Vermont Woods Studios - Eco Furniture Blog

Best Writing Desks - Laptop Computer Workstations For Your Modern Home

Do you have a designated home office?  Or is your office spread out into several small spaces throughout your home?  A lot of customers (especially those in upscale urban apartments) are telling us that's their reality.  Personally, I like having a wireless laptop I can cart around so I can work wherever I want, whenever I want.

Our small writing desks, laptop desks and small compact computer workstations are becoming very popular because of their small size and versatility.  They can be tucked into the corner of your bedroom, kitchen, hallway or TV room.  Each features a pull-out keyboard tray, compact file and accessory drawers and thoughtful wire management openings. They can be customized online in cherry, walnut and maple woods. Each modern-contemporary desk is American made (handmade in Vermont, acutally) of real solid hardwood and guaranteed to last a lifetime.  And besides all that, when your workspace is neat and tidy, it makes you feel better about yourself so you can do your best work.  Don't you think?

Beds and Storage

Remember when you used to clean up your bedroom by hiding everything under the bed?  Well now you can do that in style!  Luxury solid wood platform beds with underbed storage drawers are best sellers at Vermont Woods Studios this year. 

Metropolitan apartment dwellers trying to make the most of furniture for small spaces are finding that underbed storage drawers can elegantly replace the need for chests, dressers and armoires.

Storage beds can also provide space for shoes, seasonal clothing, blankets and linens.  This one is the Harbor Island Platform Storage Bed and it's shown here in solid natural maple wood, although you can customize it online with dark wood colors too.

The matching nightstand is designed to let you pull out the storage drawers easily.  There's another Harbor Island nightstand with a drawer if you prefer, but you'll have to move it aside to open the storage drawers. 

All of our storage beds are 100% made in America (right here in Vermont actually) of sustainably harvested wood with family-friendly non-toxic finishes.  Check them out!

Vermont Furniture Featured in The Burlington Free Press Today

Check out Stephen Mills' article about Vermont furniture in the Burlington Free Press today.  It's really encouraging to get this kind of exposure from Vermont's largest newspaper. 

 

Stephen focused on a lot of the concepts we've been developing and promoting right here at Vermont Woods Studios Fine Furniture, including the fact that Vermont truly is the Fine Furniture Capital of America and that Vermont furniture makers are the go to guys for authentically green, sustainable wood furniture.

Good job, Stephen!  Thanks for spreading the good word.

 

Download Burlington Free-press-article.

 

 

 

 

 

It Is So Sad To See A Species Go Extinct

Today the World Wildlife Fund reports that after losing nearly 70 per cent of its forest habitat and half its population in one generation, the Sumatran elephant is heading for imminent extinction due to deforestation and habitat loss.

These elephants are not alone.  According to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, 3-5 species become extinct every hour of every day. That's up to 45,000 species every year!

What we're doing at Vermont Woods Studios Fine Furniture is trying to raise awareness about the how your choices as a consumer directly affect the extinction of endangered species like the Sumatran elephant.  If you can avoid buying imported forest products, especially wood furniture and flooring (if it's not clearly labelled Made in America--pretty much any furniture you'll find at Home Depot, Walmart, Bob's, Lowe's or other big box stores is imported) you'll be doing your part to lessen global deforestation and destruction of the habitat these elephants live in.

What else are we doing?

We support a number of projects to save endangered species.  Here's one I was pretty excited about last week:  when I was on the Vernon Selectboard a few years back, our town partnered with the Vermont Division of Fish and Wildlife DFW to protect habitat and save the critically endangered spotted turtle from extinction.  Last week we were able to celebrate our work.  It's 6 or 7 years later, but finally through a long process, the turtle habitat is being cared for and hopefully we'll start to see their population come back.

How about you?  Tell us what you're doing in the comments below or on our Vermont Furniture Facebook.

