Each of us coped in our own way during spring and summer of 2020. Some soothed themselves with sourdough. Others walked, jumped on Zoom calls, or tried their hand at yoga.
My husband, Gary, built a fence.
Our old fence was fine enough. It was standing when we moved into our house six years earlier. The fence was a standard picket fence, but grayed and weathered from age.
Gary had a vision of a horizontally louvered fence. One that could provide complete privacy without sacrificing breeze or sunshine. He got to work.
After its completion, the compliments started rolling in. Neighbors who passed on their daily distanced walk asked us how they could get a fence like ours. Gary had spent months hand cutting each slat to create the louvered look. The labor for an effort would be inhibitively expensive. We scouted around for a product that might meet the need, but nothing existed.
We would have to create the product ourselves.
We designed one prototype.
And then another.
And another.
We got input from my nephew, Richard, who was studying engineering at Notre Dame. Our son-in-law, Pawan, who was wrapping up his MBA at UCLA, helped us draft up a business plan. Little by little, it came together.
In 2023, we officially launched EZ Louver with our first market-tested bracket. But the pursuit of the perfection didn’t stop there. We made adjustments. We refined. Two years in we have a bracket we are proud of and believe in, with a community of supporters who believe in it as much as we do.
Running a small business isn’t glamorous. I am the only person who works on EZ Louver full-time. Gary splits his time between EZ Louver and operating our other business (yes, we have more than one!). Our eldest daughter helps us with marketing and social media. We put together our shipments by hand in our garage. EZ Louver is a family affair. A true labor of love.
And that love shows. Every week, we hear from customers who are transforming their spaces with our brackets– turning fences into art and dreaming up uses we never imagined (outdoor showers! compost bins!). We’ve met incredible people across the country who share our belief that great design should be both beautiful and practical.
(Check out some examples of these projects on our gallery page!)
When Gary started building our fence back in 2020, none of us could have imagined where it would lead. What began as a way to cope became something bigger– a way to connect, to create, to build– one bracket at a time.
-Karen
Ready to make your louvered project a breeze? Grab your brackets today.
Got a question about your project? Give me a call or send me an email and we can talk it through.
Do you have a completed project you want to share? Send us your pictures and reviews! We’ll share it out on our socials, website, or newsletter.