Meet Kelly Wooldridge | Woodworker and designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kelly Wooldridge and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kelly, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
The business as it currently exists evolved from a restaurant-focused handyman service. After more than a decade in wine and hospitality I left the industry. I’d had a realization while working as a server and sommelier at Table 6 that I was much happier on the days I was helping to fix up the restaurant than the days I was spending studying for my third attempt at the Master Sommelier exam. It dawned on me that I had amassed a decent knowledge base about basic construction and the like from time working as wine director for Bonanno Concepts and as general manager of Mizuna. The old buildings housing the flagship restaurants needed constant maintenance and it was faster and more cost-effective to get it done myself, something Frank and Jacqueline Bonanno generally appreciated. So as the idea for a handyman business dawned on me, it became clear that I should also try and leverage the professional network I’d built over the last ten-plus years in Denver. I hoped it would be viable within six months and that I could do it full time in a year; seven weeks after I started, things were so busy that I had to leave restaurants completely to keep up with the workload. Woodworking became my focus after being asked to build a set of tables for Williams & Graham in 2017; just over a year after that I had to build a wood shop.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My art is furniture, it’s functional art. Plenty of people think that art lives on your walls or in a museum. The art I design and build lives WITH you; under your drinks and dinners, supporting you, acting as focal points for your spaces and unlike a painting or a sculpture you get to feel it, touch it, use it. Getting to where I am now in my art and business has been a unique trip involving mentorship, experimentation, some notable failures and a lot of learning-by-doing. None of this was easy, though it was always enlightening. As a former hospitality professional I thrive on being challenged, on overcoming and solving problems. By leaning on a great group of experienced and talented woodworkers, developing relationships with suppliers and doing a lot of reading and research I’ve been able to push myself to find my own design style and voice, while always reaching for better and better finished products. As these relationships and friendships have developed over the years I’ve learned plenty of lessons; about patience, the importance of balancing creativity and soundness of construction, about the vastness of the world of design and designers. My brand, SGO Works (SGO stands for Some Guy in Overalls, an old, inside joke from my days working for the Bonanno Concepts restaurant group) is about marrying design with thoughtful craftsmanship. And my background in hospitality definitely informs my approach to client relationships and how I run my business. Having spent so much time talking with restaurant guests about wine and food, I love to spend time with my clients now talking about their design goals and style. I wouldn’t ever imagine that my approach is totally unique, but my professional history definitely gives me a leg up in terms of communication and relationship-building.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
With a week in town I would start by laying down a good base with dinner at Tables in Park Hill, where our good friends Amy Vitale and Dustin Barrett produce beautiful, comfortable food and write a killer wine list. Our museums are awesome so I’d hit a couple, Clyfford Still and the Kirkland are personal favorites. Our lives kind of revolve around eating and drinking and most of our friends that visit are taken on a pretty regular rotation of restaurants: Barolo Grill for exquisite service and wine, Restaurant Olivia for unrivaled cocktails and unbelievable pasta, Table 6 for comfort food and another of my favorite small wine lists and killer Szechuan and riesling at Hop Alley. But it’s not all bougey; any trip to Denver would be incomplete without some great, authentic Mexican food so Tacos Acapulco, Tacos Junior and a truck or two are also important stops. Of course now that so much of Denver is open again, cocktails at Williams & Graham, Brass Tacks, the Cooper Lounge and Boys and Girls Club are also old stand-bys for us. Of course if we have outdoor enthusiasts with us and it’s seasonally appropriate, an Airbnb in Leadville and a couple of ski days at Cooper are a blast. That trip requires a stop at Leever’s for River Bear meat provisions and Pacific Ocean Marketplace for hot pot supplies. Compared to when I came to Denver for culinary school in 2003, the city is positively overflowing with cool things to do.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My wife, the beautiful and talented, endlessly patient and whole-heartedly supportive Morgan Wolfe. Without her I simply couldn’t have made it this far. Also, my friend, mentor and collaborator Ethan Hutchinson, without whose skills and passion for teaching I couldn’t do what I do. And to my dear friend Kevin Anderson; a talented woodworker in his own right, without whom I wouldn’t know Ethan. And of course my parents, Beth and Rusty Wooldridge, who raised me to have faith in my own abilities and decision-making.

Website: www.sgoworks.com

Instagram: @sgoworks