Sawdust Factory

I attended a birthday party here recently. The kids really enjoyed themselves and I am grateful for that. They were unaware of the tension that most of the adults in attendance felt. Heidi, who is apparently the owner speaks openly about her employees in a negative manner. On more than one occasion she told me ‘she shouldn’t have done that”. or … «she shouldn’t have told you that.» When my 6 year old grand-​daughter couldn’t carry her dog house, paper plate, with paint, and brush, all at the same time, one of her helpers suggested she put the dog house down and come back for the plate filled with paint. Heidi asked me what she (my grand-​daughter) was doing. I explained to her that she couldn’t carry it all at the same time. Heidi’s response to me was «well, they usually can.» (I’d like to add each and everyone of her helpers were sweet and went above and beyond to help us.) Heidi has a hard time relaxing. She seems to want to be in control of every little detail, which can lead to her guests not feeling welcome. I understand time is a constraint and schedules need to be kept, but to tell us that we can’t eat (the adults, who aren’t participating in the craft making) until it’s ‘time to eat’ is a little ridiculous. I was going to complain to the manager/​owner about her and was disappointed to find out it WAS her.

I went here recently for a Sunday night birthday party. I thought the idea is very clever and cool for kids. The kids got to choose their own wood craft from a variety of options: surfer, guitar, race car, etc. The kids first painted their wooden pieces, then went to a different station to add flare (i.e. glitter, buttons, etc.), and finally another station to assembling it all together. I thought the whole thing was pretty well organized and the kids had a lot of fun. I always like the of having kids make crafts they can take with them. A few other Unilocalers commented about the unfriendly woman who works there and I would agree. She was very curt with the kids and had very little patience.

Love this place! I’ve been here with groups & just my couple of girls. It’s fantastic! Lots of projects to choose from. I loved doing one with my little one’s actual handprints! And my big girl loves her project & both girls have projects hanging in their room.

This place is so fun for the kids! It’s so nice to come home with a memory craft that actually looks good, and no mess at home. Kids get to paint their own projects, very cool idea. Wish they would move to a nicer location in Rancho, I think they would be swamped with Budiness if they did.
Birthday parties can be pricey. Staff is great. Two awesome birthday parties that yes cost too much but your kids and all their friends will love: ages 5 – 10 best ages.
Fish aquarium — they paint and decorate an aquarium with a name painted on and get to bring home a real fish… Kids love that and parents won’t be too mad. They give you some food too to go with the fish
Puppy doghouse — they paint a dog house and get to bring home a stuffed dog to go with it.
Those are the two favorites cause the kids like the additional thing they get to bring home. But all the options the kids bring their painted wood creation home. Great cause you don’t need to do goodie bags. I just had pizza delivered for food. I get annoyed with other places trying to control what food you can bring in (like jumping jacks or pump it up) this place lets you bring whatever. I also like this option for parties cause it’s something different and they really do make cute stuff they’ll keep for years and you won’t be trying to throw out when the kids aren’t looking.
They also have days where it’s open to buy whatever wood craft I think. Would be cool to go with just your kids as family time, crafts get expensive at home cause you buy extra supplies, here it’s all ready to go.
I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 just cause I think they charge a lot for the two party options above, its still worth doing I think only cause there’s no competition for this type of party option so they can, but feel they should lower the price a little on the per kid price if they want to get more business.

This is a fun activity to do for kids of all ages, from itty-​bitties to adults. It’s comparable to Color Me Mine, but you’re painting wood pieces rather than ceramics.
I called in the morning to make reservations for 4 people – my 5-​year-​old niece, 10-​year old niece, 19-​year-​old daughter, & me. We showed up at our scheduled time of 2:30pm and we were greeted with an awkward «Did you make a reservation?» (Let me preface this by saying it was busy and chaotic when we arrived.) I would have expected and preferred a friendlier greeting.
I was disappointed when the employee got wood pieces for the girls to paint, then walked away, leaving me open-​mouthed. I made a reservation for 4 that included me! Eventually, I asked if I could paint a mustache photo prop like the one they had displayed. The worker told me those were photo props for group parties. (So…I can’t paint one for myself?) She spoke to someone with authority and came back with the item I requested.
It was difficult to flag someone down for help, so we were trying to do the best we could. We figured you paint the wood first… easy enough… get the paint & brushes. After that, my daughter & niece went to the station to use sponge-​shaped brushes to decorate, only to be sassed by an employee! (Hmmm…now that help was not needed, rude comments were made?)
After the pieces were dried, we sat down in line to have the finishing touches done. The customer at the front of the line said she had been waiting an hour from our spot in line! At that point, I asked to take our things & planned to hot glue the pieces together at home. When I paid for everything, the very apologetic cashier glued & drilled our things appropriately.
Minus 2 stars because of the customer service and chaotic environment.
Would I return? Maybe on a less busy day. But, despite reservations, there’s no way to determine how busy it will get and how that will affect customer service.

