Solid Wood Extension Tables with self-storing leaves make holiday entertaining easy, convenient and comfortable.

Make Room For Company!

Grab an extra leaf or two for the extension table and add another cup of water to the soup.  The holidays are here!  I remember when we were kids it seemed like every night at least one of us would be having a friend over for dinner.  In our big family, my mother barely noticed it.  But today, families are smaller, dining rooms are smaller (or non-existent) and dining room tables are smaller.

That’s no reason to hesitate before extending an open invitation for your friends and relatives to gather around the table at your house.  Enter the extra leaf!  Back in the day, we had to store extra leaves for our old oak dining table down in the basement.  But today’s extension tables have self storing leaves that are neatly and conveniently tucked away under the table top.  It’s so easy to insert them, and then tuck them away after company has gone home.

Extension Tables by Size, Shape and Style

Check out these American made, solid wood extension tables that are handcrafted in Vermont.  Last week Loryn posted some tips about how to select the right shape for your table and we’ve tried to make it easy to find special categories for Round & Oval Extension Tables as well as Square & Rectangular Extending Tables.  If you’re shopping by style it might be faster to browse through categories like our Shaker Dining Tables, Pedestal Dining Tables or Trestle Dining Tables.  Copeland Furniture fans will want to head straight to the Copeland Audrey, Sarah, Catalina and Dana Thomas dining tables.

So how many extra people can you fit with each leaf in your extending table?  Well, just 2 per leaf but you can customize most of our tables with your choice of 1, 2 or 3 leaves (with some designs a fifth leg is added to support 3 extending leaves– it’s also hidden underneath the table top when not in use).

Have questions?  Give us a call or connect with us on Facebook.  Then start planning your next dinner party!

The post Extension Tables: Tips For Accommodating Unexpected Guests Over The holidays appeared first on Vermont Woods Studios.

Custom Built In Beds, integrated nightstands and built in chests and dressers are popular this year.   These night stands attach to the bed. Modular dressers and chests can be attached on the opposite side of the nightstand for additional storage.

Custom, built in beds have been a popular trend in high end furniture over the last couple years.  It used to be you had to have an architect or interior designer put together a sophisticated built in like the Modulux Bed above.  But with so many HGTV shows and interior design websites, people often prefer to craft together their own designs now.  We like Houzz, an interior design website that shows thousands of ideas when you search for “custom built in beds with integrated nightstands“.  Our friends at Birdseye Builders in Richmond, Vermont have some of the most popular luxury bedroom built ins on this site.

Custom Built In Bedroom Furniture.  This is Copeland’s 29″ Low Moduluxe Collection.  Shown above in natural solid cherry wood.  It can be customized in natural walnut and maple too.  12 additional wood colors are available as stains.  Customize online or in our showroom.

If you’re looking for high end custom built ins for your home, check out our new Vermont made Moduluxe Built in Bedroom Furniture Collection by Copeland.  This is a brand new, top quality, solid wood collection of modern, contemporary bedroom furniture.  It’s designed to provide the clean, organized look of built in furniture at an affordable price.  Moduluxe is, well… modular and sectional.  You can choose from over 30 matching solid wood pieces:  platform beds, chests, dressers, desks, mirrors and integral night stands.  The furniture pieces are designed to attach to (or sit flush against) adjacent pieces.

Copeland’s 35″H  Moduluxe Collection is shown above in natural solid walnut wood.  Over 20 beds, chests and dressers can be mixed and matched to fit your space and provide the best storage for your needs.

Moduluxe is highly customizable online or in our showroom.  There are many different chest, dresser and night stand sizes to fit your space.  Storage beds are also available  with four 8″ inch deep, sub-mounted drawers, providing plenty of inconspicuous storage.  Customize Moduluxe in your favorite color too!  There are 3 different natural woods (American black cherry, sugar maple, and American black walnut) and 12 different stains including black and white.

If a sophisticated, clean, organized bedroom is in your future check out what Moduluxe has to offer!

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Copeland's Catalina dining set is designed with mid-century modern style, including clean unadorned lines and retro-modern shapes and sensibilities. Buying the furniture as a set can save you big on shipping.

Manjula just published a new Copeland dining set yesterday:  it's the Catalina Mid Century Modern Collection.

If you're looking for authentic, solid walnut, fine dining furniture, have a look at Catalina.  This Copeland set is 100% handmade in America– right here in Vermont.

It's designed with mid-century modern style, including clean unadorned lines and retro-modern shapes and sensibilities.  Manjula has arranged our Catalina dining set to make it easy to price and purchase dozens of combinations of tables, chairs and buffets.  You can use drop-down menus to price out different choices for arm chairs, side chairs, extension table versus solid top table and buffet sizes.

Customers receive free DIY shipping and discounted white glove shipping when purchasing this furniture as a set so the savings can be substantial.  We also offer a lifetime guarantee and a low price guarantee.  If you're considering Catalina or any other Copeland furniture I recommend you check out our Top 10 Reasons to Buy Copeland Furniture at Vermont Woods Studios.  It really does make a difference where you buy.

