About
About Vivid Grain Woodcraft
Located in Woodland Park, CO, Vivid Grain Woodcraft, owned by woodworker Jeff Loper, creates inspired goods and furniture to meet your unique needs. Whether it’s custom-made hardwood furniture that caters to your personal tastes or fits a specific space in your home, a unique display piece, or a thoughtful gift that expresses thankfulness for a meaningful relationship, let Jeff breathe life into your ideas. By employing traditional woodworking techniques along with today’s modern machinery and technology, your possibilities are vast. Jeff is also in the midst of crafting his own furniture styles, Woodland Rustic and Woodland Refined, inspired by the breathtaking Rocky Mountains surrounding his family’s home.
Vivid Grain Woodcraft provides custom woodworking solutions for all of Colorado, but specifically: Woodland Park, Cripple Creek, Divide, Colorado Springs, Denver, Monument, Pueblo, and more. We also ship anywhere in the continental United States.
About Jeff
Hello and thank you for stopping by! My name is Jeff and I am the owner of Vivid Grain Woodcraft. I run a custom woodworking shop out of my home in beautiful Woodland Park, CO! My love for building things began in grade school with plastic models. In junior high I was introduced to the woodshop and my life was forever changed. My first project was a (very ugly) bowling pin lamp. I quickly progressed to building my first bedside table and then a small hallclock for my parents. By the time I reached high school all of my spare time was spent either in the shop or playing trumpet in the band. By my sophomore year I was building real furniture from scratch, including a full-size desk and three grandfather clocks. All are still in use today and the grandfather clocks were my first commission pieces. And for my graduating class, I earned me the Industrial Arts Award for my woodworking skills and the John Philip Sousa Award for my musical abilities. Throughout this time I was also very involved going on church mission trips building houses for Habitat for Humanity and mission activities building things.
By college, as one does, the focus became school. Woodworking took a back seat but I spent my summers growing my skills in a different way as a salesman for a big-box home improvement center called Wolohan Lumber (now extinct). Upon college graduation I moved to Nashville, TN, worked in the music business, and joined a church where my carpenter and woodworking skills were put to use in the annual Habitat for Humanity home build.
As my career progressed in the music business and then the book publishing business, I fulfilled my desire to work with my hands by taking on home improvements and the occassional woodworking project. In 2010, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and it wasn’t long before I underwent a complete collectomy along with several reconstructive surgeries to make what is called a j-pouch (formerly known as ileal pouch-anal anastomosis), which would serve as my colon going forward. During this time of illness and surgeries, as one does, I contemplated life and considered different career choices as the high-stress corporate life was taking its toll on my gut health and I was clearly losing the battle.
In 2012, my wife and I pursued the purchase of a second home in Colorado. We weren’t looking for much…just a small home around 500 square feet that we could escape to. In our search I stumbled across tiny houses and thought, “I can do that!” It was then that Valley View Tiny House Company was born and appearances followed on HGTV’s Tiny House Hunters, FYI Network’s Tiny House Nation, and the nationally syndicated show The Doctors. Being that it was 2013, I was on the cutting edge of the tiny house boom! Despite the huge media attention, our location in Tennessee hampered our success. A lack of building codes, regulations, and insurance options prohibited people from being able to get loans for tiny houses. Those that bought them had to have a large sum of available cash and be willing to assume risk. On top of those obstacles, Tennessee’s zoning requirements were not favorable to tiny houses, especially the mobile houses we built. They were to be placed on cement pads and tethered to the ground, and who wants to do that when they are inteneded to be mobile.
By 2015, I was at a crossroads with the tiny house business. It felt like it was about to explode at any moment the the insecure future was starting to wear on me. About that time a job came open at our church home, Providence Church. After much prayer and discussion, I applied, knowing that if I didn’t get it I would continue with the tiny houses, and if I did get it, it would be the start of an amazing new career path.
Well, I got it and became the Director of Outreach & Communications leading our mission efforts, including Habitat for Humanity builds, building waterwells in Nicaragua, hurricane recovery efforts, among many other things. But, my health battles were not over!
In 2018 following a severe internal bleed and almost losing my life, it was determined that my j-pouch was no longer serving me well. As a result, we underwent four more surgeries, this time in New York with the world’s leading j-pouch surgeon. It was then that my health finally took a turn for the positive, but that last surgery was a doozy! As I laid there with 16 wires and tubes going in and out of my body and unsure whether I would make it out of there, I once again found myself contemplating my career and the damage being done to my body. Mentally, I could handle the work no problem but my body was clearly telling me “enough.” It was in this moment that I asked God to show me the way and Vivid Grain Woodcraft was born.
In mid-2022, I did one of the hardest things of my life and resigned from Providence Church, but my life there was not over. Nearly every woodworking project I took on came from people within that great community and I’m forever grateful.
And remember that dream for Colorado? We made it happen. In June 2024 we packed up everything, including tons of woodworking equipment, and made the move to Woodland Park, CO where Vivid Grain Woodcraft continues to this day!