Some ideas find you slowly. This one started with a children's book and a woman named Rebecca Estelle.

In Too Many Pumpkins, Rebecca Estelle keeps her matches on a simple shelf on her porch. It's a small detail in a single illustration - but it stopped me. The way that one modest piece of furniture made her porch feel like a room. I read that book to my twin daughters in the late 1990s and eventually to all 4 of my kids— I never quite let go of that image.

Outer Space and the Garden Box exist because of what happens when you step outside. The morning garden putter when you reach for your clippers. Lighting candles before guests arrive. Tucking everything away after a night around the fire pit. Having what you need, where you need it — without a trip to the garage or carrying everything back indoors.

The cabinet is built from thermally modified ash — the same material used in the footbridges along the bike paths of Metro West Boston. No chemical treatments. Just wood that weathers honestly and lasts. The shed roof design draws from a mid-century modern home I once lived in, where being indoors always felt like being outdoors.

It took years of prototypes, several talented craftspeople, and three years of living with the final version in my own backyard before I was ready to share it. That time mattered. It turned a good idea into something I genuinely couldn't do without.

My name is Rebecca too. Maybe that's why this one felt like mine to make.

— Rebecca

*Picture*