Made In Arizona: Chandler man turns wine, whiskey barrels into furniture

Phoenix area man turns wine, whiskey barrels into furniture

An Arizona man is giving new life to wine and whiskey barrels that have been used by distilleries and breweries by turning them into new pieces of furniture. FOX 10's Christina Carilla reports, in this week's edition of Made In Arizona.

CHANDLER, Ariz. - 'An Arizona craftsman is taking old wine and whiskey barrels, stripping them down and turning them into new pieces of furniture.

"We make Adirondack chairs, tables, bar stools, lazy susan, home decor, fire pits," said Tanner Garrod.

Garrod is an Arizona native, and when his dad retired a few years back, he wanted to gift him something special.

"I found someone on Craigslist who found two wine barrels and went on Pinterest. Saw what I could make out of wine barrel," said Garrod. "Saw these Adirondack chairs that were beautiful, so I just printed the picture and took the wine bottles apart and built them at our own chairs. The guy I bought the barrels from saw them and were like, 'holy crap, you got talent, boy.'"

Four years later, Garrod owns Double Barrel AZ, where making custom furniture out of wine and whiskey barrels is his full-time job.

"I get most of my barrels from Top Notch Barrels and San Tan Valley," said Garrod.

Garrod says typically when distilleries are done with their barrels, they sell them to breweries. When the breweries are done with the barrels, they sell them to brokers, and the brokers give them to local craftsmen.

"So I take the barrel, I reinforce it, make cabinets out of it, make bars out of it. I use the staves for chairs because it has a natural curve on it," said Garrod.

Garrod uses every part of the barrel: the heads, staves, and rings. He says it's all recyclable.

"It has a natural wine stain. Has the red stain, which is beautiful, and the whiskey barrels are charred inside. So you got the more rustic, darker wood with the black char, and it looks really cool," said Garrod.

Breaking into the business world wasn't exactly easy. Garrod started selling out of his carport.

"January of 2020, we went to the Heritage Square, and it was our first ever festival and we almost sold out," said Garrod. "It just took off from there. The support is incredible. The word of mouth is what really got me going."

From Adirondack and patio chairs to tables, lazy susans, planters, Garrod makes it all from his hometown of Chandler.

"We'll go over, pick your own barrel out of the bunch we have, and there's unlimited customizations that we can do," said Garrod.

Double Barrel AZ is always busy, and Garrod typically has four months' worth of orders at all times. Garrod says, however, he will make it worth the wait. He also says he is grateful to live in a place where he can follow his passion to be creative.

"We have freedom to do what we please and make a life for ourselves and our family. There's other countries that don't have that, and we are blessed as citizens to be able to do that," said Garrod.