Mother of three designs, paints furniture for tykes
By JAN HOGAN VIEW STAFF WRITER
Advertisement
Cleaning, laundry, shuttling her little ones to preschool and various classes -- those are the things that fill Jennifer Ginsbach's life by day. Painting, hammering and sanding -- those are the things that fill her evenings.
Ginsbach, 36, has her own business painting child-size furniture in fun colors and designs to sell on the Internet. But she can only work on it at night.
"At 8:30 I start yelling, 'OK, everybody, get to bed,' " she said.
Once the tykes are snuggled in, she rolls up her sleeves to address her next order, sometimes working until 2 a.m.
The business began after searching for a child-size table and chair set, "but everything I found was plastic," she said. So Ginsbach decided to build her own.
Handiwork comes easily to her. Before she and her husband, Jay, moved the family to Las Vegas six years ago, she built a backyard deck and a storage shed for their Minneapolis home. She also built a toy chest for her child.
When friends stopped by and saw her handiwork, they asked her to build some for their children, too. Her business, called KikiBuzz, grew from there.
It really blossomed when the family moved to Las Vegas. The weather meant she could work year-round in her garage without risking frostbite or frozen paint.
Karen Zuro, a nurse who lives in Summerlin, has three children. All three have items crafted by Ginsbach. The bedroom the eldest sleeps is painted with sports logos. Her daughter got a chest with a princess theme. Her son got a dresser with Japanese cartoon charters.
"When I was taking the dresser off the back of my truck, these three little neighbor boys ran over and said, 'Wow, that's so cool,' " Zuro said. "You know it's good with (a reaction) like that."
Of course, Ginsbach's own children -- Cameron, 8, Olivia, 4, and Lilah, 1 -- have their own items painted by Mom.
One year, Ginsbach sold her pieces at the 2000 Trails Village Art Show. The event brought in about 30 orders and half those people wanted her to paint a related scene on their child's bedroom walls. She's been part of the Trails Art Show three times but now only participates in the annual Art in the Park event in Boulder City.
She was featured in the November 2005 issue of Parents magazine. In it, she's holding one of her children.
"I get a thousand e-mails from people because of that article," she said.
Some e-mails wanted to know where she got her child's hair bow. Others say they want to hire her to paint their kid's bedroom, even though they live across the country.
"So if you're living in North Carolina, chances are, I'm probably not stopping over," she said.
About 70 percent of her business is derived from her Web site. Orders come from all over and sometimes the shipping costs are more than she charges for the piece. Orders have gone to Chicago, San Diego and New York City. She charges about $95 for a children's chair, $32 for a step stool and $175 for a table and two chairs.
Ginsbach's most involved custom order was for a child's fire truck bed. It had fake emergency lights, a bell, a ladder, wheels and a windshield. It took six weeks to make.
Archived Editions| Advertising | Contact The Staff