I come here a few times throughout the year. Heidi is amazing … she will remember your name everytime you go and she knows what she is doing … always smiling and always on the go. my kids love her…

This is a very fun place to take the kids, or go with friends. It does take a while to pick your art, paint it and add embellishments, so be prepared to stay a while.

Excellent place for a birthday party. Heidi is wonderful and very easy to work with. I highly recommend it for any occasion. All kids and parents had a great time.

The Sawdust Factory was so much fun. I went with my daughter and ended up making something myself. I loved all the project ideas and it was great that the employees were there to do the finishing touches to make the project perfect. The prices were reasonable and it was a fun environment. I plan to take my daughter back for another project in the future.

My daughter loved this place. Very clean, professional, and the staff was super helpful. They had many different projects to choose from and the workers were great about helping to personalize each piece. It was a great experience!

My kids had a fabulous time! They were allowed to be creative and messy in a structured environment! I was thrilled with the guidance we received too.

Great for kids and adults. They offer a lot of assistance for kids, but they are still able to do a lot on their own. Too much assistance, for adults doing projects, though. They have a ton of wood projects to choose from, a ton of fun colors to paint with, and fun accessories to add to your project. A little pricey.

Went to a friend’s daughter’s birthday party here. The kids had so much fun, and the projects came out soooo cute! Definitely recommend this place… even if you’re not the crafty type.

I really really enjoyed this experience! Love the idea and all the options! Came here for first time with my son’s mommy and me class about a year ago and it was a blast! Since, we have been back twice. All of which where a success! The staff is friendly and extremely helpful! The gift ideas and décor ideas are priceless! I highly recommend! I recommend you to call and look out for days in which the workshop fee is waived! You will save $ 4 per person

This company has a lot of potential to be a great experience for kids of all ages. Unfortunately the management was rude and made the kids’ time there unenjoyable. I was there with a group of about 40 kids and 10 adults. Not only does this place not let you be creative, they yell at the kids for not being creative. There are 3 different stations to enhance your art piece but it felt to me they were just trying to get the kids to create art pieces that were exact replicas of the art the company already sells. They frown upon the kids being able to decorate their own art pieces. Not only did they not let the kids be creative, the staff would be the ones decorating the kids art, not the kids! The staff was exceptionally rude the the adults in my group. We got yelled at for letting our kids be creative. The staff tries to con you into designs and items on your art projects that you don’t want to be there. I felt especially bad when a boy from my group came up to me and had a bow on his door hanger which was designed with fire print and a guitar. I know that boy did not pick out that boy to put on. The staff was very pushy and hard to work with. I don’t think they knew how to work with kids. Overall this was not a great experience and I do not recommend going with large groups of kids.

I’ve been to two parties here as a guest and host for my child’s birthday and both experiences have been great. The staff is so helpful and really great with the kids. It’s hard to find birthday places where the staff actually enjoys what they do and know how to work with kids. They give you a lot of projects to choose from and help the party move along nicely. I never had to worry about how much time was left or when to move to the next activity. And the kids all had so much fun!

