About Us
Hey, my name is Lauren Denny, owner of Simply Stained Shop + Simply Country Ranch in McAlester, Oklahoma. My family operates this sign company with the intent of keeping it SIMPLE, for you. If you have an idea, we will try to bring it to life with our up to date technology and designs. We use UV ink printers and lasers, and hand create all the wood products from scratch.
Here’s the thing, I’m not a learn on the go person. I am not a fly by the seat of my pants. I am not an always see the bright-side kind of person.
These are LEARNED traits I am working to include in my tool belt each day. I chalk that up to my marriage, thank goodness for my husband Ben, because quite frankly, he talks me down and into a lot of things. Like, “Hey, let’s leave the suburbs and run a farm.” YEP. That’s how this started…
Let’s go back to the beginning, since First grade in Mrs. Simari’s class, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. I took babysitting courses, worked at a day care, volunteered in classrooms, got jobs working with kids, just to further my knowledge of how to become the BEST TEACHER I can be.
You could say, I am a planner, so why would I deviate from my plan? I mean I put myself through college to become a teacher, y’all know that is a pricey piece of paper!
I went through a time when I didn’t have confidence in myself, I didn’t have passions, I felt HOME-less. After plastering the word HOME all over my apartment in various forms of signs I started developing a passion for CREATING. I started to see what I was able to MAKE from my own hands.
Let me introduce you to the man I married, Ben, the craziest person I know. (I love you honey, I mean that with love…) He has the confidence and the “what’s the worst that could happen” attitude, that allows him to TRY new things and FAIL, and try again.
I told him, I am making these cute decorations for my classroom, but I spend all night cutting the paper for them..insert the skit from FRIENDS when Joey opens a carton of milk, “There’s gotta be another way!” Ben’s answer; a CRICUT, a fancy cutting machine, which was an investment and I thought he was again…. CRAZY for spending money like that.
Me, being me, too afraid to jump into a new project without doing the planning… CRICUT sat in the box for months until Ben’s words of; “what’s the worst thing that could happen?”
And so, Simply Stained Shop, a decor company, was built. Don’t get me wrong, he is definitely the backbone of this company, but, I take the credit for this baby, this is a story about a teacher finding the confidence in herself to LET GO, try, learn, and believe in big dreams!
I said it in the beginning, I don’t know a lot about everything, but I know a little about somethings.
Since starting Simply Stained Shop, Ben sold his construction company, I paused my teaching role, and we moved to Oklahoma to start a ranch from scratch. We have the huge blessing to live on a little piece of heaven a long with my parents, where we focus on sharing what we learn along the way.
Thank you for being here! I know our livelihood would not be here without you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Thanks for supporting our small business made in america.