Quality

This is our life's work and we love what we do. We have the highest standards of quality and craftsmanship that you can find anywhere.  Every stage of our process is thoughtful and intended to create pieces of furniture that are as beautiful as they are functional. We use time-honored techniques to ensure that every piece is an heirloom that can be passed from one generation, to another, to another and on and on. We do not mass produce furniture.  Each piece is made to order and given our fullest attention.  This is what allows the quality of each piece to maintain the highest standard.

Carefully Selected Materials

The lumber we use to make our furniture is mainly cut on our own sawmill here on premises.  The logs come to us from several locations.  All of them have either been downed in a storm, felled for the safety of homeowners, or have died a natural death.  After it is cut, we use nature's ability to dry the material first in the open air, then in our solar powered kiln.  We even reference the tree's location for much of the furniture in our gallery.
We use domestic species almost exclusively and aren’t interested in using tropical, exotic species that come from rainforests around the world.  Our home in Pennsylvania is far richer than the most exotic locales in terms of the palette of woods we have available.  Pennsylvania translates to "Penn's Woods" after all.
We take great pains in using the material to it's fullest yield with an overarching goal to keep waste to a minimum.  Any wood that isn't used in our furniture warms our bodies in our shop's wood stove.

Oils & Finishes

We choose our wood materials for the color and character so we never use stains or dyes. We treat our wood surfaces with boiled linseed oil to bring those natural colors to life before applying a film finish for protection. The boiled linseed oil doesn’t have much of a color itself so it merely enhances the natural colors in the wood and makes any figure in the grain pop. Our film finishes vary depending on the piece and the use it will get. For instance, a table top or kitchen surface will be finished with a durable, water resistant clear finish like Waterlox or polyurethane (sometimes even a marine varnish). We want you to be able to set a drink down on your surfaces with no worry about white rings.

Upholstery

If the piece we’re making includes upholstery, it is typically leather. We work with customers to find and source whole leather hides that are the color and character that will look best for their piece. We create templates for cushions and pillows according to the design of the furniture piece. We also build the spring deck and attach the hand-tied springs before passing it off to our local, trusted sewing and upholstery genius at Renaissance Upholstery. All of the upholstery in our furniture is done using traditional techniques and methods so we’re talking hand-tied springs, layers of horse hair, foams, and so on so the upholstery will outlive us all.

Service

Our best and favorite commissions are with client's who are interested and engaged in the process themselves.  You can expect to be updated throughout construction with photos, blogs, and updates on what and how we’re doing things. You’re also welcome to come visit during the process to see your piece in progress. Once you've taken a piece of our furniture home our relationship does not end.  We're always available for support and advice, whether you're preparing to move a complex piece or are in need of refinishing or other services.