| Sources |
- [S23] Atchley Funeral Home, (http://www.atchleyfuneralhome.com/), 6 Apr 2008.
Joseph Donald McCeldry obituary
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 10 Jul 2012.
An inspired partnership: Sherri, Dave Tinker enjoy working together in their business
Sherri and Dave Tinker are owners of Inspiration Home - Window Coverings and Closets. The pair opened the business out of their home seven years ago and now have a showroom that displays all of the products they offer, including the custom closet spaces they can design and show customers using a three-dimensional computer program.
by GAIL CRUTCHFIELD
SEVIERVILLE — For the last seven years, Sherri and Dave Tinker have worked side-by-side to build their business, Inspiration Home.
When the couple married more than years ago, they never thought they’d run a business together, and surely never thought if they did that it would be one that outfitted homes with blinds, window coverings, closets, upholostery and now linens.
Dave Tinker grew up working in his father’s auto body repair shop and was a mechanic with the utility company. Sherri Tinker worked for years in the structured environment of the banking industry. But seven years ago, a call from a girlfriend to help her hang blinds opened a new door for Sherri — and eventually Dave — to walk through.
The Tinkers are owners of Inspiration Home - Window Coverings and Closets. Their showroom is located in a storefront at Splendor Oaks shopping center on Dolly Parton Parkway, east of Sevier County High School. They have been married for 28 years and have two children.
They both attended the same school, but did not meet until after Dave graduated. They met while “cruising the ’Burg,” Sherri said.
“That used to be the thing to do. Now you can’t do that any more,” she added.
Sherri started the business out of their home after a friend asked her for help.
“My friend had moved to Knoxville and she called me and said, I need help with my blinds, come and help me,” Sherri said. It wasn’t that Sherri was known for hanging blinds. “I just always liked piddling with home decor, so she just called me.”
She met the man who was installing her friend’s blinds and thought that there was a need for such a service in Sevierville.
“That’s how it got started,” she said.
Dave helped out a little at first, keeping his job as a mechanic with the local power company.
“I thought, well, I’ll install a couple of nights a week and it just got to where it was just way too much,” Dave said.
“I was talking to Dave about this and that and the other, he’s like, ‘Maybe we should do this on ourselves,’” Sherri said of how they decided to venture out on their own.
She was skeptical and wary at first. “But it just evolved from there,” she said. “Because I had been praying about doing something else besides banking … and I think He just opened the door for all of this to happen.”
“That’s why it’s called Inspiration,” Dave said.
The company started with only four suppliers for blinds and have now added four lines of fabrics, window film, custom closets, retractable awnings and motorization for “anything in the store,” said Dave, who describes himself as the technical guy.
“I can set ’em up to where you can program the latitude and longitude of the building and they’ll raise and lower depending on the position of the sun, you never have to touch ’em,” he said of motorized window coverings. Don’t want the sun’s glare to shine on your television,? They can fix it so the moment you switch on the TV, your blinds adjust so there’s no reflection from the windows.
Customizing each installation is what they’re best known for, Dave says. “That’s what we pride ourself in,” he said.
They’re also doing more in the way of motorization, he added. That takes some forethought, however, on the part of the homeowner or builder, to install the wiring while the home is under construction and avoid the added expense after the fact.
Dave is one of 300 master installers for Hunter Douglas natiownwide and one of 200 residential hardwire motorzation installers for the company.
“I pride myself in that, knowing that once someone walks through that door, they’re going to get the best install possible that they can get for our products, because that’s where the rubber meets the road.”
After working together for more than seven years, both husband and wife have learned new things about the other.
“We’ve figured out what each other does and we sort of stay out of each other’s way,” Dave said. “I’m not fabric guy. She’s the color lady. You don’t want me picking out colors for you. But if you ask me how it’s going to hang, I can tell you exactly how it’s going to hang, where it’s going to go. This is her domain in here, my office is the seat of that van.”
At first they would work together on installs, but they realized pretty quickly that’s not the best option if they can avoid it.
“That’s where we’ve learned that it doesn’t work so well together,” Sherri said. Where Dave can look ahead to the end results, Sherri tends to see the problem at hand at the moment.
These days the company staff directory has been added to by the margin of one. They now have an employee who helps with the installs.
“That plus one helps tremendously,” Sherri said.
Dave said they’ve managed to come through the recent economic crisis OK. His certifications with Hunter Douglas have helped him get commercial jobs both in Tennessee and out of state.
In their time owning the business, the couple has tried out products in their own home.
“Until you live with it, you really don’t know how it works,” Sherri said.
One thing they already had installed before they started the business were their custom closets, which now Dave can design for customers using a three-dimensional computer program.
“I have to say I really like my closet, and it’s funny because we had our closets done before this business was a thought,” Sherri said.
Who knows what they’ll think of next.
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