Kustom Kegs: Craftsman rolls out the barrel

IT TOOK Steve Bain a while to find a career that allowed him to make money from working with his hands.

Growing business: Products made from wine barrels by Kustom Kegs.

IT TOOK Steve Bain a while to find a career that allowed him to make money from working with his hands.

As a kid, he attended a “posh school” in Adelaide that did not encourage him to explore his love of woodwork.

“If you liked woodwork, they thought you should go to a trade school,” he said.

“It was a conservative, academic school and you either became a doctor or a lawyer.

“But I always loved woodwork and tinkering back then, and nowadays, that’s what I do for a living, so I have come full circle.”

Steve’s CV between the school years and his woodworking career, reads like the biography of five different men.

He’s worked as a labourer, sheep shearer and fencer. He spent 18 years working for Telstra — then Telecom — before setting up his own apple orchard near Mount Gambier, where he currently lives.

“I did that for nine years before I realised there was no money in primary production when you’re at the end of the food chain,” he said.

While working at Telecom, he also took a second job as a DJ before deciding he didn’t want to be the oldest DJ in South Australia.

In 2006, he stumbled upon his current incarnation as transformer of retired oak wine barrels into rustic indoor and outdoor furniture.

Which sounds, and is, extremely niche.

How did this come about?

“I was visiting a friend on Hindmarsh Island and I wanted to buy something to thank him for having me and I saw this wine rack that was priced at $680,” he said.

“I thought it was just greed at that price and so I decided to make one myself. I cut a barrel in half and made the wine rack and I sold the second one to his friend.

“It went from there.”

His business, Kustom Kegs, has grown to include Esky-style barrel tables, bar stools, wine racks and cabinets, wood boxes, water features, dog kennels, lounge sofas and coffee tables and chopping boards.

And he’ll be bringing as “much stock he can fit into the trailer” to this year’s field days.

“The bar stools are the most popular and I also sell a lot of water features, too” he said.

“Because I’m based in Mount Gambier, I’m close to the wine region of Coonawarra, which helps ensure a steady supply of French and American oak barrels for my work.”

His prices range from $45 for cheese boards to $1900 for an Esky barrel table with six chairs, which features a 90-litre cooler at the centre of an eight-seater table.

Business is solid — Steve makes enough money to pay the bills — and he puts his success down to Australians’ living habits.

“People aren’t moving house as much anymore as you can end up paying around $40,000 in fees and stamp duty costs to move,” he said.

“So I think people are putting that money instead into their homes. They’re spending it on furniture or renovations.”

And it seems after numerous career paths — some exciting, others mind-numbing cul-de-sacs — he has finally found his calling.

“It’s very relaxing,” he said.

“Working with your hands is like therapy.”