fine furniture
Copeland Fine Furniture: Coming To Vermont Woods Studios Soon!
UPDATE:
Copeland Furniture is now available at Vermont Woods Studios. Browse through our collection of:
Copeland Bedroom Furniture
Copeland Home Office Furniture
Copeland TV-Media Furniture and
Copeland Dining Furniture
Customize Copeland Furniture online or give us a call with your questions.
Customers have been asking us for a wider selection of sustainable Vermont made furniture so we've been travelling all around our state in search of the next furniture company to feature on our website. Last week Dennis and Douglas made a trip up to Bradford, VT to meet with Joann Phelps and the Copeland Furniture crew. We've been admiring the work of this family-owned company for many years and are proud to announce we will soon be carrying their full line of Vermont made furniture including the Frank Lloyd Wright® collection.
We're working on getting their fine furniture up on our website now and plan to have everything ready by the end of this year. In the meantime, we are already taking orders so feel free to call us and discuss your (100% American Made) Copeland Furniture needs. We thank Tim and Ben Copeland for including Vermont Woods Studios in the Copeland Furniture retailer family.
Furniture Sale Benefits The Nature Conservancy, Plant A Billion Trees Campaign
This Saturday, November 12 Vermont Woods Studios Fine Furniture Store will be running a fundraiser for The Nature Conservancy's Plant A Billion Trees campaign. 100% of our profits on that day will be donated to The Nature Conservancy.
Forest conservation has always been a fundamental part of our green mission. Although Vermont's forests are among the best managed in the world we realize that globally, deforestation is one of the top environmental problems facing the planet today.
In fact, the world’s tropical rainforests are disappearing at a rate of one football field every second! This deforestation pours carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and contributes more to air pollution and global climate change than exhaust from the entire transportation sector. Hard to believe isn't it? Furthermore, forest animals and plants are being lost at a rate of over 100 species/day due to deforestation.
So, if you're planning a fine furniture purchase or you know someone else who is, please consider buying your furniture this Saturday. Put your purchasing power to work and help us use green commerce to change the world!
Don’t Miss Vermont’s Fine Furniture Festival This Weekend
I can't believe it's leaf-peeping season already… an annual outdoor extravaganza that comes with great ambivalence among Vermonters. Most of us are not really ready to think about the winter ahead yet, but on the other hand, Fall is pretty spectacular up here in New England.
Over the last decade a popular new stop on the Vermont Foliage Tour has emerged and that's the Fine Furniture Festival in Woodstock, VT.
It's an annual gathering of Vermont's fine furniture makers– undoubtedly some of the best, most meticulous craftspeople in the world. Here you'll get to see, feel and sit in beautiful, handcrafted solid wood furniture that's unlike anything you've seen in the stores. You'll get to chat with craftsepople whose pieces live in luxurious penthouses and mansions around the world. And you'll find that they are approachable, down to earth and passionate about the integrity of their work.
Honestly, if you're interested in furniture with authentic old world craftsmanship and/or creative modern style, Woodstock is the place to be. And acquiring this kind of heirloom furniture is not out of reach– not when you're shopping in Vermont.
OK, it's a totally different product than what you'll find in "luxury furniture stores" like Restoration Hardware or Crate and Barrel. It's American made with sustainably harvested wood and it's made (and usually guaranteed) to last a lifetime so naturally the price will be higher than the imported furniture you're used to seeing in stores.
But if you're looking for value, you won't find a better opportunity than this. You'll be purchasing direct from the furniture makers and your solid wood furniture will be made to order just for you. Shipping is no problem either. These professionals have been shipping their work around the globe for years and they know how to do it right.
So… designers, architects, homeowners- we'll hope to see you in Woodstock this weekend. It will be a highlight of your foliage tour I promise!
Photos:
Vermont Furniture Online: A Look Behind the Scenes
Sometimes our customers at Vermont Woods Studios Online Furniture are understandably a little nervous plunking down thousands of dollars on fine furniture they've not been able to experience in person. We're adding new details and videos to our website all the time but I also wanted to give people an honest and candid sense of who we are and how we run our small business here in rural Vermont.
That's how Bare Naked Business came about. It's a behind the scenes look at the fabulous and crazy people who make Vermont Woods Studios the awesome company it is. I'm infinitely proud of this group and the super human things they keep achieving every new day. The best part is that we love doing it – we have a blast because we're working on projects and goals we feel are worthy of our time and talents.
Another reason I wanted to start Bare Naked Business is to create a community of like-minded entrepreneurs who are running (or thinking of starting) a small business on a shoestring. At Vermont Woods Studios we are living proof that this can be done, even during tough economic times and we believe that by collaborating with others, we can all benefit and at the same time – make the world a better place. Check out Bare Naked Business and let us know what you think about it. We're looking for feedback, suggestions, tips, advice and ideas about what you'd like to see in future episodes.
Vermont – The Fine Furniture Capitol of America
Looking for authentic handmade wood furniture, made in the good 'ol USA? It's not so easy to find it anymore, is it? Most Americans think of North Carolina as the fine furniture capitol of the USA, but over the past 30 years, that has changed. The furniture companies we think of as being quintessentially American — for example Thomasville, Broyhill, Ethan Allen and Lane — no longer make much, if any furniture in the USA. Instead they outsource their furniture to factories in China, Vietnam and other third world countries.
So where does one go to find authentic, high quality, handmade wood furniture? It turns out that Vermont is now considered to be the fine furniture capitol of the country. By unofficial count, some 2000 small wood furniture makers dot the rural Vermont countryside, taking advantage of the heavily forested nature of our state for supply of natural, eco-friendly raw materials.
