In much the same way that Rose and Corey Kilbane proved to be a good match romantically, so too did their respective creative interests, which they have since combined to form a business.
In 2021, the husband-and-wife duo merged their individual ventures into a business entity, Rosewood Home, which they’re now looking to grow. The company, based in Lafayette Hill, has two distinct offerings: scented candles and home goods such as cutting boards and ornaments.
In the past year alone, Rosewood Home has doubled candle production and its founders are eyeing ways to increase their retail presence from their primary two locations at Art Star at the Bourse and Philadelphia Independents, both in Old City.
The candles are Rose Kilbane’s brainchild. She began producing them amid the pandemic after receiving a kit for Christmas in 2020. She enjoyed it so much that she wound up producing far more candles than they could burn or gift.
“I also really had fun with putting them together, formulating new scents and formulating all of the brand and design that goes around that,” Rose, a Wilmington native, said. Creating branding and design was a natural fit – she has her own firm, Altitude, where she’s been doing design and branding for clients for nearly a decade.
Rather than let her inventory collect dust, Rose decided to turn her candle making into a business, launching sale in February 2021 at a pop-up at Ali’s Wagon, a gift shop in the Fairmount neighborhood.
Formulation for a candle scent is a roughly month-long process. Rosewood Home has signature and seasonal scents. Signature scents, which are always available, include Orchid and Sea Salt, Eucalyptus and Peppermint, Lux Gardenia, and Amber and Driftwood. Seasonal scents have included holiday staples like Just Baked Gingerbread and Christmas Cookie, plus a collection of cocktail-inspired candles including Gin and Tonic, Rosé All Day and Mimosa, May I.
They are available in 4-ounce tins for $10 and 8.5-ounce jars for $26. Each candle is hand poured, made from soy wax and uses a wood wick.
The plan is to release new seasonal scents in spring and again ahead of the holidays, eventually phasing out older ones.
The home goods are Corey Kilbane’s passion – and part of what caught Rose’s attention in the first place. The pair met via a dating app and Rose reached out when she saw a lathe – a tool used to rotate materials like wood – in one of his photos. “From the onset, we've really had a shared creative passion that has brought us together,” Rose said.
Corey, whose full-time role is as a teacher at William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia, has been making various home goods for a number of years and previously launched his own business, Padouk Crafts, to sell them. They range from cutting boards to ornaments to plant stands, many made of wood.
A selection of his ornaments are Philadelphia-inspired, drawing from Robert Indiana’s iconic “Love” sculpture, as well as sports teams and mascots. A Philly pretzel ornament and one of the Liberty Bell are both best-sellers. His teardrop-shaped cutting boards are also popular. Ornaments start at $12, while cutting boards range from $35 to $55.
For Corey, Padouk wasn’t his only outlet for creativity. When he began at Penn Charter as a science teacher more than a decade ago – he has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry – he was also tapped to help establish the school’s makerspace, which gives students hands-on learning across various mediums. Rose recently came on as a part-time graphic design teacher at the school and both enjoy passing skills on to the next generation.
Prior to that, they were still thinking about what a business combining their passions might look like. That vision came together one day over dinner at restaurant Bad Brother in Fairmount. They made it official in 2021 and have spent the intervening time bringing Padouk Crafts under the Rosewood Home brand.
The pandemic gave them a good testing ground for scaling operations and exploring new goods. One of the tools Corey began using was a 3D printer, helping him with ready-to-ship items. More than making goods, he put his 3D printer – and some from Penn Charter – to use, making thousands of face shields for local hospitals at the height of the pandemic, while Rose sewed face masks.
“We got to test our ability to mass produce things and to use some of those tools at a larger scale before we actually went large scale with [our business],” Rose said. “It kind of gave us the confidence to know we'd be able to do that.”
They have since upgraded their manufacturing operations and 3D printed items remain a part of Corey’s arsenal. Rosewood Home is headquartered out of their home, with Rose using the basement and Corey the garage. If operations continue to expand, they said they’ll consider dedicated studio space elsewhere.
In the early days of Rosewood Home, when in-person shopping remained stagnant, most sales came from e-commerce. Now, that’s no longer the case – about 90% of business today comes from retail. While they’re looking to expand wholesale and retail operations, they also hope to increase e-commerce, which they can more easily balance with their full-time jobs. As such, they’re approaching growth slowly.
“I think this is something where we have things that we love and we want to share those with other people and we also have the skills to make cool things or fun things,” Corey said.
In addition to retail, Rosewood Home sells at annual markets like Chestnut Hill Home and Garden Festival and the Italian Market Festival, both this May.
Sales are primarily concentrated in Greater Philadelphia, but they do get customers from across the U.S., including as far as California and Hawaii.
