What To Expect With Custom Made Furniture

Buying a custom built piece of furniture can make some people nervous. Will it look like what i saw online? Will it be sturdy? How long will it actually last?

These are all legitimate questions. Lets un-pack some characteristics of handcrafted, hand-finished furniture and the standards we set for every piece that leaces our shop.

The primary wood species we build with is Appalachain red oak. This species produces beautiful flat table tops and very sturdy, very heavy table bases. A hallmark of real wood, handcrafted furniture is knots in the table top. These are natural characteristics of the wood. If a knot in a board will jeopardize the intergrity of the table top, we dont use it. Because we're building with a natural product, there may be slight color variation in each board on the table top, along with alternating grain direction and patterns, and small dimples in the surface. 

Another inportant thing to note is wood movement in a table top. Wood moves, and no feat of engineering can stop it. We engineer all of our handcrafted tables to allow the table top to expand and contract across it's width with the changes in ambient humidity that come with the changing of the seasons. Another key feature of our table tops is the breadboard end. This is the piece of wood that is attached to each end of the table top. Breadboard ends keep the table top flat as it expands and contracts. It is normal and exspected to see the table top shrink past the outer edge of the breadboard on each corner. 

Our clients love the fact that when they have family or friends visit and see the furniture we have built for them, they nkow it wasn't purchased at a big box retailer. It's a piece of furniture with history and a story.