We have a new shop website and it launches today! We’ve been working on for quite a long time now. Go check it out if you haven’t seen it yet. I’m so so pleased with how it turned out. It’s one of those things that makes me feel like a grown up. Or rather, that my business feels like a grown up…honestly, probably both!
History of our shop
When I started The House That Lars Built as a blog in 2008, I never had any intention of it becoming what it is today. I’ve talked about this a lot, but it started it as a project for a graduate school class and I used it as my portfolio for a few years. Out of necessity and boredom when I moved to abroad and couldn’t work until all the proper paper work had gone through, I worked on this blog as if it was my job…and then it did become a job. I was consistent and hard working, but I didn’t exactly know to what end. I had no strategy, no game plan. I’m surprised to be here 17 years later!
The Royal Wedding
I was living in Denmark when it was announced that Prince William and Kate were engaged. As one who genuinely thought I was going to marry the royal prince, it was both devastating and also very fun to think of our generation having a royal wedding. Remember when the royal family was FUN!?! Hahahha. The closer the festivities arrived, the more I wanted to do something to celebrate it. I had already been interested in developing my own products and had a particular fascination with dinnerware. I had even take a workshop in Denmark when I first moved there to learn about ceramics.
I remember seeing a commemorative dish that my mom had bought when she was on her honeymoon in England–Diana and Charles married almost on the same day–and knew this would be fun to try out. I had never made plates before and did not know where to start, but I was rather brazen and at the time (way more so then–awww, youth!) and started by researching how to make plates. I ended up using any resource I had, any connection and made phone calls around the world-Thailand, India, England, you name it.
How do I do this?
Now, I was very late in the game and I only had two months to make this all happen. Eventually I learned about the porcelain capital of the world, Stoke-on-Trent, England and thought it would be easier to manufacture closer to home. I looked into different processes–handpainting, decals, etc and landed on a decal process. Essentially, you provide artwork and they can place a light film covered paper onto a plate or mug and transfer it over. I ended up designing a commemorative plate, and mug. I also decided to try out tote bags and art prints, using the same letterpress printer who did my wedding invitations, because it’s all I knew! I added in some keychains too because why not go all out!
Now that I have a bit more experience under my belt, I look back and see EVERYTHING I would have done differently. I definitely wouldn’t have created so many products, probably just a mug, and I definitely wouldn’t have ordered so much. My novice brain ordered hundreds and hundreds of items because, of course, the whole world needed them!
Viral shop!
The thing is, at that time, 2011, people weren’t doing this thing as much and these products went viral! I opened up an Etsy shop, and I sold out several times on the mugs and they were featured in publications around the world. It was very exciting.
But again, I had no strategy and no no-how on what to do next. I ended up making a couple of follow up products that had nothing to do with the royal wedding and it was super fun and they were well received. It was the golden age of blogging though, and I was so inspired by it all that I wanted to continue doing that more. If I was to go back, I would have continued designing products, but I didn’t know a thing about branding or anything, so I see why I chose to do what I did.
The shop detour
Anywhoo, I went hardcore into blogging, and soon started to pick up clients and sponsors, which funded the blog. Eventually it turned into a full creative design services with employees and a studio.
But then, Harry announced he was getting married to Meghan and the question arrived–would we do it all over again? I didn’t really have any plans to since the landscape of social media had changed so much, but again, last minute, we decided to do it and, once again, were in a race against the clock to make new products. This time around we decided to open up our own shop instead of our Etsy shop, which lay dormant.
We got one up quickly, made some products but guess what? They didn’t sell as well. Ha! At that point we probably had over 150,000 followers on Instagram so it was really puzzling, but it could have been for a number of reasons–Harry vs. William, Meghan vs. Kate, a saturated market, who knows!
Shop #2
Well, now we had a shop, a temporary one we thought, and figured we should start charging for the hundreds of templates and printables that we had been offering for free on the blog for many many years. It had never even crossed my mind to make money off my work. Oh, to go back and time! I was completely find offereing things for free because that’s what everyone else was doing.
But turns out, it’s great to be able to grow a business and that’s what I was then focused on doing. We were still going heavy on the sponsorships, but after 2020, we realized how much we needed to diversify once those stalled because of the pandemic. We started focusing on our shop and our classes and I’m so proud to say that we hang on. It was really such a team effort.
We’ve had periods of really experimenting with the shop–offering products we’ve designed in addition to our digital products. We’ve done resale. And perhaps we’ll continue to do a bit of both, but we are in a great spot to focus on what we do best–design beautiful, vibrant products that encourage you to make things with your hands and lead an artful life.
The new shop site
This new shop website is an investment into the shop that I wish I could have started in the beginning. We worked with Shoppe Theory once again on the design. They did our blog website (this that you’re reading), and we LOVED it so much that we needed to do it to our shop too. Made to Thrive did the development and the two of them together are a true dream team. I’m so happy with what they’ve done.
Because our previous shop website was always considered temporary, we didn’t put too much time and effort into improving it. The navigation was less than desireable and it didn’t truly capture our brand. So last year I had had enough–it was time.
Working for yourself is a challenge, especially in the social media space when your livelihood is oftentimes in the hands of others, but one thing that has been important to me is to be proud of what I produce, especially the aesthetics. If I’m going to do it, and have so much stress because of it, it better look good! So that was one of the main things. I wanted to be proud of it.
Second, I wanted the experience to be easy to navigate for newcomers so you can find what you’re looking for easily or if you don’t know what you want, you can be inspired to the right place. Do-Hee of Shoppe Theory did a tremendous job of laying out the pages, making them straightforward and easy to understand where you’re going. She also nailed the beautiful details.
Digital products are still kind of unknown and can be confusing, so we did our best to lay it out straight with clear instructions, buttons, and links. I think you’ll be impressed!
Thank yous!
I’m so glad the site is finally here. And there are so many people to thank! First off, Jenny Bandley on our team who spearheaded this huge project. Her hand is on ever product, every word. She is both creative and organized and I’m so grateful to have her on my team! Second, to Shoppe Theory and Made to Thrive, the best designer and development team out there. Seriously, if you need a new shop site, go to them! Nothing but praise for them! And to the rest of my team–Garet for creating such beautiful artwork and products. She’s really nailing it and I can’t get enough. And Jane for taking the beautiful photos that you see. I’m truly the luckiest to be able to work with all these people.
As you can see, I had a lot to say about this site update. To me it’s not just site, it’s really the culmination of everything I’ve worked for for 17 years. It represents years of hard work, dreams, relationships, visions. I’m so pleased!
Celebrate with a sale!
Now, to celebrate, we are putting the whole site on sale, 25% off until Friday with code LARSNEWLOOK.
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