Drop us a note below or on our Facebook to let us know how you like Catalina and the many other beautiful furniture collections Copeland crafts right here in Vermont.

The post NEW! Copeland Catalina Modern Dining Furniture Set appeared first on Vermont Woods Studios.

Have you been looking everywhere for the perfect hardwood furniture to fit precisely into your dining rom or bedroom space?  If you're still coming up short, maybe think about customizing!

We had a customer purchase this Copeland Horizon bed over the weekend, but when he gets it, the bed is going to look very different than it does here.  That's because he customized the finish and changed it from the dark chocolate stain shown to a natural maple color which is very light. 

I love working with customers who have the vision (and courage!) to imagine how customized furniture will look in their homes.  Maybe he'll send us a photo once it's installed in his bedroom so I can share it with you.  I hope so.

The Horizon bed above is made of solid maple hardwood and can be customized in 8 of these finish colors: natural maple (no stain) or white maple, cocoa maple, dark chocolate
maple, dark honey maple, chestnut maple, black maple or slate maple.

At Vermont Woods Studios we customize furniture routinely.  Customization can be as straight-forward as changing the stain or substituting different drawer pulls.  Or it can be substantial for instance modifying  dimensions, leg style, configuration of drawers-doors, adding inlays and more.

We've tried to build our fine furniture website so you can use pull-down menus to see possibilities and prices for popular customizations. 

What many people don't realize is that customizations are often free!  Or in this case, it was two hundred dollars less to customize the bed in natural maple, as opposed to having the dark stain.

So if you're still searching for that custom dining set or bedroom set for your home, check out our furniture at Vermont Woods Studios and give us a call to see how easy it can be customized to meet your needs.

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If FSC certification is important to you, check out Copeland's Harbor Island Furniture collection. It's handmade here in VT with FSC certified maple from local Vermont trees.

Customers often come to us because they're shopping for eco-friendly, sustainable furniture.  At Vermont Woods Studios, our mission is founded on environmental and social responsibility so we find ourselves discussing FSC certification and other aspects of sustainable furniture almost every day.  Here are some of the basics on FSC:

What is FSC?
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an independent,
non-governmental, not-for-profit organization that promotes responsible
management of the world's forests. It is widely regarded as one of the
most important initiatives to promote responsible forest management
worldwide. It places a special emphasis on rainforest conservation.

L to R photo credits: Reststart Forestry, Allard Lumber, Wayne Fawbush, Ellen Kahler, Copeland Furniture, via the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund.

Launched
by environmental groups in 1993 FSC manages an international standard
for well-managed forests and a process for tracking and certifying wood
furniture, flooring and other products derived from those forests. FSC
addresses numerous aspects of sustainable forestry, including ecological
issues, old-growth forests, plantations, restoration, biodiversity,
native habitat, indigenous people's rights, and sound management for
timber production.

The FSC label provides certification of the
chain of links between the forest where a product originates and the
consumer. For example with wood furniture, each of the following
businesses involved in transforming a tree into a piece of furniture
would have to be FSC certified in order for that furniture piece to be
FSC certified.  It's called the "chain of custody":

• Certified forest owner- Must employ a professional forester and
  develop a forest management plan which meets stringent ecological and
  social criteria
• Certified logger and sawyer
• Certified lumber wholesaler
• Certified lumber retailer
• Certified furniture maker
• Certified furniture retailer

Benefits of FSC Certification
In my opinion, FSC provides the most rigorous certification process
available. It's widely considered the gold standard in sustainable
forestry and has moved the world forward in many areas of rainforest
conservation.

Copeland's Harbor Island Furniture collection is handmade here in VT with FSC certified maple wood from local Vermont trees.

Challenges for FSC As you might expect FSC
certification involves extensive rule-making and auditing that can be
quite expensive (and controversial) to implement. It can add up to 50% to the price of the
end product although the hope is that this cost will decrease as FSC
certification becomes more mainstream. Still many small manufacturers
are unable to assume this cost and are thus not FSC certified.

Another
challenge for FSC is the rampant counterfeiting of FSC documentation
accompanying raw lumber that is being illegally clear cut from the
Amazon and other endangered areas of rainforest. Also FSC has been
criticized for being too lenient,
particularly with their policy allowing limited old growth logging.

Should You Buy Only FSC Certified Furniture?
Authentic FSC certified furniture is a responsible choice for the
eco-conscious homeowner. However there are many genuinely responsible,
green, eco-friendly furniture makers who are not FSC certified due to
the red tape and expense involved. Conversely there is a large market of fake, FSC
labeled furniture that comes to us through layers of corruption
and counterfeiting.

In Vermont, many of us who were certified by FSC for years have been moving away from it lately.  Not because we don't support the ideal, but because we have so many other systems in place that effectively ensure our furniture is authentically green and sustainable.  At Vermont Woods Studios not all of our furniture is FSC certified, but it is all made from sustainably harvested wood from local and regional forests. 

