Second Life Studios, a full design-build studio for custom furnishings in midtown Kansas City, is a growing small business with a greater goal—to be part of a growing community.
“We want to build tables by hand for people in our community with materials from our community in such a way that reflects our community,” said Second Life Studios co-founder Chris Gorney.
Second Life Studios does that by giving old wood and other salvaged building materials another chance to be part of people’s lives. Much of the wood utilized by Second Life Studios is reused, with most of it culled from ramshackle barns, Gorney said.
MMGY Global, Taco Republic, Centric Projects and a string of other local companies have hired Second Life. So have larger firms like Sony Entertainment and Anheuser-Busch.
“If somebody believes what we believe, if they say, ‘We care about the construction of the things around our lives,’ and they care about reclamation of materials and spaces, then they’re our client,” Gorney said.
Still in their 20s, lead designer Gorney and his co-founders—lead engineer Ryan Henrich and lead craftsman Mitch Trumpp—guide 17 employees, including master carpenters and welders, who mill, process, paint and send out myriad pieces of commercial and residential furniture, including desks, cabinets and bars.
Second Life Studios was incorporated in 2013 after half a year or so of the partners informally working together. Henrich, a welder, was sharing space with Trumpp, a carpenter, in the Crossroads Arts District, when Henrich reached out to his longtime friend Gorney, who holds a graduate degree in urban planning and design from the University of Kansas.
“They basically trusted me, and I tried to find them jobs,” Gorney said. “And then it occurred to us one day—we’re trying to be this loosely connected group of craftsmen, but how much more effective would we be if we became the big boy? What if the three of us started a company and we used our cumulative resources to do what we really wanted to do?”
Since then, the desire to use their small business as an economic and social engine for good has increased with each new job. That includes designing, building and installing all of the bars, shelves and tables at the recently opened PT’s Coffee Roasting Co., 310 Southwest Blvd. The wood was reclaimed from coffee-carrying pallets.
Pallet wood is normally limited to DIY projects, “but we wanted to treat it like high-end wood,” Gorney said. “We did everything we could do to make it beautiful. And PT’s were wonderful clients. Once they believed that we knew who they were and we had their best interests in mind, they said, ‘Go.’ And they let us do it all.”
