Furniture such as this is among the many unique items to be found at Glen Cove Farm, one of the Tannery Building’s newest businesses. (Photo courtesy of Gennyfer Santel)

Benicia can best be characterized by the parts it is composed of. Within its city limits, Benicia has a host of nautical culture and influence centered at the Marina and the waterfront. In addition and contrast to this beach feeling, Benicia is home to rolling grassy hills with grazing cattle, a taste of the country to be sure.
Keeping these elements of Benicia in mind, Gennyfer Santel designed Glen Cove Farm to showcase this niche aesthetic and bring it to the forefront of her store in her own unique way.
“Glen Cove Farm is the brightest, freshest place to hit the Tannery building.” Santel said. “I love people’s reactions when they come in.”
Glen Cove Farm is a business that offers a lot to its customers.On a primary level, one can buy decorations for their home. Some decorations include different pillows, signs and small pieces to put on a piece of furniture – all with a beach or farm theme. One end of the store has a sort of nautical nook with sea maps on pillows, cool ocean blues and sea shells. Next to these nautical items, one will find pottery for small plants, farm themed rustic signs for your wall and more.
Although this combination is not a typical one, it is a “funky, coastal-farm chic” that Santel pulls off very well. Her education in interior design certainly helped.
Outside of the soaps, succulents and home decorations sold at the store, one enters the real heart and soul of Glen Cove Farm. It all starts with Santel’s mud paints. They range fairly well. One can assume anyone would find a couple of complimentary colors within the selection that they enjoy. These mud paints are made for furniture. Santel loves sprucing up old and vintage furniture pieces with some mud paint, care, and her mud paints. “…furniture flippin, it’s addicting.”
Santel said she started flipping furniture around two years ago while recovering from an operation. A relative brought her some old furniture and some paint to give her something to do, this soon turned into Santel’s passion.
After selling some of her flipped pieces out of her home, Santel began selling furniture at the Benicia Certified Farmers Market last year. People continued buying up her pieces from both the farmers market and two co-ops she was taking part in.
The most hands-on part of Glen Cove Farm is the workshops Santel runs. She offers two different workshops. The first workshop is Mud Paint 101, a small class for people who want to learn how to work with mud paints and paint furniture. For this activity, Santel will provide each participant with a small piece, some paint, and plenty of guidance. These classes are meant for two to six people.
The next workshop is called BYOP. (Bring Your Own Piece) For this private experience, Santel will host two people and assist them in painting a piece they bring in from start to finish. BYOP is perfect for those people who have an old piece they want to spruce up but are a bit tentative to jump right in. Santel will even arrange to have the furniture in question transported to her business for the workshop if it will not fit in your car.
More information on Santel’s workshops can be found on her business’ Facebook page – facebook.com/GlenCoveFarm or Instagram – @glencovefarm707. The business’ website is www.glencovefarm.com, and its phone number is 707-373-0082. Anyone can pop in and see Glen Cove Farm for themselves during business hours, Wednesday through Saturday from 11 to 5 p.m., or Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.

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