Who am I?

Hello! I am Tiffany Fatheree and Jute was born from my dream. Before that dream, I went to college to become a radiographer and worked for more than 12 years taking X-rays and doing MRIs. My calling on this earth is to serve God’s people in every way, so my time in the medical field was very fulfilling for me. Serving people is truly my heart and soul. After I had my first child I stopped working so much to focus on being a mother. Being a mother is truly an amazing gift, but after my second child came along I found myself looking for a way to once again serve people and also to express myself creatively. I needed a new balance in my life, so I started with making homemade cards and floral arrangements. Quickly I was putting so much time into these projects and there was such a demand for them that I knew I wanted to bring my creativity to a wider customer base with a store in Spice Village.

 Now for a NAME…

That was a huge undertaking! I prayed about it for several days, and one day I was searching the internet and came across some jute ribbon. That’s my name…JUTE! I just felt it right away, and anyone that knows me knows I am all about feeling! Something may look perfect but if it doesn’t feel right, it’s not for me.

Our first STOREFRONT…

Jennifer Wilson at Spice Village welcomed Jute in with open arms and without her, Jute probably would not exist today. She helped guide me through the first few years of business and made sure I didn’t grow too big too fast. I honestly cannot thank her enough for believing in Jute!

Then came the PAINT…

Jute became a stockiest for Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan. Getting this paint was a huge advantage for Jute, as it is all I used to paint furniture and the paint itself had gathered quite a following in our area and around the country for its beautiful colors, varied techniques available, and its overall ease of use. This paint saves so much time in the refinishing process as there is no stripping and no prepping of the surface required. A great product that saves valuable time was and still is a valuable asset for Jute! We welcome you to come check it out!

 Jute’s STYLE…

Jute was designed for a different shopping experience. I was on the search for anything old that I could breathe new life into. I wanted items to use for a different purpose than what they were originally designed for. There weren’t many places to shop in Waco for unique finds, and eventually even my favorite places to shop had dwindled down to nothing. Magnolia shut its doors for a few years and this left Waco needing a place to go and find the old, the new, the reborn, the unique—and Jute filled that void. Jute is new and old melded together, where industrial and chic meet to become beauty. This is where my feel comes back into the picture. Jute is about helping our customers to create that feel when you walk into a room! I can’t say Jute fits into any certain category, but shoppers are assured of one thing—Always expect to find the unexpected!

GROWTH…

To be completely honest I never thought of having my own shop until a few years ago. I was happy at Spice Village. As my kids grew I found more time to be creative and throw myself further into my work. Second to being with my kids, I longed to be at the shop working with clients designing, teaching paint techniques and helping make people make their homes not only beautiful, but DIFFERENT! As my calling to serve my customers grew, my need for more physical space also grew. I wanted the option to carry anything that fit with Jute’s style, and I didn’t want to offer my clients only half of what they needed. I wanted to be the one place where my customers could come to in order to find all that they needed to make their homes and their spaces unique. I needed to grow!

I started looking at old gas stations and old buildings in downtown Waco, but none of them seemed to be the right fit for my dream. My husband wasn’t so sure he was ready for me to do this, but as wives do—I kept looking! I called a realtor (that my husband didn’t use) and asked about a few properties. There were a lot of properties off of Austin and Franklin, but those locations just didn’t feel right. There I go with the feel again, but it’s true! It’s how I live my life. I knew Jute needed to be closer to I-35, Magnolia Market and Baylor. I just felt lead to Webster. Alas, there was NOTHING on Webster. I even looked for lots where I could move an old church or barn to, but there was nothing. A few weeks later the realtor, Kenny Stevens, contacted me again. He had a property he wanted to show me on Webster and 8th Street. Ironically, I had Kristy Hill (Hinge) and Marci Davis (now Jute and The Findery) with me all working on staging at Jute. We stopped what we were doing and went to see the building right then.

The FEEL…

I knew when I walked into the front door of The Percy Medicine building that THIS WAS IT! Reality took over and I knew there was no way on earth my husband would ever be up for this! The building was 10,000 sq feet and I had been looking at 2,000 sq ft, but I felt it and I just knew this is where I belonged. This is where Jute belonged! I called Matt, my husband, right then and told him he had to see this building! I held my breath. I couldn’t believe it when he actually asked, “When can I see it?” Three days later we signed a contract before the property was ever even listed!

The UNDERTAKING…

We knew it was going to take a lot to get Jute up and running in its new building. Matt’s family, Matt & Melissa Fatheree and Kyle & Marci Davis, had always worked together and had several business together and they jumped right in to become a part of Jute! It meant so much that they believed in my dream and would add their name, their sweat, and yes, even sometimes their tears to Jute.

As I dreamed and prayed about Jute, I knew it had a higher calling than just being Jute, and to this day I still do not feel I know the full magnitude of what it will grow into. The Percy Medicine Building needed to be called something besides Jute. Jute will always be our company’s backbone, but the building itself and the initial vision of Jute needed to have the capability to become something even more in the future. At this point in the process my full vision still wasn’t clear.

THE FINDERY…

As a family, we worked with a marketing firm out of Utah. I needed the name of our new building and company to stand for the diversity that is both my style and Jute’s style. It needed to be industrial, tough and raw, but it also needed to be soft and warm. They came up with “The Findery” and I loved it right away! Everyone was on board and the name was set. THE FINDERY was created on paper and it was now time to make it a reality! Over 1,000 hours have been spent sanding floors and painted brick walls to return them to their original beauty, cleaning, pulling thousands upon thousands of nails from the floor, and even pulling up asphalt from the original wooden floor. We wanted to keep the building as original as we could and return her to her original grandeur. We feel we have stayed true to our plan and we are excited to share this beautiful space with you!

SHOPS…

The Findery will be Jute’s home, but we will also be welcoming a few other very special shops to join us in our new space! We had over 50 shops come to us wanting to be a part of The Findery. This is such a huge honor and narrowing it down was certainly an arduous task! The shops that we hand-selected had creativity beyond imagination and visions that we believed in. It was important to us to create a space that wasn’t just Jute’s shop. It’s more than that! The Findery is the storefront for all of our visions combined. It was created to help our customers find everything they never knew they needed and so much more.

AND THE FINDERY WAS BORN…

Follow The Findery on Facebook and Instagram to get the rest of the story, see some of the unique items we have to offer, watch us continue to grow, and share with us some of your favorite FINDS from our stores!

Faith, Feel & Creativity—That is me. That is Jute. That is THE FINDERY!