Interior Design
Hardwood Furniture: Cherry, Maple, Oak or Walnut?
Which Type of Hardwood Furniture Is Best For Your Bedroom, Dining Room or Home Office?
If you’re looking for hardwood furniture, there’s a good chance you’re narrowing your wood choices down to the most popular and plentiful species grown here in America such as cherry, maple, oak and walnut. These prized hardwoods are grown sustainably here in the USA with Vermont and New England being a favorite source for many woods.
We like these species because they are well suited to fine furniture making by virtue of their color, strength, hardness, grain patterns and workability. They are also readily obtainable in our local and regional area, making them a sustainable choice. Often our furniture makers will offer two-tone combinations of these hardwoods creating a custom, artisan look and feel to your furniture.
The photo above shows Copeland Furniture’s SoHo Bedroom Set in solid maple and walnut hardwoods. This striking two-tone wood combination has become a best seller in our metropolitan markets, particularly Manhattan, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Homeowners appreciate the modern, contemporary sensibilities of the SoHo solid hardwood design as well as the fine detail and craftsmanship that goes into every custom, made to order piece.
SoHo furniture is also offered in a two-tone walnut and cherry design. Which of these hardwood combinations would look best for your bedroom furniture?
Trend Alert: What is Green Interior Design?
Interior design is not a new concept. For decades, people have been making a living by creating works of art with furniture and accessories as their palette and empty rooms as their canvas. It is probably not a surprise that fashioning the perfect design for the inside of your home is crucial to how you feel and react in your environment. Interior design is all about aesthetics. It’s about taking items that are visually appealing and combining them with your personality to create something unique and personal to you.
With consumers becoming more conscious about their impacts on our environment, it is no shock that people are starting to ask for green, eco-friendly furniture and building materials for their homes. Interior designers are capitalizing on this trend by offering environmentally friendly alternatives when creating a design for a client’s home. Now this begs the question, what exactly does sustainable interior design mean?
Basically, the difference between interior design and sustainable interior design is the difference between beauty and beliefs and how much they mean to you. Sustainable (or green) interior design can probably be broken down into 4 major components:
- *Air Quality
- *Energy Efficiency
- *Building Materials and the Three R’s (Recycling, Re-purposing, Reusing)
- *Economic Impact
Air quality is very important to interior design. The biggest decision a designer has to make is choosing pieces that are free of chemicals that can make people sick or pollute our environment. This usually means watching out for volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) that can be found in paints, primers, glues, ink and cleaning products. Luckily, you can now buy furniture that uses glues and finishes that contain little or no VOC’s.
The area of energy saving interior design techniques is very broad. It can mean anything from choosing light bulbs that use less energy (like LED) to choosing products that are produced in America to reduce the energy it takes to ship them.
We’ve all heard some form of “The Three R’s”. Now-a-days it feels like there are many “r” words related to conservation. When it comes to green interior design, it is important to remember to recycle, re-purpose and reuse. Choose materials that have been recycled, like furniture made from recycled plastic. Remember that there are many products that are made by re-purposing old materials, like Reclaimed Barnwood Furniture. And always keep in mind things that can be used again before you toss them out.
When you purchase items without checking where they are sourced from, you risk supporting imported goods, rather than supporting the local American worker. Always research where your furniture and building materials come from and support American jobs and our local economy by buying American-made.
Creating a sustainable interior design concept doesn’t mean that you have to be 100% green, but you can make smart choices that will benefit the environment in the long run. You also don’t have to overhaul your entire home to start a green interior design. Make small changes around your home, like opting for new cleaning products or donating that department store furniture piece and trade it in for one made in America that has little to no VOC’s. These little changes will someday make a big difference.
If you are an interior designer, check out the discounts we can offer on our Vermont-made fine furniture.
Discover America’s Best Real Wood Furniture On Columbus Day
Explore The World of Real Wood Furniture
Columbus Day is a favorite time to shop for home decor as everyone’s beginning to realize that the holidays are right around the corner. If you’ll be entertaining family and friends for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza or another holiday you may be shopping for furniture today. No doubt, like Columbus, you’re looking for America’s best. So set your sails for Vermont.
In the Green Mountain State you’ll find the best real wood furniture anywhere in the USA. Vermont is home to some 2000 small custom furniture makers located throughout our state as well as several mid-size, high end furniture manufacturers like Copeland Furniture and Lyndon Furniture.
Vermont style furniture is known for organic solid wood, clear natural finishes and fine craftsmanship. The favorite hardwood among craftspeople and customers alike seems to be American Black Cherry as shown in the handmade Shaker dining table above, although you’ll also find a variety of other North American woods including walnut, oak and maple.
