Second Chance
“So much of life is belief,” Lisa Wedell repeats as we drive back to Wilmington from Brunswick County. Three hours earlier, we met – for the first time – at her favorite local coffee shop to discuss her new business, Renatus Reclaimed Wood.
Wedell, a fifty-two-year-old female entrepreneur with an eighteen-year-old spirit, founded Renatus after seeking furniture for her backyard. And when she couldn’t find the right pieces, she took matters into her own hands by transforming reclaimed lumber into the products she envisioned.
First, though, it should be noted that Wedell’s go-getter attitude affects much more than her business. After a conversation about her desires to pursue adventures and to travel, I found myself unexpectedly in the passenger seat of her car, which we used to drive to a small farm in Bolivia, twenty minutes away.
“You like farms?” she had asked in the coffee shop after I described my hopes for the future. “Do you want to go to one? Right now?”
And so we were headed to see one of her best friends, Heather Burkert of Greenland Farms.
“Wherever I go, I know I’m going to meet the best people,” she says about Burkert, who consulted Wedell when she wanted to launch her homestead farm business.
On our way to Bolivia, I asked Wedell more about Renatus. She started collecting locally reclaimed river wood by driving around town in a Ford F-150 truck. Now, she has almost half a million feet of it.
Though she only launched her business in January 2014, Wedell has already attracted high-end clients in areas such as New York and Denver. Having grown up poor in Mississippi, Wedell says she’s learned to be innovative.
“I get that from my mother,” she says. “She was inspiring and cutting edge.”
Like her mother, Wedell is a Jane of all trades, though her educational background is in accounting. Before launching Renatus, she operated a lighting design store, created a company that sells rain barrels, and designed window treatments for clients.
In the store at Greenland Farms, she directs my eyes to an example of her inimitable window treatments, which uses branches from the farm as rods for fabric.
“My mother was also an artist,” Wedell says. “I get that artsy flare from here. All the people I’m drawn to are artsy people. I’m really drawn to creators and designers.”
Wedell obtains much of her wood by meeting people wherever she travels. For example, she has river wood from the marina in downtown Wilmington, barn wood from farms in Ashville, and even wood from European ships of the 1700s and 1800s.
She works with European suppliers to refurbish goods from old estates from all over the continent. In addition to reclaimed wood, Renatus offers other architectural features, such as wrought iron gates and chandeliers.
“I have to show you my favorite,” Wedell says while scrolling through her phone. “These are wine screws from an old wine press in Europe. We’re using them to make bed posts.”
Although Wedell receives sources nationally, she works with local business or clients to give their spaces some Renatus flare.
“I had this one client call me and ask for a new conference table,” she says. “I asked her about the space and colors, and the woman asked why I needed to know all that. I needed to see it there, I told her. I needed to know what the space was like before I made a recommendation.”
In the future, Wedell hopes to open a retail store in Wilmington and in Charleston, one of her favorite places to travel. For now, she will sell her products in Brick + Mortar Goods and Supply, a soon-to-be retail store in the Brooklyn Arts District.
“My mind is always churning,” Wedell says about the future. “You don’t want to feel drained. There is always a solution.”
To view more of photographer Chris Brehmer's work, go to www.chrisbrehmerphotography.com
