WATCH: How these old wine barrels become something else

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Josh Perreault, took a big step in his personal life.

After getting sober, he quickly found out he had an interest in turning empty wine barrels into unique furniture and items.

He started off with making coat hooks and crib boards and has since been able to create items like chairs, stools, tables, and other art pieces.

“I just thought I’d try it. Through trial and error, out comes some fun-looking furniture. There definitely were some growing pains, of just not knowing what to do,” Perreault told Kelowna10. “All of the angles, or how to attach this or that together. I’ve always been a self-taught learner, I don’t really watch YouTube videos, I’ll just see a picture and just do it.”

Perrault who was in the auto finance world felt overworked and decided he didn’t want to listen to anyone but himself and that’s where JP Crafted began.

“It was getting too much, you don’t have a good work life balance, he said. “Being creative and jumping into this definitely helped bring out a different avenue of creativity than what I was doing before.”

Some of the smaller pieces can take up to 45 minutes to make. The bigger projects, like a set of chairs can take up to a week.

Most wine barrels are supplied by Great Monk Winery in Lake Country. Two barrels can provide enough material to create several projects for Perreault’s growing clientele.

“When I got accepted to start selling my goods at the farmers’ market I was just looking online and finding other things: bars, wine bars, stools, chairs that kind of stuff.”

He credits his grandma Patrica, who passed away four years ago, as his inspiration for his crafting. He pays homage to her on his business card, with the words ‘created by Josh in memory of Patrica.’ “She was always a creative person,” he said.

In the last year, Josh said he has given up alcohol and that has opened the door for a new creative life.

“I quit drinking and found out that I can do some awesome things with wine barrels with zero woodworking experience, so I just jumped in and create a bunch of really rad stuff,” Perreault said.