Tyler and Stefanie Ceola started “Ceola Farmstead’ in 2015. Tyler grew up watching his dad as a carpenter and developed the love of craftsmanship and woodworking.
They started small with custom furniture and eventually realized their passion for building doors. They believe the door is the invitation to the space you’ve created to enjoy and celebrate life - and they want to make your vision for the entrance to your home a reality.
We Love Handmade
I, Tyler, grew up watching my father build furniture and was inspired to follow in the trade. Learning about all types of wood, joinery methods and tools, the process from milling lumber to completing a piece of furniture was intoxicating. Along the way, I learned much of what wood working should not be; sloppy joints, bowed lumber, veneered products and poor, dull finishes that do not withstand daily use. I felt compelled to build better than what the standard market could provide. Finding a gap in the world of “handmade,” we decided to focus our attention on doors.
Husband & Wife Team
Stefanie and I work as a husband and wife team to create the best doors we can for our customers. We love getting to know our customers and their needs so that we can provide the best service and product we are able. We enjoy working in the shop together, being outdoors, working on the farm, doing chores and whatever else needs done. To avoid debt, we built our home ourselves as we had the cash to do so. This process helped us learn the value of a dollar, and we carry that value into what we build. Our desire is for our customers to see value in what they purchase from us.
A Passion for Door Building
In 2015, we started Ceola Farmstead, now Ozark Custom Door Company, with our primary focus on door building. Doors are unique in that they are required to be both rigid and flexible in order to retain integrity throughout their life. Since trees are living organisms, even as lumber they are subject to the elements. It is vital to prevent as much change as possible while maintaining structural soundness; our joinery offers that. We use mortise and tenon joints for the load bearing structure of the door. This allows a tight joint, as well as enormous strength; our doors will never break on a joint.
Our panels are “floating” because as weather changes, the door must react. A floating panel allows the door to react without creating seams for air to pass through.
We understand that the front door is the primary focal point of a home. Beyond this piece of art resides family and friends; we truly love that doors produced in our shop, nestled on our little farm in the Ozarks, act as the gateway to the home you have created with your family.
“Tyler & Stefanie are truly such a wonderful couple to work with. Great communication, superb craftsmanship & we are very pleased with our new farmhouse/barn style front door! It's exactly what we wanted!
Kristen L.
Building Our Farm
During the build only one permit was necessary, and that was for sewage. We live outside of city code so we were able to do our own plumbing and electrical work.
Our water source is 100% rain water. We collect rain from gutters, which goes through a 20 gallon “first flush” system that we drain after the rain stops; this ensures that we only collect water from clean rooftops.
We have 4500 gallons of storage which lasts us about 5 months without a drop of rain. A pump brings the water from the tanks to the house and goes through a paper filter, carbon filter and UV filter so the water is 100% purified.
Check out (see right) our amazing Ford Model A Truck from the 1920s! Passed down from Stefanie’s grandfather, this is a restoration project that Tyler has spent many hours on! It’s one of our favorite things on the farm!
We constructed our home by our own hands.
We did not want a mortgage so building our home ourselves was the best solution. We drew up a rough blueprint and built the house in about 13 months using only evenings and weekends.
As you can see from the picture below, everything about our home is unique. For example, we live in a valley so we built our house on stilts to lift it off of the ground about 3 feet in case of flooding. The pier and beam foundation allows for easy design change and updates down the road as life changes.
Many would consider our home a tiny house as it is 500 sq ft. It feels like way more house than that because it is so open. In an effort to pay ourselves back for the money spent on the build we rented the home out on airbnb for a time and guests really seemed to love it! Even though it's a long process, building a house is something we plan on doing again.
Ceola Guitars
Tyler Ceola is not only passionate about woodworking, but music as well. He’s been playing music his entire life and began building custom hand-made guitars nearly 10 years ago. For more on Ceola Guitars click below.
