'DrunkWood' creator leaves job in education to pursue furniture business

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The man behind "DrunkWood" uses wine and bourbon barrels to make the pieces, but making his hobby a full time job meant taking a chance.

In John King's Germantown garage, you won't find a car. Instead, that's where he keeps stacks and stacks of bourbon barrels. They're King's canvas of choice for "DrunkWood." "Everytime you cut a piece of wood, you still kind of get a whiff of the bourbon and the distillery with it, so that's kind of why it's "drunk wood," because it still has the booze in it," said King.

He spends seven days a week in his "DrunkWood" workshop. Using staves and barrel tops, King turns them into unique pieces of art and furniture. He's self taught, free-handing thousands of state outlines with chalk and a jigsaw.

"For some people's Kentucky, I may have forgot outer lying counties, so I apologize," said King.

His most notorious piece is a seven-foot Kentucky installation at "Feast" in NuLu. While the Bluegrass state is most popular, King says he's done nearly every state. When it comes to transforming barrels into art, most anything is fair game.

"I will say I've only done one University of Kentucky thing in my life, and that's probably the only time I'll ever do it," he said.

A year ago, this workshop was just a hobby for King who was busy on his way to earning a PhD.

"I never thought I'd be in this position, as I was going through (my) Bachelor's and graduate school. That I thought I would be wood working my whole life. It's kind of comical," said King.

In May, he took a chance and ditched his job at U of L as a teacher and adviser. "The day I closed on my house, I put in my resignation. I didn't tell my parents I quit my job for four months, because I was scared of the 'You shouldn't quit your job, until you have a real job'," said King.

But becoming his own boss is paying off. Even after the holiday rush, the orders keep rolling in.

"You've gotta take chances. If you don't take chances you're going to have regrets when you're older," King said.

King says he relies on word of mouth when it comes to "DrunkWood." He doesn't have his own store and makes most of his sales through Facebook.