Covid-era Reset Leads to New Business for Hyde Park Family

By Robin Gee

Aimee and Jon Dokulil left Idaho and landed in Cincinnati on February 29, 2020, right as the world seemed to be shutting down. Aimee is an engineer at Procter & Gamble, and Jon worked for a successful tech startup. The couple had one daughter and were expecting another child. 

They moved into a small furnished apartment in Oakley, and within two weeks, P & G told employees to work from home. Jon, who normally traveled at least 50 percent of the time with his job, was also working from home. They had only been working out the logistics of both being home when their daughter’s daycare shut down, and so the once small apartment became even smaller. The family, like many others during the pandemic, had to figure out how to navigate a new, and somewhat cramped, world.

They made some changes. Despite the pandemic, they masked up, put on gloves and looked for a house suitable for their growing family. They found one they loved in Hyde Park, and quickly fell in love with the neighborhood — the walkability, the community. The move to Cincinnati and into a new home in the middle of a pandemic had been a big change, but it was only the first of several.

The couple’s second child was born during these initial changes, and Jon said he had a much more active role in his son’s day to day care. This led him to rethinking his path in life. He was enjoying being home and not traveling so much. Being at home more also allowed him to pursue his woodworking hobby.

“Eight or nine years ago, I started woodworking. We used to have backyard chickens, and I wanted to build a coop and a little fenced in area so they could come out of the coop during the day. I made it. It was not very good, but it worked well enough. My brother was doing some really creative stuff, so when we moved and I needed to build another one, he came and showed me how to do framing and how to do all this stuff that was actually good quality. And I kept doing that mostly for us and for friends and family,” he said.

The time spent at home gave Jon and Aimee the time to re-evaluate things, and Jon made a big decision. He would leave his job, and turn his love of woodworking into a business. With Aimee’s support, he launched Cairn Design Studio, combining wood and metal to create one-of-a-kind pieces as well as a line of furniture.

Aimee is on maternity leave right now after having a third child, and so she is helping her husband with marketing and business support. 

“Jon is very modest,” Aimee said. “ He makes really cool stuff out of wood, but he also has that tech mindset. He recently made some nightstands. He learned programming for these sensors so that the nightstand has a light inside it and when you pull the drawer open, it lights up. And in the back there’s a light…If you want to plug stuff in the back, you just touch it, and it lights up back there, so you’re not searching for your cord. I would never think to do that but he’s such a detailed person, and he brings his tech background to this woodworking space.”

Jon said he really likes to find solutions for problems. He made a couch table that Aimee could use when she’s sitting on the couch nursing her baby. It’s weighted so it can’t tip over and gives her room to put her tea and her book while sitting back. He’s also made his family several items including a live-edge kitchen table and a large dining room table with a bench.

Some of his designs incorporate metal. For that, he said he took blacksmithing and welding lessons at the Cincinnati Blacksmith Guild.

The couple said they are learning the marketing side of their business mostly by trail and error, but they’ve met several interior designers who have helped point them in the right directions. They’ve started visiting design showrooms, including a large one at Longworth Hall. 

“It’s multiple levels of these different showrooms that are only open to the trade, only for designers to go in. All three floors are very distinct styles. They’ve just got walls of hangers of different textiles for designers to look at. And they’ve got all kinds of really cool statement pieces …We’ve talked to designers, we’ve talked to showrooms. We’re trying to do direct-to-consumer marketing, learning those ropes,” said Aimee.

Right now, they don’t want to handle too much shipping, and so most of their business is local, she said. 

Jon said he wants to do more artistic pieces but is also creating a line of furniture that allows for some customization in size and wood type. Overall, he said, he’s happy to be close to home (He has a studio in Lovelan), happy to have more time with his family and happy to be able to make things.

“I initially got into software because I just really love making things. I’ve been a computer nerd since I was little. So making things with a keyboard and a mouse was great for a long time, and then as the company grew, I got more and more into management. And so, this just felt like an opportunity to reset and go back to just making stuff, this time with wood and metal. And so I am very excited for that,” he said.

To see some of Jon Dokulil’s designs, go to the Cairn Design Studio website at cairndesign.studio.

Jon and Aimee Dokulil arrived in Cincinnati from Idaho near the very beginning of the covid pandemic. When the world shut down, like many, they found themselves juggling work for both of them at home while caring for their young daughter. They had another child on the way. The experience changed their lives and started them on a new path that led to the creation of Cairn Design Studio, showcasing handmade wood and metal furniture by Jon. They now have three children, a beautiful home in Hyde Park and a thriving small business. Pictured are the Dokulil family and Jon’s designs. Provided