Jenna Sellers Miller’s Delray-Based Company Creates Innovative Home Products

Every year, new technology makes it easier to do simple tasks like washing dishes, draining pasta and cutting vegetables. Jenna Sellers Miller grew up in a world of kitchen revolutions, as her mother, Kathleen Sellers, founded Plastec, a company that invented the Super Saucer 38 years ago. Following her mother’s footsteps, Miller would create her own products and design a successful brand called Architec.

Architec began with the Gripper Cutting Board, a product with a gripper underneath that keeps it from moving. “We still hold the patent, and we’re still the only ones who can cover the entire bottom of a cutting board with a gripper,” Miller says. “It was so revolutionary at the time that we were getting meetings with [stores like] Bed Bath & Beyond and Macy’s, so it made us get big pretty fast.”

The invention catapulted the homewares company Architec with a variety of brands underneath it. The first brand to launch included colorful products that focus not just on function but also on innovation. “We aren’t reworking the wheel,” Miller says. “We’re applying elements of architecture to make it work better; like our slightly elongated colander that can be used with longer pots to prevent spillover.”

Next, Miller became passionate about eco-friendly products, launching a second brand that has a focus on materials like Polycoco, a coconut husk, which builds up a lot of waste if not used. “Everyone loves coconut oil, but it leaves behind coconut shells that farmers burn, which ruins the environment,” Miller says. “So we come in and add that stuff to the product to make it look better and to solve the problem.”

As the farm-to-table trend expanded, the third brand for Architec launched. The line facilitates foodies as they learn to home-grow ingredients. Proceeds from products, like the bamboo cutting board and grow bags, go back into the communities, helping to build gardens, create senior centers and grow food for local families in need.

While Miller is the mastermind behind these products, she credits her mother for much of her success. “My mom is this fearless businesswoman, and she always amazed me that she never had any doubts going into anything,” Miller says.

Architec is currently located in Delray Beach along a strip that, at the time it opened, wasn’t a desirable area. “My mom found a building that was just an old Goodyear Tire, and she had the foresight to know that Delray was really going to be something,” Miller says. “Everything is happening around us, and I’m so thankful that she had that foresight.”

To keep the tradition going, a new product is on pace to launch this month called The Dream Pillow, which Miller’s daughter conceptualized to help her brother with nightmares. “She was 7 when she came up with it,” Miller says. “It’s multigenerational invention.”

Beyond The Dream Pillow, Architec will spend this year focusing on product development and expanding the brands already in place. “There are plenty of ideas going around,” Miller says. “If we can accommodate, we do it—that’s what drives [us].”

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