With so many American furniture brands now making their furniture overseas, Vermont has quietly become the Real Wood Furniture Capital of the USA. I know of only one Vermont furniture company that moved its operations overseas back when the Asian exodus was taking place and that was Ethan Allen. The other Vermont furniture businesses have continued to operate successfully in the USA, remaining true to their communities, their employees and their quality.
You can arrange a tour to visit the best of our Vermont furniture makers and see the difference that real wood and authentic American craftsmanship make. Columbus Day is a great time to make the trip! Start here with this Map of Vermont Master Furniture Makers and maybe swing by our Vermont Woods Studios Furniture Showroom in Vernon VT on your route. Then let us know if you too, see Vermont as America’s best place to shop for the real thing in USA made furniture.
Mission & Craftsman Style Furniture
Vermont has long been known for it’s authentic, handmade Mission and Craftsman style furniture. Today’s artisans are adapting traditional designs to modern lifestyles while retaining our high standards for quality and sustainability.
What do you like most about Mission and Craftsman style furniture? Customers shopping for this type of wooden furniture often tell us they’re looking for simple, natural designs and honest craftsmanship. Their search leads them to Vermont. With it’s 200 year tradition of authentic, high quality woodworking, the Green Mountain State has earned a reputation of being the Fine Furniture Capital of America.
Mission and craftsman style furniture is being handmade in every corner of our state. This weekend our artisans are opening their doors to visitors who want to see their craftsmanship in action. You probably know this already but before you come, I should be clear. In Vermont you’re not going to find much in the way of fancy Victorian carving or ornamental scrolling (we leave that to global conglomerates that use lots of CNC machinery and exploited labor to produce high volumes of low quality furniture).
Instead, in the Green Mountain State you’ll see the real thing: a tradition of simple (but precise) elegance in furniture making. Fine quality construction, high value raw materials, local skilled labor, fair wages, human rights and environmental responsibility are hallmarks of Vermont’s fine furniture industry. The Mission and Craftsman style furniture that comes out of Vermont has a certain charm, grace, delicacy and simplicity reflecting those values and it just cannot be duplicated by mass production.
If you’re out and about leaf peeping this beautiful Autumn weekend, stop by some of our state’s premiere furniture studios and check out some real mission and craftsman style furniture and the artisans who create it.
Stonehurst Fine Furniture Showroom: Repurposing Our Trees
Vince Johnson of Johnson Custom Milling in Vernon, VT is milling trees at Stonehurst that had to be taken down for safety reasons. Now we can use them for future phases of construction at our new Vermont Woods Studios fine furniture showroom.
Since forest conservation is a big part of my mission at Vermont Woods Studios, it’s been a little heart-breaking for me to see some of the 100 year old trees at Stonehurst being taken down. There were a handful that were leaning over the house and garage and Ken insisted that they were a hazard and had to go.
But lucky for me, Vince Johnson of Johnson Custom Milling in Vernon, VT came to the rescue. Vince is milling the trees so we can use them for future phases of construction at Stonehurst, our fine furniture showroom. Here’s a video of his portable sawmill in operation.
Ken and Jeremy Coleman of J Coleman & Company Architects are looking into building a solar kiln to dry the wood so we can use it as soon as possible.
And Dennis has plans to siphon off some of the wood to build bluebird houses, owl boxes and such. It’s turning out to be a fun project after all. Let us know on our Facebook if you have any thoughts or advice for us as we go down this road of renovation at Stonehurst, our future fine furniture showroom. We’ll be posting photos of the transformation and announcing details of our open house as we get closer to completion.
Vermont Fine Furniture and Woodworking Festival
From Forest To Fine Furniture
The weather isn’t looking so great for leaf peeping in Vermont this weekend. So if you’re traveling around the Green Mountain State and looking for indoor activities, try heading to Woodstock, VT for the Ninth Annual Vermont Fine Furniture and Woodworking Festival.
This year’s theme is “From Forest to Furniture: Take Home a Piece of Vermont”. It dovetails with our plans at Vermont Woods Studios for a showroom at Stonehurst in that the focus is to raise awareness about where your furniture comes from.
Much like the organic food movement, the organic furniture movement is catching on. Customers are realizing both the economic and health benefits to buying locally crafted furniture, handmade from real, solid, sustainably harvested wood.
Come visit with some of the regions (and world’s) most respected fine furniture makers in Woodstock this weekend. You’ll be able to see and feel their furniture creations and also learn about the well-managed forests where their wood is harvested. Free tours are available of the nearby Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park. Here customers can experience the forest and learn about each of the many links in the chain from forest to trees to furniture.
