Shutter and Brushes is a furniture restyling Studio located in the charming Birds Gotta Fly Vintage Store in Elkhart, Indiana.  We hope you will explore our store to search for design ideas and inspiration.  We have a wide range of paint supplies and offer classes to guide you into giving old furniture a beautiful new life.

The store Carries Annie Sloan Chalk paint, waxes, brushes, stencils, paint inlays and educational resources.  In addition, we offer the full line of Iron Orchid Design products including transfers, stamps, moulds and inks.  This gives us all the creative elements a customer may need to create a masterpiece they will be proud to display in their home.

In the shop you will find Amy Bechtel who is the owner of Shutter & Brushes.  Amy took her first class in 2019 from Pam Hoffer, owner of Birds Gotta Fly.  Amy instantly fell in love with the wide variety of colours, ease of use and wonderful products Annie Sloan offers.  From that very first class, and a few Facebook posts later, she ended up starting Shutter and Brushes which is a thriving small business that professional refinishes furniture and offers light upholstery.

Amy has two very talented artists who work with her.  Her sister, Heidi Bemiller and long-time friend Ann Allyn Slessman.  The team works well together, and everyone enjoys helping customers with projects.  We are just delighted with the opportunity to grow inside our little upstairs “nest” at Birds Gotta Fly.  Shutter and Brushes will continue to work with local and regional interior designers and the general public to restyle furniture. We all feel like we are finally getting to live out our dream jobs and use our creative energy.

Classes will be offered on basic and advanced painting techniques, as well as speciality and holiday classes.  Soon we will be opening our website to online orders where we will have our inventory available and a registration process for upcoming classes. 

The team at Shutter and Brushes has a passion for upcycling family heirlooms and repurposing vintage pieces.  Many times, these heirloom pieces have lost their lustre but out of responsibility people just cannot part with them.  Helping people make a piece special again brings great joy and imparts a sense of ownership as they take on an updated look to be admired by future generations.

Please take time to visit us and get to know us and what services we offer.  We can simply give you design advice, guide you in a project, offer you classes, or even transform the piece for you.