The cold February weather was offset by the warmth and joy that radiated from inside Woodshed WillowTree.
Robin egg blue, lemon yellow, emerald green and a rainbow of other colors covered the shelves and display cases throughout the Old Town Greenwood store. Homey wooden signs extolled the benefits of love, friends, home and sisters.
The scent of patchouli, peppermint, wood smoke and dozens of other smells wafted through the air. Funky t-shirts implored people to “Be Kind” and “Walk by Faith.”
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Everywhere you look, it’s a celebration of what makes the Greenwood area great.
“It’s all about community. We want to give back; my family was very involved and we were always talking to give back,” said Stephanie Dixon, one of the owners of Woodshed WillowTree. “So we giving back to people with these beautiful things.”
Two businesses with deep connections to the Greenwood and Center Grove-area communities have joined forces to bring beauty to people’s lives. Woodshed WillowTree is the joint venture by Dixon, Kelsey Patterson and Kiersten Armbruster, who have come together to sell home decor, furniture, boutique clothing, pillows, handmade soap and just about anything else in the vintage chic realm.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has obliterated so many small businesses, this was a way for their shop to survive.
“We’re teaming up and not backing down,” Patterson said. “We’ve seen so many other small businesses around us have to throw in the towel because this is nothing we could have anticipated. It’s disheartening to see that, so this was an opportunity to grow instead of a few steps back.”
Woodshed WillowTree’s roots follow two distinct paths.
The first came from Dixon. She founded her business, Whispering Willowtree, in 2017 in a small 800 square-foot studio. After working in banking for more than 18 years, as well as being a stay-at-home mom for another seven, she decided to follow her passion for painting and woodworking.
Her grandmother had been an art teacher with Greenwood schools for more than three decades, while her father had been an avid woodworker. Those influences guided her own interests.
The goal became to build a business doing what she loved while supporting the local community.
“I grew up with art,” Dixon said. “And I love to shop.”
Patterson and Armbruster shared similar backgrounds in art and creativity. Patterson’s great-grandmother and grandmother were active in fabric arts, and she always had a “craft box” with her, filled with paper and crayons and yarn to make different items. Everything crafty interested her, she said.
Armbruster’s grandmother was an artist who showed work all over central Indiana, including the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Craft days were a regular activity between the two.
She began making home decor out of necessity. When she and her husband were planning to get married, they were looking for signs to use in the ceremony.
“We could never find anything in our price range, so instead, his dad helped him build wooden signs and I would decorate them. That’s how we did our whole wedding,” she said. “Then we sold those, and classes came after that, and I started teaching.”
In spring 2020, Patterson and Armbruster formed the Woodshed to sell their handmade items and decor. The two had gone to elementary and high school together, and knew each other as they sold their own goods at different area stores.
“Since we had similar things that we did, we figured we could do this on our own,” Patterson said.
In the vintage home decor world, everyone seems to know everyone else. Dixon, Patterson and Armbruster had crossed paths many times at shows and other events. When the Woodshed opened, it was just a few blocks away from Whispering Willowtree.
“We would drop little hints here and there. It was one of those things where you put it in your file cabinet and save it for later,” Dixon said. “They would come in, and we’d talk business. They needed more space, and their style was different than my style. They wanted to stay in the community, and I wanted to stay in my location. It just seemed to work.”
Joining inventory and styles, they also decided to meld their brand. The name of the new store is an amalgam of the two previous businesses, as each name held considerable meaning to the owners.
Willow trees are an important reference for Dixon, for the trees are said to hear our innermost prayers and wishes and send them to heaven. The Woodshed references the nickname for the student section at Greenwood Community High School athletic events.
“We like small town, staying true to where we’re from. It helps with the homeyness of it,” Patterson said.
Woodshed WillowTree features work from more than 15 vendors, each with a unique approach and offering. They come from all over Greenwood and the region, adding a variety of look, feel and style to the inventory.
Dixon does custom furniture restoration as well as home kitchen, bath and laundry room cabinet Simply Re-Loved painting projects. Patterson and Armbruster dabble in jewelry, clothing, signs and other items.
Each vendor makes the shop special.
“It’s all about empowering each other and playing as a team,” Dixon said.
After opening in late January, Woodshed WillowTree has consolidated its inventory and welcomed customers in from both the separate stores as well as new guests.
As they get more stabilized, the owners intend to host a number of local events, including furniture painting classes, home decor crafts, cookie decorating and more.
Their nimble business model, with numerous different vendors and a rotating offering of items, means that customers can find something new every time they come in.
“We’re always adding and changing; that’s what makes us unique and different,” Dixon said.
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Woodshed WillowTree
What: A newly formed business featuring locally made products such as new and restored furniture, home decor, women’s boutique items and gifts.
Where: 50 S. Madison Ave., Greenwood
Who: Owners Stephanie Dixon, Kelsey Patterson and Kiersten Armbruster.
Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Closed Sunday and Monday.
Information: WoodshedWillowTree.com
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