Set in Stone adds creative touch to concrete in local homes, businesses
Southside business becomes East Coast Buddy Rhodes training location
In addition to contributing to new Southside bar and restaurant The Flying Squirrel, leaders of Set in Stone will soon offer area residents training in creating with concrete.
“What we are about is fostering better living through the creative process,” Set in Stone owner Nathan Smith said. “What we do is really creative, and I feel like there are a lot of people that have the desire to make and create with their hands. We hope to be able to help people bring some of their ideas to life.”
Set in Stone is a Main Street company whose leaders create household products—such as countertops, bathroom vanities, furniture, coffee tables, desks, fireplace surrounds and showers—out of concrete.
They contributed to Southside hostel The Crash Pad and will have work in The Flying Squirrel, a new restaurant from The Crash Pad owners.
Set in Stone is also now the East Coast location for the Buddy Rhodes training program that is based in San Francisco.
That means area residents can visit Set in Stone for lessons in how to make personalized household infrastructure.
“You don’t need experience [to take the classes],” Smith said. "We have classes that are tailored more toward the do it yourself market, for homeowners that want some more confidence. We also [have classes] tailored to people who have more experience.”
The upcoming classes are in April and May and cost between $300 and $395, according to the Buddy Rhodes website.
About Set in Stone
Smith started working in his garage. He learned through experimentation, he said.
“I’ve taken some training classes,” Smith said. “I have a background in construction. It was a lot of trial and error, a lot of learning on the job.”
Smith and his business partner, Justin Burd, do a mix of residential and commercial work—both remodeling and construction, Smith said.
They work with architects, designers and homeowners.
Although they started during the end of the recession, business is going well, Smith said.
Set in Stone has grown steadily in recent years. Smith and his team are making a profit, but he sees more opportunity ahead.
Smith is moving the company’s showroom down a couple of storefronts and adding a training area to the Main Street space.
“We are in the process of moving some stuff around in the back for training and a new showroom,” he said.
The showroom should be complete in a couple of weeks, Smith said.
Unique creations
The Set in Stone team made The Crash Pad’s kitchen counter and island, the double-fixture sinks in the bathrooms and the smaller sinks in the hostel’s six private rooms, co-owner Dan Rose said.
Smith’s teams used recovered mixed glass—such as old liquor bottles—from The Crash Pad’s construction site for the sinks, Rose said.
“They incorporated hand-blown glass elements from Ignis Glass in a couple others,” Rose said via email. “The kitchen island has inlaid bike parts and climbing gear, including some of our own, and we got to arrange the pieces ourselves before they poured the concrete into the mold; the kitchen counter features inlaid local river rocks.
"They will also contribute significantly to The Flying Squirrel, including two large outdoor bar counters totaling over 50 feet, and all bathroom sinks," he said.
The Set in Stone team provides great creative collaboration and have “top-notch” products, Rose also said.
“Set in Stone brings another unique and highly accomplished small business to the Southside,” he said. “Their showroom is awesome, and they seem to be doing work all over town, including high-end residential work.”
Updated @ 9:53 a.m. on 1/21/13 to correct a typographical error: Justin Burd's last name was originally spelled as "Bird."
