The Suds Barn is making a splash in Williamsburg

“When you are stuck at home all day every day, you tend to do things in bulk. When you find something you like, you really start doing it a lot. We were making soap every day,” said Becky Warner, owner of one of Williamsburg’s newest downtown stores, The Suds Barn.

Warner graduated from Williamsburg in 1990 before moving away, getting married, and travelling. She moved to Corbin in 1998 before moving back to Williamsburg in 2019.

“When we started making soaps, my fiancé and I, we just watched some videos on Youtube and stumbled across some videos about soap making,” said Warner. “I thought, ‘hey, that would be something cool to try,’ and he loves the chemistry of it. He loves figuring out which oils do what and what’s good for your skin.”

Warner said that their pandemic hobby began to grow when they started giving their products to people to try.

“We started giving them to people. My landlord, he is one of our biggest guinea pigs, my parents, my daughter, my son and then they started giving theirs to people to try because they liked it so well,” said Warner. “All of a sudden, we were getting requests from people. ‘Can you make me a little gift bag? I want to give a soap and whatever else you are making.’ I started making the sugar scrubs and then I started making the body butters and the bath bombs and then before you knew it, I was making all these things, and everybody was loving everything.”

The Suds Barn, which is located at 430 Main Street in Williamsburg, opened in early July.

Warner said that it was originally part of a larger umbrella company that Warner wanted to open.

“We actually started out as Lifestyle to Labels and that was going to be an umbrella company,” said Warner.

Lifestyle to Labels was meant to contain a boutique, a cooking area, candles and bath stuff.

Warner said that the problem with the name was that it didn’t explain what the business was and was a bit too complicated.

“My main thing is the bath and body stuff. This is what I do. I make everything in here,” said Warner. “I thought, ‘I have got to come up with a better name that people will know what I have and then people will want to come and see what it is,’ so I played around with some different names and then I started searching and the ‘Suds Barn’ sounded cool because it sounds kind of country and we are here in a little country town and so the ‘Suds Barn’ is what it became.”

Warner said that she didn’t expect her hobby to become a brick-and-mortar store.

“It wasn’t like I really planned on doing it. I was doing it on the Internet and I knew I wanted to do it, but a brick-and-mortar store, you know, they are kind of on the outs because everybody can shop online,” said Warner.

Despite her fears, Warner said they proceeded to work with her landlord,
who she credits as being one of her biggest supporters, and after six months of renovations and making products, The Suds Barn officially opened.

“It was really scary when we talked about it, but I thought if we could just get people to come in those people will tell their friends and family and then those people will start coming in. When we opened, I was really nervous,” said Warner. “The day we opened I thought, ‘What if nobody comes? It is going to be devastating.’ But, we had a huge turnout that first day and we have been steady ever since. We have not had a day without sales since we opened.”

The store has a variety of products ranging from soaps, toilet sprays and bath bombs to clothes, Rae Dunn® products, home decor, and more. Most, if not all of which, can be personalized.

It is not just a place for people to go buy bath products because it also includes a boutique run by Warner’s friend, Jennifer Taylor.

Warner said she and Taylor have been friends since the third grade.

“When I started talking about opening the Suds Barn, she was like, ‘Hey, would you consider having a boutique in there?’,” said Warner.

From there, Warner said she couldn’t run both the boutique and the soap portion and make the products, so it was decided that Taylor would run the boutique inside the Suds Barn.

“Being in a small town, we were kind of like, ‘We need to have a variety of things.’”

“People can come in and get a gift. You can come in and say I am going to get soap for myself and then I’ll grab some soap for somebody else, and I’ll get them a mug and I am going to get them a shirt,” said Warner. “We want to be very diverse. We want everyone in the town to be able to come in and find something.”

Being within walking distance of the University of the Cumberlands, Warner
said The Suds Barn offers Williamsburg top quality products.

“Everything in here is top quality. I would put it up against any other bath and body place that there is in the United States.”

All of the soaps have shea butter and/or mango seed butter. There are six different soap recipes Warner and her fiancé use to create their products.

Because everything is made in-house, products can be personalized or customized for people with allergies or sensitivity.

Warner said that she is licensed to make the products and her labels and kitchen are certified.

The shop’s kitchen features a hand sink where individuals can test products before purchasing them.

Warner said they make new soaps daily because they let their soaps cure for 28 days before they are sold.

“It has to cure for 28 days before we can sell it. Some places sell it after only three days, but to really have a good bar of soap, it has to cure, the water has to come out of it, so it will be a good, hard bar and last a long time,” said Warner.

She said her favorite product to make is the soap because it is the one item that she and her fiancé get to do entirely together.

“If we are in here making soap, which we are right now until about 8 or 9 o’clock, we leave the open sign on, and people are more than welcome to come in after 6 p.m. We would love for people to come in and watch us make soap,” said Warner.

The duo makes both bar soaps and artisan soaps. Bar soaps typically have more masculine or neutral scents whereas the artisan soaps have more feminine scents.

“Whatever it is that we think people will like and that people will come in and buy, we want to offer those things because we want to give them options they have not had here in Williamsburg before,” said Warner.

Looking towards the future, Warner said that she hopes the business will continue to grow as they have plans to start hosting groups and parties as well as creating a Youtube channel so that people can watch and be involved in their product making process.

The Suds Barn is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The shop has parking located directly beside the shop in the lot where Canada Brothers parking is located. The row of spots closest to the shop are owned by the landlord and can be used for The Suds Barn customers, said Warner. Signs are expected to be placed there soon to help eliminate some of the confusion.

For more information about The Suds Barn, visit their website at sudsbarn.com or call (859) 334-0232.