Amanda Brown & Lizzie Joyce own a company called Spruce. Spruce was created to bring an updated approach to upholstery.  Spruce works with you to create a custom look for your personal style and space.  In between client projects they find furniture and fabrics that bring out the best in people and have these pieces for sale.  They sell fabrics and teach monthly weekend upholstery workshops.

How would you describe your business in 3 adjectives or less?
stylish, individualized, renewed.

What are your most popular products or services?
Custom upholstery services with design consultations.

People may be surprised to know…
We started our business in an un-air-conditioned warehouse where we froze in the winter and baked in the summer.

What was the inspiration or motivation behind starting your business?
We originally wanted to do a furniture retail store, selling furniture we found and re-designed.  We had a hard time finding an upholsterer to work with, so we took the professional classes offered at ACC and decided to do it ourselves.  By the time we finished the classes, we already had business!  We saw the need for a stylish, custom upholstery service and decided to run with it.

Who is your role model or mentor?
We draw a lot of inspiration from the creative energy in Austin. Being around so many others who share a need for unique goods and services, encourages us to go beyond the traditional role of our business.

What mistake have you made in your business that you will not repeat?
We let our communications with eachother slip and started assuming things. We do our best now to keep our communication lines open so we always know what’s going on with the business and eachother.

How do you spend your free time?
We spend our free time relaxing!  Lizzie likes to go to the Austin dog parks with her 3 dogs.  Amanda enjoys weekly game night and catching up on design blogs and magazines.

What is your indulgence?
Beer-thirty!  Well, we do love a good beer, but we might have to say sleeping in on Sunday and Hey Cupcake.

Where is your favorite place to go with your girlfriends?
Vivo!  You can’t go wrong with good Mexican food, a strong margarita and a lush rose to go. 

Where is the best place to get a pedicure?
Nails of America!  It’s just so easy.

Where is the best place to get a manicure?
We’d love to hear what others have to say!  Our manicures last about 6 hours, so we pretty much skip them.

Where is the best place to find gifts?
Mercury Design Studio because they have great, unique items that people want to hang on to.

What is your favorite salon?
Birds Barber Shop because you can go after work without an appointment!

Where is the best place to buy shoes?
Now that Fetish is gone, the Nordstom shoe department.  You can always find something good there for any outfit you might have.

Where is the best place to buy clothes?
Some of the most stylish ensembles reside at Bows & Arrows. You also can’t go wrong with Anthropologie.

Who is the best local designer or artist?
Julie Speed’s work startles and intrigues the viewer with its unorthodox subject matter and requires contemplation to understand the meaning of her work.

What is the best gym or fitness club?
Pure Austin because of their great cycling classes, their top-notch trainers and the great environment.

Kerry Rupp is the owner of Holiday Golightly; your ultimate Girlfriend Getaway resource. They take the research and planning out of your busy hands and book fantastically unique getaway trips that match your group’s interests and style. In addition, their site is loaded with free advice, insider info, gossip and sleek trip tools – including the popular Divvy It Up tool that splits expenses after a trip. Here’s is what Kerry had to say about her fabulous business.

How would you describe your business in 3 adjectives or less?
Guaranteed Great Getaway

What are your most popular products or services?
The ladies love our trips to Tuscany & Umbria in the Italian countryside: lounging at the villa, joining a truffle hunt, taking cooking classes and indulging in an delicious dinner with wine pairings, prepared and explained by a local celebrity chef.

People may be surprised to know…
Girlfriend getaways represent four percent (4%) of all US travel spending. Only twenty-four percent of US women have taken a girlfriend getaway in the past three year but thirty-nine percent PLAN to in the next three years.

What was the inspiration or motivation behind starting your business?
A friend told me she and her sisters had the time, money and the inclination to take a girls’ trip together, but they just never got organized and did it – whereas she thought I could “write a book on the topic”. I realized I really could create a business doing what I was already doing for fun, and help women take much-needed trips that so many women neglect to do for themselves.

What mistake have you made in your business that you will not repeat?
Assuming that people will do what they say they’ll do. Actions speak louder than words.

How do you spend your free time?
Traveling, of course!

What is your indulgence?
A monthly massage with Moe at Milk + Honey Spa. (And who am I kidding? I’m constantly indulging myself with travel…)

Where is your favorite place to go with your girlfriends?
Martha’s Vineyard in the summertime, Vail in the wintertime!

Where is the best place to get a manicure and pedicure?
Polished – chic atmosphere, convenient to home!

Where is the best place to find gifts?
Sanctuary on Bee Cave – Hanna has fantastic taste and a beautiful assortment.

What is your favorite salon?
Still figuring that out – miss my stylist in Seattle ….

Where is the best place to buy shoes?
DSW … because with my darn 10-1/2 size foot, it’s not about which shoes I want, it’s about which brand even MAKES my size!

Where is the best place to buy clothes?
Boutiques, baby! I love the dresses at Maya Star in SoCo.

Who is the best local designer or artist?
Still learning …

What is the best gym or fitness club?
Town Lake Trail – great people watching and the leash free area where I can let the dog loose so she can run as fast as she can (which is way faster then me!)