A Conversation With ... Randy Renyer

What Outdoor Rooms by Design basically does is make your backyard an extension of your home. We sell spas, furniture, fire pits, fireplaces, outdoor kitchens. We come in and design your deck or your patio to be an extension of your home so that when you walk outside, you're going to have the same look (while) enjoying the outside weather. We opened our business in August 2004. We run about four full-time employees, and we've got some part-time workers.

How did you choose Kimberling City as the location of your business?

We actually moved here several years ago from Kansas. I was operations manager for theaters in Branson for quite a few years. We wanted to do something unique, something fun and something that we thought would really go good with the area that we're in. Everybody comes to Table Rock Lake to relax and enjoy life.

Then, of course, we came across the right size of building and everything that we needed in Kimberling City. Our thought to that was that Kimberling City sits right on the lake, but halfway in the middle of the lake. It makes a good center hub for Springfield people to get to us, because it's easy and not that long of a drive, plus Shell Knob, Branson and all the surrounding areas.

So you have a retail store, but you'll also visit people's homes to help them with design. What's your service area?

We basically run about a 50-mile radius. I'm in Springfield a lot on some of the bigger projects … and we do a lot of business in Springfield, Ozark and Nixa.

What are some of your most popular products?

A lot of our most popular items are the outdoor kitchens, (and) our spas have been real popular. … Our furniture is … because (it) looks like indoor furniture, but it's designed to sit outside. … We sell a lot of furniture to (owners of) lakefront houseboats, because of the people coming off the lake and being wet. They can sit on the cushions, sit on the furniture, and not hurt it, because that's what it's designed for. We also carry all kinds of outdoor lamps and other accessories for the outside. We do waterfalls, water fountains, statues, a lot of unique things that you don't see around. A lot of them we ship to vacationers who came to the store through the summer months.

When you mention outdoor kitchens, are you talking about a full, functioning kitchen?

They are full-functioning kitchens. They have sinks, they have refrigerators. We have side burners, condiment trays with ice bins. We can put ice machines in. You can do anything (with an outdoor kitchen) that you can with an indoor kitchen, right down to drawers for your utensils and everything else.

Why did you decide to participate in this year's HBA Home Show?

The Home Show, we see as a real good outsource into the Springfield area, and a lot of people are coming there to get ideas for their houses. The thing about it is, we can show you (that the) square footage to do your backyard is a whole lot cheaper than a complete room addition or, just to add an extra room to your house for not a whole lot of cost.

So you can add rooms, then? Are you talking about sunrooms?

We can do some sunrooms, yes. (But) a lot of them are just certain kinds of shading that we do over a deck area. … Everybody's got their own idea of what they want. … We've got retractable awnings that go out, we have shade systems that move back and forth (and) are designed into trellises.

What are your main goals for the store?

The main thing we do with the store is, we make it a fun environment to come into, and no high-pressure sales, because I can't stand high pressure sales.

Also, right now, our store is about 8,500 square feet. We have a temporary wall that we keep moving as we finish more and more of the store, and by the time we're done, we'll have about 14,000 square feet.

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