The Ruff House Story
The Ruff House brand started in 2009, in a spare bedroom of our home. What once began as freelance design work and a small wedding invitation line, soon grew into a thriving letterpress stationery brand - Ruff House Print Shop. Ruff House Paperie was our dream of “someday” turned to reality in 2014 when we walked by a beautiful, recently vacated space in our beloved downtown shopping district. With our “it doesn’t hurt to ask” mentality, we pitched our idea of a stationery boutique paired with a home for our letterpress studio. The building owner bought into our dream and agreed to lease us the space. We turned the space, that previously housed a corporate hat store brand, into our vision in a mere 26 days!
Our space has evolved and grown a lot since then. Initially our inventory focus was heavily on stationery and custom wedding invitations. As our wholesale brand grew, our availability to commit to wedding clients dwindled. In 2019 we decided to discontinue our decade of wedding invitations to focus on our own stationery brand. With that decision, we also pivoted the focus in the store to be more of a lifestyle brand. While we still focus on stationery, with more than 40 feet of retail space dedicated to greeting cards and a huge selection of journals & office products, we opened up our offerings to include home decor and lifestyle products.
Today we welcome you to come browse our beautifully curated selection of goods while experiencing a “behind the scenes” glimpse into our letterpress production studio. See our century old printing presses in action! We aim to be your one stop gift shop from greeting cards, to gifts, to even wrapping paper.
Each product we create expresses our love of the outdoors and adventure, small-town values and positivity. Our nationally-sold line of gifts and stationery features hand letterpress printed artwork created by us and has appeared in over 600 independent boutiques around the world and select national retailers like Anthropologie and Paper Source. In addition to home office stationery such as planners, calendars, greeting cards, and pencils, we also create home goods products like notepads, recipe books, coasters and enamel pins.
Jill Shephard
Owner | CuratorI was born and raised a small town, farmer’s daughter from the middle of no where Kansas. That upbringing nourished my desire for entrepreneurship & community. My parents’ entrepreneurial example instilled a “put in the hard work” mentality that has been the key to success in my own business journey. I also care deeply about creating the best experience for my employees and our customers.
I am motivated by my husband and our friendship, our kids and their laughter and the stationery community I have been a part of for more than a decade. I strive to work hard to make a positive impression on my daughters so they’ll learn the value of hard work and determination. I hope they will grow up to believe they can turn their dreams into a reality and that kindness and compassion will take them far.
