When Dawson Knight things about how his business, Dawson’s Rustic Design, began, he’ll start by passing out accolades to his mom and Mother’s Day. 

Dawson, the 20-year old owner of the high-end antique collectibles store off of Ga. Hwy. 36 in Covington, had been interested in antique collection and rustic collectible design since he was about 15 years old. But it was a gift he made for his mom on Mother’s Day a couple of years ago that got his entrepreneurial juices flowing. 

“It kind of started with me making my mother a planter box out of wood and tin,” he said. “It was for Mother’s Day, and she just wanted something that makes the front porch of sort of ‘poppy’ in her words. I made it for her, she showed it to her friends, I put it on my Facebook page, and then it just went off from there.” 

Once enough people saw Knight’s work, he began requests for replication in bunches. Soon it grew from him doing a few pieces for friends and family to displaying his work in booths and in antique stores in Monroe to opening up his own store and workshop space in Mansfield. 

Now the family business is in a spacious corner location in the plaza off Highway 36, and it’s just right for his business’s current needs. 

“I needed more space because of how things grew, and so now I’m here,” he said. 

Ask him how he describes his inventory, and he keeps it simple, straightforward and to the point. 

“It’s all local, affordable, high-end collectibles that just need a home,” he said. 

Dawson’s particular delight is in rustic style items and things that “you just don’t se every day.” 

“It’s the odd-end things that attract all sorts of people,” he said. “It’s a combination of me building stuff, me re-doing stuff and having a collection of my own.”

And now that people know exactly what he likes to sell, folks from all over the community bring him things they find from estate and yard sales to other stores. 

He recently received an influx of items, and its come just in time for what Dawson calls his busiest season — the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday season. 

“We’re getting into the peak of it all right now,” he said. “Christmas time — last year when I opened the door here at this place for the first time ever, it was during the last week in November and it was just the best. Everybody was eager to come in and see what was in here, and they were eager to see what they could buy for gifts.” 

As fun as the business is, Dawson acknowledges challenges, the biggest of which is getting the word out to get people to his store to explore and examine what he has. 

But the positives outweigh the challenges. 

“A couple of weeks ago I had a fall festival with about 15 vendors and it was great because over 300 people came through that day,” he said. “Those are the kinds of things that make you really appreciate the community here, and if it weren’t for this great community I’d not be able to do what we do.” 

Beyond just focusing on growing his own business, Knight is hoping he can be an example for others around his age to encourage them that they don’t have to wait until they get old to be their own boss. 

“I’d tell anyone, just go out on a limb,” he said. “If you have a dream or a vision, go out and do it. You’re still young so you definitely have time for failure to kick in if it does, but failure isn’t always a bad thing. If you have that passion, go out and do it. Greatness can come at any age.”