The decor whiz

Max Buechler knows the scope of his home-based decor business is often misunderstood.

“People are like, ‘How’s your little wreath hobby going?’” he said.

The 19-year-old who has had a love for art since he was a child and developed a goal of opening his own business is running an international store from his basement with more than 160,000 followers on social media, and he’s making more money than people two and three times his age.

“I turned it into a six-figure business,” he said.

MB Crafts by Max is a one-man show born during the pandemic.

“I was trying to figure out something crafty to do when Covid happened,” Buechler said.

He had sold greeting cards at craft fairs before the pandemic, then expanded into wreaths. He saw them being sold on Facebook and taught himself how to create home decor through tutorials on YouTube and Facebook, along with his own trial and error.

Before long, Buechler started his own Facebook page, then an Etsy store, and in 2022 he joined TikTok.

“That’s where I kind of blew up,” he said.

He picked up 80,000 followers since Halloween and now has more than 160,000 that see at least one of his new video clips per day.

“A lot of people say I’m a celebrity. “I’m not a celebrity, but it shows that some of the hard work is paying off,” he said.

Buechler makes wreaths, garlands and floral arrangements—“pretty much anything home decor,” he said.

He loves making pieces from scratch.“I just like being able to see what I’m doing come to life,” he said.

Buechler’s business savvy is as broad as his imaginative product lines. He knows people sell products more than the items themselves, engages his customer base, donates to charity and takes care of his vendors. He just gave his UPS driver a Christmas present for regularly stopping at his home every day.

Everything starts in his basement of his Town of Wilson home in Sheboygan County, but any item can end up across the country. Many of Buechler’s customers are in California, Texas and Florida, and one of his most beloved (who he doesn’t charge for his work) lives a few miles south in Port Washington. Buechler decorates the tree each season in his great aunt Marge Bichler’s room at Harbor Campus. Christmas turns to Valentine’s Day, then Easter, a patriotic theme, fall and Halloween. She keeps her door open all day so intrigued fellow residents can check out her great-nephew’s work.

Buechler also decorated the tree in Harbor Campus’s lobby.

This year, he’s doing more than decorating at the senior home. He made bags for residents at Easter, and last week brought 48 that are filled with snacks, personal items, games and coloring books for all the residents on the main level. He bought items using online donations from his followers.

“I try to give back,” he said.

He’s also trying to share his expertise. He started a private design group in March that receives a weekly live tutorial in which Buechler goes through in detail how to make an item and where he gets the supplies. Members have access to all past tutorials, and they hail from Canada, Denmark, the Dominican Republic and Australia.

“When I started designing, I realized I have a passion for teaching,” Buechler said.

He was nervous the first time he was in front of the camera—he uses a smart phone on a tripod —but he’s OK “if I don’t feel the eyeballs staring at me.” Sometimes, he gets recognized in public. He hears, “Oh my God, I follow you.” He has a popular furry partner. Dublin the Holland Lop, the dwarf rabbit given to him by his cousin after being shown at a county fair, lives in a fenced-in area across from where Buechler does his broadcasts.

“He’s a fan favorite. People make me show him,” Buechler said. “They send him stuff.” Dublin sometimes joins Buechler at Harbor Campus.

Buechler is an animal lover, and the basement used to be filled with hamsters, guinea pigs and chinchillas. He showed steers and goats at the Sheboygan County Fair. The animals lived on Buechler Farms in Belgium, whose owners Brian and Irene Buechler are his uncle and aunt. He’s a regular vendor at their Christmas market.

Now, he fills an entire section of the basement with his inventory, a desk where he broadcasts, tools such as a glue gun and a skillet to heat the glue, and samples of his work. His “community Christmas tree” that holds ornaments from his followers often gets on camera.

Buechler’s talent didn’t come from genetics. His mother is a mail carrier and his father works for a concrete company. They figured he was going through a phase, but this one stuck.

Buechler works 60-plus hours per week and squeezes in online classes at Lakeland University in Plymouth. He’s three semesters from earning an associate degree in business management.

The 2022 Oostburg High School graduate got his start in business in a business management class that ran the school store. He designed apparel for all the school’s sports and other activities, including band.

“That was like a full-time job,” he said.

Buechler had one of his wreaths judged at the county fair, a whimsical Halloween-themed hanging decorated in pink and black with a spider that looks like it’s handing out candy.

He got only a fourth-place ribbon because it didn’t have the traditional hole in the middle. Buechler couldn’t be there to explain the design because he was attending a wreath makers’ convention in Houston.

“I don’t think the judge understands how wreaths are made these days,” he said.

Buechler ended up selling that wreath for $600. His wreaths range from about $100 to $600, and garlands are in the $800 to $900 range.

At 19 years old, his young age brings some challenges in credibility and renting a car and hotel room. When Etsy changed some of its rules, his store was taken down for a couple of months until he turned 18.

But Buechler’s skill shines through his work, as well as his business expertise. His pleasant and down-to-earth demeanor helps his bottom line.

“It’s not always the product that sells,” he said. “It’s the person.”

Buechler starts each of his pieces with an idea, “but it usually doesn’t come out like that,” he said. “Usually, it turns out way better.”

He does some custom work but prefers to develop his own ideas. While some of the themes may be the same, he never makes two pieces exactly the same.

“Pretty much every wreath is one of a kind. You’re going to be the only one who has this.”

Keeping pieces different and the changing seasons prevents him from getting bored. “Basically, by the time you get sick of one holiday you can move onto the next one,” he said.

Buechler’s business only feels like a job when he’s handling the accounting or customer service.

He recognizes that he needs help. His aunt is retiring in June from her teacher’s aide job in Grafton and said she would work part time, and his cousin sometimes chips in.

Buechler, like most artists, wants to spend his time on design and teaching rather than the business side of the store.

“You don’t have to be talented to ship packages,” he said. “Sometimes, I can spend a whole day shipping out orders.”

To see Buechler’s stores and social media channels, visit https://linktr.ee/MBCrafts.