Type Private Founded 1992 Number of locations 4 | Industry Retail, wholesale Headquarters New York, NY | |
 | ||
Founder Ben Busko
(President & creative director) | ||
Ben's Garden is an American retail company, e-commerce site and wholesale business. The company designs and manufactures home tabletop accessories and decoupage, stationery, home furnishings and artwork, and is headquartered in New York City.
Contents
History
Ben's Garden was founded in 1992 by the company's president and owner, Ben Busko, when he was eight years old. Busko began crafting decoupage creations and note cards when he was six years old and at age eight he sold handcrafted decoupage and notecards at an outdoor crafts fair on Long Island. By age ten, his Ben's Garden-branded crafts and notecards were selling at Smith & Hawken stores and in the New York Botanical Garden gift shop. In 2003, his entire decoupage collection was purchased by the women's clothing company Anthropologie.
The first Ben's Garden retail store was opened in Oyster Bay in 2004. In 2007, a second location was added in Huntington. An e-commerce site was also launched that year. The company's main office and studio is in Brooklyn, New York with production facilities in Oyster Bay and Sunset Park, Brooklyn. There are plans to open two more retail locations in 2015, in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Products
Ben's Garden sells decoupage home accessories and artwork that are handmade in New York as well as books and antiques. Within the traditional French technique of decoupage, Busko specializes in reverse decoupage, which involves affixing an image, a collage of images, or a quote to the bottom of a glass accessory, such as a tray, coaster or paperweight, with a mixture of glue, water and a hardening agent. He works often with floral prints, quotes, and vintage maps, and typically personalizes pieces with calligraphy, watercolor and oil paint accents. The back of the piece is painted with acrylic paint, and topped with a layer of black felt as a finish.
Ben's Garden products are sold at the company's stores and website, and outlets including Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Anthropologie, Barnes & Noble and Hudson's Bay.