Call in advance to make sure it’s not too crowded and reserve your spot.
My teacher friend arranged a playdate for my friends and our kids here. I immediately fell in love with it!!! What a fun day we all had!!! I even participated with making 3 gifts for family and my son’s own airplane.
We arrived on a free paint day, so be sure to sign up for their emails and to be notified of these dates. Great to come here when it’s not so crowded, as you can take your time making your crafts. There are so many ideas to choose from, bedroom sigsn for kids, grandparent garden picks and signs or pots, wreaths, holiday themed ideas, etc. It was a bit overwhelming for me. Once I decided on making these seasonal clay pots that I could make a holiday theme and change out seasonally, I got underway with some tremendous help from the staff!!! They are amazing and so patient!!!
I was told the hand prints on the walls/​murals are from everyone who has had a birthday party here.
There is even a gift shop near the other entrance to check out.
The etiquette here is this: try to stay neat and tidy, clean your mess as you paint/​go, monitor your kids and everyone has a wonderful time, but can still let loose a little, creatively, of course!
Once you enter, confirm your reservation, you’re directed to the section you get to pick your wood figurines/​ideas
Then, choose a table and empty tray you’ll place your finished colored pieces onto
Select your colors one at-​a-​time on a paper plate, if colors are still on their table already available, use those, so not to waste the unused paint from other artists. If you don’t finish all your color, you will just put the plate onto that table as well for another user.
The BEST ideas for me incorporated my son’s hands traced onto a piece of wood and the staff take that away to another working studio with the more cautious-​needed equipment to be cut out. Once painted, you stand in line at the sponge/​dots/​spray station and the final touches with colors are added to your items. It can take some time here, depending on how much sponge/​texturing/​shadowing you’d like to do, and Melissa, I believe, was the one who added the fine details to my St. Patrick’s Day theme-​ed gifts on this visit. From here, we can take our items to the fan station, to help hurry the paint to dry… and finally, the Embellishment station, where everything is assembled and buttons/​bows are added. They added the moss into my pots, keep the hot glue gun here for the staff to assemble the items and make sure children are away from these. The final touches really put together our items so well!!!
In the end, 3 hrs spent, with 4 adults, and 6 children. For my items, I selected two clay pots, traced 2 hand cutouts of my son’s, four medium clovers, about 6 smaller clovers, and my son’s wooden airplane. The final photo shows one of the finished gifts I’d made and all my items cost $ 45. Amazing!!! To make such priceless gifts. I thought I could return to make more holiday designs to easily replace the St. Patrick’s Day sticks/​display on the clay pots.
I highly recommend this place!!! Can’t wait to return!

I love this place, you can make some super cute projects here. They have pre-​cut wood pieces of any shape imaginable and you can combine them to make anything you want. You can even trace your kids hand or foot and make something with it.
You basically choose a project you want to make, I made 3 angels using my daughter handprints as the wings, you paint the pieces and they help you add the details. I am glad they did the details for me, since I am not much of an artist.
There is a $ 4.00 sitting fee and my project was around $ 12 a piece. Not too bad, I thought. I left with some very cute keepsakes. Definately worth going, but call before hand because sometimes they have school groups there and it can get very busy.
Great place for some custom gifts for friends and relatives.

I am surprised that there weren’t any reviews of Sawdust Factory yet! I had for a long time, not wanted to go here, only because I thought that it was the same ol, paint some pressboard wood pieces and you have your ornament kind of place.
My MOMS Club had an outing here and I felt bad that they needed more people to go, so I signed up. Boy, i’m glad I did! Since my daughter was in school that day, my friend told me to trace her handprints on a piece of paper and they can cut them out if needed. So I went there not knowing if I was or wasn’t going to buy anything, and oh my gosh! I’m hooked! I love this place…
There are all these wood cutout pieces and projects for you and your kids– the owner has all these parties that you can choose from that will keep your children busy for parties, and they also have an area that you can work if you just walk in. I ended up buying 3 really cute large items that I painted and took home as gifts. They cut out a bunch of handprints to make into a Christmas Tree, and holly leaves.
I believe the charges are by painter, $ 5.00 and whatever project you do. I would say, w/​a child, each project is about 1 hour, if you want to take your time. The prices charged comes w/​button and ribbon embellishments, writing for the signs and speckle paint as well.
I took my daughter back the other day, and she fell in love with it, we ended up doing 2 projects instead of 1. Great for a rainy day! You can walk in or with a group, make an appt.- their hours are great too– 10 – 5 most days and weekends too.
What I liked is that the paint colors are limited to a couple of shades, primaries and white, brown, etc. so you don’t get overwhelmed, and then there are alot of samples to choose from. That is the hardest part, choosing your project. They are so adorable.
If we can do it, we’re going to do a birthday party here.