Shown above: Brent Karner of ClearLake Furniture in Ludlow VT won first place for production furniture in the 2011 Vermont Fine Furniture Festival. Who is going to win this year?
Fall Colors Outside Vermont Woods Studios
Autumn has arrived in Vernon, Vermont and I had to snap this photo today as I was leaving the showroom at Vermont Woods Studios. It feels great to see water back in our pond at George's Mill after the summer's drought left it pretty well empty for several weeks.
We're celebrating Fall with a Shaker style furniture sale that lasts for a few more days (till next Tuesday, Oct 2). Stop by to shop or just check out the colorful maple trees at the water's edge. Heather or Liz will be more than happy to accompany you for an Autumn leaf-peeping stroll around the pond.
Modern American Bedroom Set: This Weeks Best Seller
wood and polished with a hand-rubbed natural oil finish.
Modern Wood Bedroom Set was the Hot Ticket Last Week
This high end Modern American Bedroom Set, inspired by George Nakishima’s designs was our Best Seller last week.
The collection is handcrafted in Burlington, Vermont with real solid cherry and walnut wood. It’s polished with a hand-rubbed natural oil finish. Customers tell us they’re drawn to it’s distinctive mid-century modern look and feel. The clean smooth lines are reminiscent of that retro 1950s Scandinavian style. It’s sophisticated but totally approachable.
The bed, dressers, chests and nightstands in this furniture collection are all made to order here in Vermont and can be customized to meet your needs. The craftsman has also provided dozens of ways to customize easily online. You can easily select your favorite style, hardwood and drawer configuration online. But if you’re looking for further customization give us a call or visit our showroom in Vernon, VT. We’ll look forward to working with you to create a unique modern bedroom set you will cherish for a lifetime.
Going green? This natural, solid wood, American made bedroom set is handcrafted in Vermont from eco-friendly sustainably harvested woods. You can customize any piece online in your choice of solid natural cherry, maple or walnut wood or any two-tone combination of them.
Vermont Artisan Robin Chase of Maple Corner Woodworks
Friday Douglas and I traveled around Vermont to check in with a few of our fine furniture makers. Our last stop was at Maple Corner Woodworks to see our friend Robin Chase.
Robin's been crafting beautiful fine wooden furniture for over 25 years and it's always fun to visit his workshop in pastoral Calais, Vermont. Besides seeing all of his works in progress we got to tour the Maple Corner campus and meet the furry sentinels that guard and patrol the grounds (see photo).
It was a very productive meeting and it didn't hurt that it was in a setting of Robin and Annie's herbal gardens and central Vermont's rolling hills.
I see Robin's furniture as a reflection of his own demeanor: elegant,
refined and genuine. He's a master at combining authentic Shaker sensibilities with modern, contemporary design. Check out his furniture creations on our website:
Cherry Moon Furniture Collection
Vermont Made Shaker Furniture Collection
American Made Shaker Collection
Each of Robin's pieces is backed by the craftsman's lifetime guarantee. Let us know which ones you like most on our Facebook or in the comments section below.
Solid Wood Bedroom Furniture Sets: Finding The Best Value
Finding the Best Value in Solid Wood Bedroom Furniture
Handmade, real solid wood bedroom sets are a significant investment so if you’re shopping for one, you’re no doubt looking for the best overall value in terms of quality and price. Comparison shopping is hard work. It takes days, weeks and even (for many of our customers) months to research all the design and style choices for fine hardwood bedroom furniture sets.
And the price comparisons can really get tricky. Pricing can initially look like it’s all over the place but once you start to narrow down the level of quality you want you begin to see that, with high end, American made furniture, the pricing falls into a very narrow range. That’s because there’s just not a lot of room for mark-up. Handcrafting fine wood furniture takes extraordinary amounts of time to create and when that work is done here in America (which is probably important to if you made it to our blog) it needs to be compensated with a livable wage.
So when it comes to offering the best value for American made fine furniture, retailers like us (Vermont Woods Studios) have the greatest opportunity to save you money by being smart about the way we ship furniture (it turns out that shipping 3 or more pieces of furniture isn’t much more expensive than shipping one) and do our administrative work. With our solid wood bedroom furniture sets we’ve focused on both and are able to discount these sets a full 20%.
Just so you know, this is the best price and lowest discount we’re able to offer at anytime, all year long. While others might mark up to mark down by 70% or so routinely, we do not. Our prices accurately reflect the cost of creating your furniture and getting it to you safely via the best fine furniture shipping specialist in the country. So check out our solid wood bedroom sets today and let us know what you think on Facebook. To find out what others are saying, check out our testimonials page and the Customer Review section of our blog.
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