Handcrafted Furniture

Handcrafted furniture is becoming increasingly more and more popular. Why in the age of low priced mass produced furniture would someone pay more for handcrafted furniture? I have a simple theory as to why. First, the world is truly becoming more and more mass produced. Mega factories now employ tens of thousands of people at a time. Just about everything you see on your local retail stores’ shelves is made in huge quantities; and, usually with resins or plastics, manmade chemicals, and as cheaply as possible. Our kids toys, our kitchen utensils, our lawn equipment – I could go on and on. Very little is high quality or handmade anymore. Furniture is some of the lowest quality products in the marketplace. The large furniture retailers must maintain super high profit margins so they can have their fake 50% off sales every other week. 99% of their furniture is made in mega factories overseas with low wage workers and the least expensive materials. They do not make one or two pieces of furniture at a time – rather they order hundreds and sometimes thousands of pieces of the same design. It is mass production on steroids.

A Personal Handcrafted Furniture Story

I will share a true story with you. My wife and I purchased a home less than two years ago. The vast majority of the furniture used to fill this home came from either Woodland Creek Furniture or Woodland Creek Modern. My wife needed a desk made, and we have been pretty busy with orders and under pressure to make promised delivery dates so I told her it would be about eight weeks before we could make one for her. That was not good enough for her. She had to have one immediately! So, she goes off to IKEA in another town. She returns with a knock down (you must put together) office desk. She proceeds to put it together and set up her office. I will admit that it looked good.

Short lasted

She tells me the price, and I am dumbfounded that something can be made and sold this inexpensive. I pick my battles so I let the conversation I wanted to have go about the quality, durability and longevity and opted to let time expose the facts and demonstrate my point (and win the argument that was sure to follow). Sure enough it has not even been two years. It has been 23 months, and it surly started sooner, but I rarely go into her office to take notice of the problem. I needed something from her office at which time I notice the laminate is wearing through and you can see the particle board (pressed saw dust bound by glue to make wood) underneath. At first I thought I was seeing things so I went and put on my cheaters. Sure enough there it was – the laminate was paper thin and wearing through. Now, my wife only uses her office maybe once or twice a week. The kids will occasionally watch a video before being told to leave her office and go find an iPad. What I am trying to say is “the office does not get used on a regular basis.” The bottom line is – the furniture is low quality junk and not meant to last. It maybe would have lasted one year with normal use before showing serious signs of wear. You figure your time of purchasing the furniture, assembly – only to repeat every few years, and it is not as inexpensive as it seems. You truly get what you pay for.

Quality Handcrafted Furniture

I am quite proud that Woodland Creeks handcrafts quality furniture made from solid woods in unique designs ranging from rustic to soft modern. Woodland Creek has been crafting quality furniture for fourteen years now, and I know that the vast majority of our furniture will be around for many, many years – decades and in some cases even centuries. The only way it will not be is if it is abused or burned. Real, solid wood furniture can be refinished and look brand new for another decade or two. I saw one of our copper vanities at a customer’s home not too long ago. The vanity was purchased from one of our stores some eight years ago, and I honestly can say it looked as good as the day it was delivered.

Our long lasting Furniture!

Our barnwood furniture is being used in high traffic commercial businesses, and the reports back are “it is indestructible”. It is so easy to touch up. If you ever get a scratch in it, you can touch up it up with a tinted wax in minutes. You would be hard pressed to tell if the fresh blemish was done a hundred years ago by the farmer erecting the barn or minutes ago by your young son being too aggressive with one of his toys. Barnwood furniture is the type of furniture that only gets better looking over time. Woodland Creek’s live edge dining tables are made from 2” to 3” solid slabs of natural wood. Unless you let your kids play with hammers or matches at the table, these tables will outlive us. Sure, maybe in 6-10 years (depending on use and how many little kids or grandchildren you have) you will want to have the top refinished, but rest assured in less time than it take to run to IKEA to buy and assemble one of their tables, you can have this top refinished and back in your home for many more years of use.

A Range of Designs!

Woodland Creek presently has 1445 furniture designs on its web site. Every one of these designs can be made in custom sizes – this means any length, width or height needed. Most designs have endless finish options. You can specify no sheen (shine), soft sheen or high sheen. We enjoy designing and crafting custom layouts to fit your home. I think you will find that handcrafted furniture by Woodland Creek priced very reasonable when you factor in the uniqueness, solid wood and American quality that comes with each piece of furniture. We give tours of our workshop seven days a week; so, please consider this an invitation to come see our unique woods and the men and women that make Woodland Creek Furniture the company it is. We take pride in the furniture and service we provide. We would be honored to handcraft a quality piece of furniture for your home. Thank you for reading this blog entry. Rob Evina Woodland Creek Furniture Founder/President