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House of bamboo

The Sullivans tried making two or three chairs from commerciall bamboo flooring they bought expressly for the project, but eachchair took more than 50 hours to complete.

    “Since the chairs sold for $200, we just couldn't doit,” Joanne Sullivan said. “We kind of scrapped theidea.”

    Joanne Sullivan decided to experiment with the unused scraps ofbamboo flooring. She took home a slab of flooring and created acutting board. Impressed with the board's resilience and look, theSullivans decided to make about 20 cutting boards that year todistribute as Christmas gifts for their family, Joanne Sullivansaid.

    On a whim, they took a handful of bamboo cutting boards to anArizona craft fair to showcase alongside their specialty chairs.Joanne Sullivan was worried they would sell out of their plannedChristmas presents, so they slapped the cutting boards with a pricetag they assumed no one would pay – around $80 per board. Within two hours, all of the boards were gone.

    “This was way before green,” Tom Sullivan said,referring to the increase in eco-friendly products on the market.“We were on the crest of the wave. We're pretty good atmarket trends. Being in the craft fairs is being in the trenches.We went home with literally a shaking excitement. We knew we had atiger by the tail.”

    They purchased large quantities of commercial bamboo flooring andwent to work creating a line of cutting boards. Eventually, theytraveled to China to partner with a manufacturer who could producethe boards in larger quantities.

    Later, they branched out to design and create other products andnow have a line of about 200 bamboo products, from kitchenware tocountertops, sinks and chairs.

    Totally Bamboo products sell in Crate & Barrel; Bed, Bath &Beyond; Macy's; and Dillard's, Joanne Sullivan said. The cuttingboards are their best sellers.

    The Sullivans say they are proud of the fact that they design andtest their products in-house.

    “It's a quality issue,” Tom Sullivan said. “Wedidn't build to sell cheap. We're sticklers on quality.”