Old Cottonwood will open during Utica Days, featuring antiques and repurposed items. It is located in the former Utica Corner Market building at 400 First Street in Utica.
Leah and Brent Daehling repurposed Utica’s old grocery store for their business, Old Cottonwood.
Brent and Leah Daehling started their business, Old Cottonwood, with the intention of sharing old treasures with other people.
Old Cottonwood is located at 400 First St. in Utica, in the old grocery store building.
The roots of the business go back many years to when Leah was selling greeting cards with old accents on Etsy. She said she sold the excess of the old pieces and those would sell better than the cards themselves.
Leah said she then started buying old objects at auctions and selling them on Etsy. Brent said he decided to take this on as a full-time job. Leah made this her full-time job a few years after Brent, she said.
“When we kind of tapered off of Etsy was when we were doing shows full-time because it was really hard to do both,” Leah said.
The Daehlings said they started attending shows in Nebraska and other states as well. These shows are similar to an antique show or flea market where each vendor gets their own booth to sell their products to customers.
Then, the Daehlings said they transitioned into purchasing project pieces that needed some fixing up.
“She always wanted a harvest table so I made her one out of old barnwood and it kind of just grew from there,” Brent said.
Now, Brent restores functionality to old pieces and makes entirely new pieces out of old pieces as well, Leah said.
“We don’t necessarily redo furniture. He just makes it functional and pretty. We just bring back the good oldness of it,” Leah said.
The Daehlings decided to open a brick and mortar store for a couple of reasons. One reason, they said, was space. They were running out of room in their home where they were previously operating. Now, they have a store to house the product and a bigger workspace.
They said they also wanted people to have access to their products consistently and be able to shop around when they want to. They said when they traveled to shows they would bring their pieces with them, so people at home couldn’t always shop their products.
The Daehlings said finding a space that reflected their business was important to them. They said they wanted a place that was old and had character. They decided on a building that used to be a grocery store in Utica. They said the building had been finished, so they deconstructed it to bring back the old feel of the building.
Old Cottonwood’s official grand opening will be during Utica Days. Their grand opening hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 26, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 27 and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. July 28.
“We both love to find the cool, old stuff and keep it, save it, restore it and pass it on to somebody else who loves it,” Leah said.
