Made in the Hudson Valley: New Rochelle couple makes Halloween a lifestyle through their shop 'JBT Coffins to Die For'
Halloween is a way of life for the husband-and-wife duo, so much so that their wedding anniversary is on the holiday itself.
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Like any home, Tracey and Jessica Beavers’ house in New Rochelle is filled with bookshelves, suncatchers, coffee pod holders and more... but there's one thing that makes them different from the ones you see in other homes: they’re all shaped like coffins.
"Our home decor isn't just for Halloween," said Tracey, co-owner of JBT Coffins to Die For. "This is a year-round thing. We just like the spooky, horror [and] autumn season."
Halloween is a way of life for the husband-and-wife duo, so much so that their wedding anniversary is on the holiday itself. When it comes to their spooky small business, the journey all started when Jessica was looking for a new jewelry box to match their gothic aesthetic.
"I pretty much was like, 'Can you make this for me?'" she said. "I [knew] how handy he [was] working with wood and tools."
Thus, the couple’s experiment ‘JBT Coffins to Die For’ was born. As lovers of horror and the Halloween season, the husband-and-wife duo use their shop to channel their passion year-round, but in a practical manner.
"We kept on with the idea of finding other home pieces that would actually work for the kitchen, house or living room," said Jessica. "It kind of just branched off into there."
While they specialize in coffins, Tracey can try to make almost any of your frightening fantasies come to life as he works his magic in their basement's makeshift workshop.
"If somebody else asks, ‘Can you make a pumpkin shaped this? Or a ghost-shaped that?’ I say, ‘I'll see what I can do,’" he said.
The couple also creates different products with custom colors for various holidays. That way, customers can, again, use the products year-round. For example, they can paint the products red for Valentine's Day or black and white as an homage to Jack Skellington from Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas."
Whether it’s a coffin, ghost, pumpkin or other Halloween-themed item, the couple says customers from Westchester all the way to the United Kingdom have truly died over their creepy creations.
"They see our stuff and they're like, 'Oh, I'm [going to] tell my friend about this,'" Tracey said. "So, we've gotten out there pretty much."
You can purchase products from their Etsy shop.