At Vermont Woods Studios Furniture we represent many of these craftsmen, providing a low cost venue for the marketing and sale of their work. Our mission is to collaborate with Vermont's fine furniture makers, enabling them to spend more time in their studios doing what they do best: making beautiful, solid wood furniture. At the same time we can focus on our expertise: customer service– thus creating greater efficiency and the best possible prices for your heirloom quality handmade furniture. Give us a call to learn more about Vermont's many fine furniture makers and how to bring their work into your home or office.
Sustainable Furniture
At Vermont Woods Studios we're privileged to work with some of the world's finest craftsmen. Some of these furniture makers have had a tradition of fine craftsmanship handed down to them through many generations of Vermonters while others have emigrated to our state, attracted by the natural beauty and the close community of artisans living here.
One of the passions we all share is a love of the outdoors and a connection to the forest: the source of our wood. Vermont furniture makers care immensely about where their wood comes from as this affects not only the look and quality of a piece but also the sense of "karma" that every handmade piece has. The sustainability of our forests is an important issue to us.
I read this note about forest conservation from friend and sustainable furniture maker Dave Allard recently and wanted to share it:
In 2008, the US Forest Service reported that the volume of American
hardwoods is 90 percent larger than it was just 50 years ago and nearly
twice as much hardwood grows as is harvested every year. When managed
responsibly hardwood forests are at the least carbon neutral.American hardwoods are abundant and self-regenerating. For centuries
they have been providing beauty, warmth and functional value for floors,
furniture, moldings, millwork and cabinetry.Conservation weighs heavily on our minds. We
have always purchased the finest hardwoods from local, and reputable
sustainable resources. This allows us to virtually hand pick our lumber,
save on the use of large trucks that emit pollutants, thus limiting our
carbon footprint and waste factor overall. We were ‘Green’ before it
was cool.
I agree. Vermont is not only the fine furniture capitol of America it is also the sustainable furniture capitol of our country.
Vermont Fine Furniture Featured in Cabinet Maker Magazine
Vermont Woods Studios Fine Furniture is proud to be featured in the very well respected woodworking industry journal, Cabinet Maker. We want to thank Will Sampson for his insightful article about our furniture business and how it fits into the dynamic and challenging world of fine furniture retailing in the USA.
Besides being a writer and editor at Cabinet Maker, Will is also the author of SawdustSoup, a blog for professional woodworkers seeking to continuously improve their craft. We salute Will for his fine work at Cabinet Maker.
Custom Wood Furniture: Top 10 Ways to get What You Want – Continued
Continued from yesterday.
- Select the furniture maker who has crafted pieces most similar to
what you're looking for. This is critical. It's much easier and more
affordable for them to customize something they've already designed and
built than to start from scratch.
- Ask the furniture maker about customizing existing pieces with your
choice of wood, finish, hardware, dimensions, molding, leg style and so
on. Note: there is a big difference between commissioning an original, unique custom work of art and customizing an existing piece of furniture.
- Discuss wood choices and characteristics with your furniture
maker. Are you trying to match this new piece with existing pieces in
the same room? If so, you may want to bring in that furniture or
photos of those pieces to the workshop.
- Discuss furniture finish with your furniture maker. Do you want a
natural oil finish or one that provides more protection against
moisture and perhaps small hand-prints and such. Or something in between. There are many choices to consider.
- Spend the time upfront to discuss the details of your furniture
order up-front with your furniture maker. Remember the old saying,
"measure twice, cut once". You don't want to have any surprises when it's time to install your furniture.
- Have fun and enjoy the process. Get to know your furniture maker.
His or her personality will be a significant part of the meaning of
your new heirloom!
- Looking for ideas? Check out the custom wood furniture at Vermont Woods Studios.
Forest Conservation and Junk Mail
Forest conservation is a big part of our mission at Vermont Woods Studios. All of our furniture is made from sustainably harvested wood and we donate a portion of the proceeds of each sale to non-profit groups working to preserve the forest.
So when I read a recent article in Audubon Magazine (by T. Edward nickens) about the damage that’s happening to our forests as a result of junk mail production, I felt we should get on board and do something to help. Would you believe that:
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Over 100 Billion pieces of junk mail are delivered to Americans each year (>800 pieces per household, almost half of which goes directly to the landfill without even being opened)
-
It takes over 100 million trees to produce this junk mail (that’s equivalent to clear-cutting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every 4 months)
-
The manufacture of this junk mail releases more greenhouse gas emissions per year than the emissions released by 9.4 million average passenger cars
The Canadian Boreal forest (home to caribou, grizzly bears, wolves and 40% of North America’s waterfowl) and Indonesia’s tropical rainforests (home to numerous critically endangered species including orangutans and tigers) are particularly at risk from junk mail producers, harvesting wood in these areas.
Want to help solve the junk mail problem? The non-profit group, Forest Ethics has an online petition you can sign, asking Congress for a Do Not Mail registry, similar to the Do Not Call registry. That would be great, wouldn’t it?
In the meantime, here is a fantastic website where you can quickly and easily eliminate most of your junk mail, right now…it’s Catalog Choice.
Just sign up and select the catalogs you don’t want to receive. Voila! Your name is off their lists. Take action right NOW and help save the earth’s forests. You’ll be protecting endangered species and indigenous peoples AND helping to stem global climate change. You’re going to feel really good about yourself today!
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