Krystal Englehart-Peterson Currents Decor & Design

A strong work ethic was taught and instilled in me at a young age; my siblings and I always helped my parents around the house (cleaning, yard work, painting, plumbing, laying sod and I even helped my dad put a new roof on the garage once). We learned tons of skills and became quite handy people.

My entrepreneurial spirit started early as I began babysitting and mowing lawns for cash, as early as Middle School. I learned what it felt like to complete a job well, to have satisfied customers, to make people smile with a good job and the amazing sensation of accomplishment and I still live each day working hard and loving work.

My creativity budded and began to bloom in my little safe small town and especially sparked by long days at my grandparents’ house. I would spend countless hours with my Grandma Lopez in her sewing room; we would dream up new projects, she would sew dresses and costumes and I would paint, glue and have fun with all sorts of arts and crafts. She has a beautiful sense of color, style and florals. She taught me all I know about being creative, playing with colors and dreaming up new ideas.

After High School graduation, I moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, and attended Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, also known as the "Sparkling City by the Sea".

It was a wonderful experience, I woke up to dolphins swimming in the bay outside my bedroom window and I could see them while walking to school each day. Corpus is a perfectly sized city for a small town country girl to learn how to live in the city. It's big enough to have everything you need but small enough to keep from getting lost. Each time I drove off the island I slowly explored the City and new neighborhoods; I always felt a little nervous and yet adventurous.

Attending A&M-CC allowed me to know myself, to see the world in different lights, to discover different perspectives on life, study literature, art and politics; creating an insatiable desire to learn more.

I graduated in two years with a BA in English with an emphasis in Pre-law and Philosophy. From there I jumped right into a Masters Program in English which grew into teaching High School English in Corpus Christi for five years.

I eventually moved off Campus to a historic area of town and would walk and run the streets trying to visually absorb the gorgeous colors, landscaping and wood work details on all the charming houses. In the neighborhood, was a coffee shop attached to a magic wonderland of a store named Blue Frog Mercantile. I would stalk through the store for hours and hours mezmorized by their gorgeous items and dazzling displays. I realized that owning a store would be a dream come true and that maybe one day when I retired from Law or teaching I could then open a little shop and fill it with pretty things of my own. Never did I imagine that I would have a shop, much less. the beautiful Currents store I have today.

During this time, I also met my husband Kevin in this salty city by the sea. In grad school, I worked as an english tutor at the library and he would study in the library every day with his backpack and subway sandwich. It was a pretty immediate connection and we’ve been nearly inseparable ever since; he was a Corpus native, so he showed me where all the locals hung out and where all the secret treasures were hidden. We were married two years later and have two sweet boys.

When I was a high school english teacher, I started refurbishing, painting and refinishing furniture and selling them on my Facebook page. This grew quickly and I was soon able to stay home and make a little side cash. I was blessed with a quiet life of painting furniture and playing with my babies.

We loved Corpus, but Kevin was offered a job opportunity in Dallas, so we took a chance and headed to the “Big D”. When moving to Dallas our realtor was contacted by HGTV Magazine; this really boosted my decorating and design confidence. In Dallas, my furniture side job grew into a design job that offered furniture refinishing.

But, as much as we enjoyed living in Dallas, it wasn't home to us. One day, Kevin asked, "if we could move anywhere, where would it be?" We rolled out a map and picked our favorite places and that’s how we ended up in New Braunfels; our version of living in paradise. We soon knew we were definitely river people. However, owning a shop was not exactly in my plan.

After a long weekend at Wurstfest, Kevin decided we needed a Blizzard and to go for a nice ride. Cruising along we found the downtown shop, it was empty and needing love, but we both knew the potential for that location. So we opened Currents!

After five quick years of learning and running as fast as we could, the opportunity to open a second store in the Historic Gruene district was presented to us and we decided to jump again. Our store in Gruene is in a cute little 100-year old house. The house was a part of the Original Gruene Family residence so we worked diligently to keep the historic charm of the home that became our shop. This Currents location sits in the middle of all the action in downtown Gruene and it has been an honor to bring some of Currents' spirit to such a timeless place.

At Currents, we specialize in bringing with each season, the newest and prettiest Home Decor items, fun apparel and gifts to Gruene, New Braunfels, and the surrounding area.

I was born in San Antonio, Texas, and raised in the small town of Lytle, Texas. My parents met at a dance hall named Cowtown just outside of town and they were married six weeks later.

My dad is from Sabinal, Texas (near the Frio River) and my mom’s family is from Lytle. I was raised in a big, lively, loving and fun family filled with cousins, BBQ’s, birthday parties, Friday Night football games and tons of family events.

I guess you can say that my strong family roots and an upbringing built on trust and integrity are the drivers for my belief that small town, over-thetop customer service is what makes the difference; we strive to achieve the highest levels of a great customer experience everyday. We treat each customer like family and we are truly happy to see our customers walk through the door each day. Seeing their smiles is the reason we do what we do!

--Krystal Englehart-Peterson

Currents Decor & Design

364 E. San Antonio St.

New Braunfels, TX 78130

830-302-7733