SISTER LAKES — An old glass bottle or piece of a wooden pallet are items sometimes found in the recycling, but for Lakehouse Creations, it could be the next item redesigned and featured in its store.

Lakehouse Creations officially opened on June 21 and is located in the heart of Sister Lakes at 92196 County Road 690, Dowagiac. The owners, Dave and Audra Springsteen, sell custom made lake décor and wood creations for the lakeside dwellers. The walls of the store are adorned with a variety of lake inspired sayings and quotes on wooden signs, bottles and even T-shirts.

“We’ve got a lot of a few different things, mainly signs, for really anybody,” said Dave Springsteen, one of the owners. “Because we are out here, our real target market is the Illinois people who come here and have lake houses. This area is more lake orientated.”

Dave, who has been working with wood for many years, said the store manufactures everything instead of buying it and reselling it.

“A lot of what we do is custom work. For instance, all of our signs are made out of recycled stuff,” Dave said, pointing to one that reads, “on lake time.”

He pointed to another that says, “Round Lake,” which used to be a shelf in an old cabinet he and his wife got rid of.

“A lot of these are made out of old pallets,” Dave said. “A lot of times, if someone wants something more specific, I may have to cut a piece of regular ply wood.”

Dave also showed off how the store is reusing old real estate signs.

“If we get real estate signs, the problem is they get bad around the edges, and at any given time, we could be throwing out 50 signs,” he said. “I just repurposed them. It’s something that would normally be burned or thrown in the trash,”

Dave has been a real estate broker for 37 years, while his wife, Audra, has worked in law for most of her career. The idea for the store arose when Audra showed some of her decorated glasses and handmade signs off at a get together her boss was throwing, Dave said. She sold $500 worth of products in a four-hour period.  The next day, Audra showed up at her job and the rest of her office wanted to buy some, he said.

The location of Lakehouse Creations used to be Dave’s real estate office. He eventually merged with Cressy and Everett and no longer needed to use the space, he said.

“This portion of the building was sitting here empty, and we own the building,” Dave said.  “We thought, ‘well maybe we will put a little store there and sell some of this stuff.’”

Lakehouse Creations was therefore created, and the owners knew exactly what the theme would be.

“We knew summer would be the target because that was when all the people would come up to their lake homes,” Dave said. “We just keep adding little extra things. I make a lot of tables.”

On Friday, June 28, the Dowagiac Chamber of Commerce sponsored a ribbon cutting event for both Lakehouse Creations and Libby Ann’s to promote the two new businesses in the Sister Lakes area.

“What’s nice about Libby Ann’s being here is we sort of complement each other,” Dave said. “We are both sort of décor type stores, but completely different, which is great.”

The Springsteens are still deciding if they will stay open throughout the whole year.

“Right now, no, I would guess fall is when we will close,” Dave said. “It takes a dive, which it will, then we’ll measure that.”

Lakehouse Creations offers custom orders and designs and also has an online Etsy shop.