer on the Grammy-nominated and gold-selling song “All I Need Is You”. After a year and a half of lots of travel, I decided it was time for me to try something different. Had no idea what I was going to do so I kept writing and featuring on other artist’s songs till One day I just started to make things out of pallets in the house with my roommates Zach and TJ. A lot of people in my neighborhood started to see thing things I was building and I just gained a bit of a following from that. My then girlfriend and now wife asked me to build a day bed swing for her front porch one day. Having not a clue what I was doing agreed to do it. I looked at a picture and just made it based of cushion sized she wanted to lay on. Once I posted it in the West End neighbors fcbk page I started to get dms about me making others. From there I decided it was time to start a website and get serious about it. Things started off slow for a while, but now that I’m 5 years in I can barely keep up. I love to build anything, but the main thing I like to build are daybed swings for sure!!! It was definitely an honor to be asked by TI and Tiny to make 2 California King size Versace Daybed swings for their front porch!!!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Has not been a smooth road at all. Some of the struggles have been finding space. I’ve been building on the side of my house on our wrap-around porch this whole time. I’m just now starting to look for a space big enough to accommodate everything I’m doing and am going to do.
Getting tools stolen- because I liven the historic west end and these houses don’t have a lot of storage; I’ve had my tools stolen a couple of times. The first time was about 2000 worth of tools. I posted a go fund me and my friend’s neighbors are such great supports and believers of the brand and business, I got way more than what I even asked for.
Keeping up with the business… I’m not a businessman first, I’m a builder first. So, I had a lot to learn about the business side of this. I knew the music business, but this is a bit different.
Timelines- because it’s just me working, as of now, it’s hard to have family issues happen like deaths in the family, family getting sick, and potential car problems like my truck getting broken into it makes it hard to get projects to people on exact days sometimes. For the most part i’ve been good about communicating or just making sure those things got taken care of on time no matter what.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m none for my daybed swing. I’ve even had people call me the Porch Swing King. Most people look at porch swings and just think there is nothing else you can do to it after hanging rope. But there is so much you can do. I would like to think that I’ve proven that with the swings I made to Tip and Tiny Harris. By, adding LED lights underneath, cutting the Versace print and their last name initial in the wood, and also adding charging ports for phone and laptops. These are things that I have never been done before… I’m literally the first person to ever take “Porch Swings” to this level, and I have plenty more ideas.
Outside of that, I’ve built a studio booth on wheels for T Pain as well, they loved it… Added a/c and a dimmer light. To top it all off I had to make sure there was a backlit nappy boy sign inside!!!
All that said I try to do things people don’t know or think can be done. That just comes from my creativity as a songwriter… The song is never finished; you just release it. And in the same way, the woodworking piece is never finished, it just delivered. I can always think of more to do to a piece.
How do you think about luck?
It’s hard to say that any of this was luck for me… I’ve been blessed by God to be around such great people that have pushed me in the direction I need to be in. I can’t take away what God has done at all. Based on how I know my story has been these opportunities I’ve had couldn’t have come from anywhere but upstairs. Being a man of the Christian faith, I fully and wholeheartedly believe that.
I’ve gone from being given up for adoption at birth. Adopted at 8 weeks old, growing up with my mom as a single parent, then finding my purpose in music and then building a successful business from scratch. I literally had no tools. And if I get more specific, I would be able to show you… Wasn’t luck. Lol
Pricing:
- Daybed swing starting price crib. 1200
- Daybed swing starting price twin. 1600
- Daybed swing starting price full. 1800
- Daybed swing starting price queen. 2200
- Daybed swing starting price king. 2500
Contact Info:
- Email: porch959llc@gmail.com
- Website: porch959.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jpaulthecarpenter/
- Other: https://music.apple.com/us/album/making-love/1497958932
Image Credits
Zach Thomas Sophia Denard