American Made Bedroom Furniture Sale Starts Today, 15% Off

Here in Vermont, January is a month when people tend to spend more time in their bedrooms.   It's a cozy haven from the snow, ice and wind outside.  So maybe you're curled up in bed with a laptop shopping for a new bed, or armoire?  Or a modern dresser/TV stand combo that works as a chest of drawers but also has an open shelf for AV media and equipment? 

Well then... we've got a sale for you on our American made, real solid wood bedroom furniture that's bound to warm you up even if you live here in the frozen tundra of Vermont.  Here's how it works:

• All of our handcrafted American made bedroom furniture is now 10-15% off
• Save 10% off any single bedroom piece
• Or add additional bedroom furniture and receive 15% off every piece

Choose from our natural, eco-friendly, sustainably harvested Cherry, Maple, Walnut, or Oak solid woods. Everything comes with a lifetime guarantee and free shipping and delivery.  This one-week sale starts at 8am on January 25, 2012 and runs through January 31st at midnight.  Don't miss it!  It's time to invest in the real thing.

Burlington Free Press To Feature Vermont Wood Furniture

Stephen Mills, a freelance journalist phoned us at Vermont Woods Studios yesterday to talk about a piece he's writing for this Thursday's edition of the Burlington Free Press.  He'll be shining a spotlight on Vermont's fine furniture industry and wanted to include Vermont Woods Studios in his story.

I hope you'll check it out on the front page of the Living section on January 26, 2012.  Our friend, reclaimed barnwood furniture expert and fellow woodworker, Raphael Groten will be featured as well.

I know a lot of people like to keep Vermont made fine furniture the best kept secret in the world, but we've been getting a lot of press lately.  I think people are starting to see that Vermont truly is the Fine Furniture Capital of America with some 2000+ small furniture makers located throughout the state.  We send our thanks to Stephen Mills for helping to spread the word.

 

 

 

Wood Dining Tables: Why Do We Love Them Best?

Wood dining tables are our most popular, best selling pieces at Vermont Woods Studios Fine Furniture.  Most customers come to us for solid cherry wood tables, but we also build a good number of tables in maple, walnut and oak wood too.  Occasionally we get a custom order for wood tables made out of other woods, like the reclaimed barnwood farm table that Yankee Magazine is featuring in their March/April issue this year.

So why wood?  I mean you could eat off a glass top table or a metal table or even a plastic table.  I think for many people, wood makes an important emotional connection that maybe we're not even consciously aware of.  A customer recently told me she came to us because of the natural, organic apsect of our wooden furniture.  She said that trees are actually a source of spiritual sustenance and renewal for her. I was thinking about that and came across this passage about trees written by woodworker and naturalist Brian Clifford:

A tree is a thing of beauty and wonderment, huge, but full of life and movement. A deciduous tree is the embodiment of the changing seasons: a stark framework in winter, bursting life in spring, a vast green canopy in summer and the bearer of seeds and fruit in the autumn. It is the embodiment of man's condition: birth, life, death, regeneration and rebirth.

I'm not sure people choose wood for their dining and kitchen tables for reasons quite that deep, but I love reading Brian's thoughts and philosophy about the relationship between trees and man.  He notes that our ancestors evolved in trees:

The period our ancestors spent in the trees was of great formative importance; this was the environment in which man's basic structures, brain, sense organs, limbs and reproductive system, evolved. In response to the exigencies of living in trees the animal's paws were modified into members able to grip: the claws atrophied, the digits lengthened, and an opposed thumb developed. The eyes became larger and moved towards the front of the head providing three-dimensional vision. In concert with these bodily changes, and their application in confronting the dangers in the tree tops, the creature's brain developed new features and increased in power.

Ha!  It seems we owe our brain power to trees.  I bet you never thought of that as the reason you were shopping for a wood dining table today.