If FSC certification is important to you, check out Copeland's Harbor Island Furniture collection.  It's handmade here in VT with FSC certified maple from local Vermont trees.  And let us know on our Facebook or in the comments section below how you feel about FSC certification.

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A couple customers have asked "what's a return?"  Good question.  It's the smaller desk that's lined up at a right angle with your main desk to form an "L" shape so it fits nicely into a corner space.

So why is it called a "return"?  I've looked everywhere and can't really find a good explanation for that.  The best I've found is this by JBENZ of Askville: 

 It comes from architecture. A "return" is a portion of a building that sits at right angles to the main part of the structure, what is usually called a "wing" or an "L". Hence the added on part of the desk where the typewriter or computer sits. Why they call it that is beyond me. The word itself is from an old French word that meant to "turn on a lathe".

Well, sorry I can't come up with more detail than that but maybe one of you can.  I welcome your input in the comments section below or on our Facebook.  Thanks!

Oh… and for more desks and returns, check out our Copeland Berkeley Workstation with desk, return & organizer or give us a call to order a custom return for any of our Vermont made desks and workstations.

One more thing: if you're ordering a return, be sure to specify whether it's to be aligned on the left or the right side of your desk.  Otherwise you won't be able to open the pencil drawer on the return.

The post Home Office Furniture: What Is A Return? appeared first on Vermont Woods Studios.

The Astrid collection is made right here in Vermont of solid wood throughout.  It's available in solid cherry, walnut and maple.  Manjula has made it easy to shop for and price out dozens of combinations of the collection with these Astrid Walnut Bedroom Furniture Set and Astrid Maple or Cherry Bedroom Set pages.  You can use drop down menus to price out any number of options for you choice of chests, dressers, nightstands, beds and mirrors.

Using these sets to purchase Astrid furniture will save you hundreds of dollars (or even thousands, depending on how many pieces you're purchasing) on shipping.  If you're serious about purchasing Astrid pieces or any of Copeland's furniture, check out our Top 10 Reasons to Buy Copeland Furniture at Vermont Woods Studios or just give us a call.  We'll look forward to helping you transform your bedroom into the sophisticated retreat you've always dreamed of!

The post Copeland’s Astrid Bedroom Furniture: Mid Century Modern Design appeared first on Vermont Woods Studios.

Copeland's Audrey Dining Set has a simple, mid-century modern look that's elegant and sophisticated.  It's handcrafted here in Vermont of solid, natural walnut wood.

"Functional beauty" is often how designers describe mid-century modern architecture and furniture styles.  Check out Copeland's Audrey Dining Set, for example.  It has a simple, modern, utilitarian look but it's elegant and  sophisticated at the same time.

Handcrafted here in Vermont of solid American black walnut wood, the Audrey dining table has an "X" shaped trestle base that allows for maximum leg space.  The chairs are streamlined and ergonomically designed for comfort. 

Audrey dining room furniture is 100% made in America (here in VT actually) from sustainably harvested wood and can be customized online to best fit your dining space.

For more details and photos of mid-century modern design, check out Stephen Cole's website at MidCenturyModernist.com and Andrew Van Leeuwen's blog on 10 Forgotten Lessons of Mid-Century Modern Design.

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We've had Copeland's entire collection up since the start of 2012 but customers were looking for an easier way to build bedroom sets and compare pricing for different combinations of chests, dressers, beds, night stands and mirrors.  Now you can use the drop-down menus on this sets page to price out dozens of options for your Astrid Bedroom Set.  

I'm looking for feedback to see if this kind of presentation is helpful to you.  Let us know in the comments section below or on our Facebook.  Thanks!

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Walnut furniture has been one of our best sellers this year, in spite of the fact that there is a 10-30% premium on the wood.  Walnut wood is becoming rare (due to a disease called Thousand Cankers) so we are super careful about making sure ours is sustainably harvested from forests where re-planting is well managed. 

We use a couple different types of American walnut wood for our furniture. 

For thick, organic slab tables we often use claro walnut wood from huge old (up to 100 years) shade trees that have been taken down (usually from city streets) because of safety reasons.  These slabs typically have beautiful, interesting character resulting from things like burls and branches. 

The modern Copeland SoHo walnut dresser-chest. Handmade from real solid walnut wood.

For modern looking furniture, customers generally do not want "character wood" so we use younger walnut trees with straight grain patterns grown in managed forests in the mid-west (since walnut doesn't grow well in Vermont).  This is the contemporary SoHo walnut 4 drawer chest, made by Copeland Furniture with solid, walnut wood.

Whether you're shopping for organic, walnut slab tables or Modern walnut furniture, it's important to verify that you are indeed getting real, solid walnut wood, as opposed to cheaper woods that have been stained dark to look like walnut.  Be sure to ask your salesperson to confirm the wood type and its origin before you buy.  Ask if the furniture has been made from solid walnut wood or walnut veneers.

Learn more about walnut wood and see photos of beautiful walnut furniture on our website.  If you take the time to find real solid walnut furniture as opposed to what most stores call "walnut" you'll probably have that furniture for a lifetime.  Enjoy it!

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