Meet peter carey | Industrial Designer/Woodworker/Artist

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

Hi peter, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
I have left every every job I’ve had with an uncertain future in the pursuit of something I enjoy more. This has brought me closer to my ideal life than ever. Taking those risks was scary but I have always thought that staying with something that does not bring happiness and fulfillment is a failure in itself and so why not at least try for what you dream of. Two sentiments have always stuck with me around taking risks in life and those are “If you can still fail doing something you hate then why not fail doing something you love” and “It is never a bad idea to follow your heart”. I wish I could say who said those first but they were simply repeated to me by a friend of mine and I have always found them to ring true.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My passion for building and design started as a techie in high school spending countless hours after school and on weekends working with the technical theater department building sets and props. Through that I got a chance to do a short internship during my senior year in the set shop for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. After high school I spent time working in custom cabinetry. I learned a lot a basic shop skills and also some technical skills as I learned how to program the cnc and spent some time working with the designers developing custom builds for clients. After some time I grew board of cabinetry as it felt like just different types of the same thing so I left my job to look for something more creative not knowing what I would find. I was able to find work right away as a right hand man for a few carpenters that I knew and under them I learned a lot of field skills that you don’t get exposed to always working from a shop. Still I wanted more creative work, so I reached out to the shop at the DCPA to volunteer and was thrilled when they offered me a job! I loved working there but it was seasonal so I decided to go back to school in my persistent pursuit of more creative endeavors, It was at MSU I found the industrial design field and loved the creative variety it offered. That creative freedom and variety was there in school but much to my disappointment it was not what I found in the professional world. So when Doug gave me the chance to take on my own custom woodworking and furniture design company I could not resist. I quite my job and dove in head first. It has been scary to say the least but my level of happiness and quality of life is better than it has ever been. I guess what I would want to say about my story is that even though you cannot know what the future holds it is always a good idea to follow your heart. The leaps of faith I have made have brought me to a place I never thought I would be and the ceiling for my creative freedom now seems limitless.

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.
Well this friend is musically inclined and an old band mate of mine so I would take them to my new bands practice studio where we would spend and evening just getting quality time together and having a blast making music the whole time. After that we would spend time in the city hitting some of our old favorite bars and restaurants (to many to name), joking about how much Denver has changed since we were kids and debating the ways it has changed for the better and for the worst. Next its time to get to the mountains. Camping and fishing in Eleven Mile Canyon, rafting Browns Canyon, a day on the slopes (probably Copper Mountain) and finally star gazing in some hot water at one of our many favorite hot springs.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would love to give my shout out to Doug & Amy Golenz. This wonderful couple founded Alpine Blue Home about 8 years ago. Amy is an extremely talented designer/artist with a keen eye for elegant interior design, Doug is a brilliant, award winning industrial designer and was also and adjunct professor at MSU while I was enrolled in their industrial design program. He was my portfolio development teacher and when he became aware that I had a good amount of experience in woodworking he invited me to help him with a project he was working on. I was thrilled to except the offer as a chance to work with a professor and designer I deeply respected unaware that shortly after I would be working in his shop with him on the weekends for years to come. I’m also proud to say we have become dear friends. In late 2023 Doug was accepting a new position that would demand more of his time and was not sure he would be able to continue Alpine Blue Home. He was also aware that my current 9-5 corporate job, despite taking good care or me, was killing me creatively. I often expressed to him how much I would love to just spend my days creating art, tinkering with new ideas and getting in my “sawdust therapy” as we often referred to it. I was deeply touched and honored when Doug and Amy made me a generous offer to take over ownership of Alpine Blue Home and gave me the opportunity to chase a dream creating a life and career as a designer, an artist and to get plenty sawdust therapy along the way.

Website: https://alpinebluehome.com

Instagram: @alpinebluehome