 

Furniture Reviews: Customer Ratings For Quality

 

Last month we posted the results of our most recent Vermont Woods Studios Furniture customer satisfaction survey.  We received reviews and ratings from 69 of the 130 customers we surveyed (a response rate of 53%).  The questions we asked customers assessed the: quality of our furniture, ease of ordering online, shipping and delivery experience, price and response of customer sevice personnel. 

We also asked overall questions:  Would you purchase from Vermont Woods Studios Furniture again and What complaints do you have?

My previous post focused on customer reviews of our shipping and delivery performance, including a recent complaint and how we handled it.

 

 

Today I wanted to share customer feedback about the quality of our Vermont made furniture. When asked to rate "Quality of Furniture" our customers responded:
   *    Excellent or very good - 94.03%
   *    Neutral - 1.49%
   *    Needs improvement - 0%
   *    Unsatisfactory - 0%
   *    No answer or not applicable - 4.48%

So these numbers are good, but our goal is to have 97-100% of responses in the excellent to very good range so this 3% deficit is going to bother me.   We’ll be working on identifying the cause of this shortfall and fixing existing systems or implementing new systems to continuously improve. 

One positive thing is that there were no responses in the “needs improvement” or “unsatisfactory” categories.  But 1.49% were neutral and 4.48% either did not answer the questions or said quality was not applicable.  Hmmm? 

I wonder if some people are just uncomfortable rating the quality of fine, handmade furniture.  It’s kind of a science, really.  And an art.  I’ve written a number of posts recently about defining fine furniture.  There’s a big difference (quality and price-wise) between made to order furniture, customized furniture, custom wood furniture and custom artisan furniture.  It all depends on the type of wood used, styles of craftsmanship, sustainability and more. 

So it's complicated and maybe that's why a few people declined to answer that one.  I'm not sure. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.  Please feel free to post below in the comments, or on our Vermont Furniture Facebook or email me directly at peggy@VermontWoodsStudios.com.  Thanks!

Vermont Fine Furniture In Every State But Alaska

It's taken six years, but our recent sale of Custom Shaker Bookcases to a family in West Virginia finally put that state on our map as the 49th state we've delivered Vermont Made Furniture to. How 'bout that?  

I think we'll have to give a prize to the person who places the first order for delivery to Alaska (that's the only state left on our list).  What should it be?  Maybe something to keep them warm like Vermont made Darn Tough Socks or flannel pajamas from Vermont Flannel. 

Or maybe one of Ken's solid wood cutting boards.  Well, Alaskans... be the first and we'll let you take your pick.

 

Solid Wood Desks and Bookcases - Getting Organized For The New Year

 

How are you doing on your New Year's resolutions?  I finally started mine today.  First: get my workspace organized. 

 

This is what I want it to look like.

 

 

 

 

Instead, I'm sad to say, it looks like this.  Can you believe that?  Especially considering my work with fine, American made, solid wood furniture at Vermont Woods Studios.

I don't have a bookcase or a file cabinet.   I do have a couple beautiful solid wood desks that Ken made for me when we moved into this space last year.  I try to file everything electronically but that's not always possible so I end up with stacks of papers on my desks, notes on the wall and other stuff on the floor. 

So today I decided to start getting organized.  I asked Douglas to order me a new solid wood file cabinet from our Modern Shaker Office Furniture Collection.  If that's not enough to do the job, I may have to splurge on the huge Solid Wood Bookcase in the picture above.  We'll see.  We seem to be moving and growing a lot so it all depends on how long we're here in this lovely office with the wood paneling and aqua carpets.  I wouldn't want to get too far out of step with the modern decor.

 

 

Coffee Is For The Birds

I do love my work here at Vermont Woods Studios Fine Furniture but if I could pick a dream job for just a month or a year, I think it might be working as a biologist for The Vermont Center for Ecostudies VCE.

Here's how they describe their work:  "VCE biologists scale high peaks, paddle remote ponds, slog through wetlands, visit ordinary backyards, and traverse the Americas to study birds, insects, mammals, amphibians and other wildlife."  How cool would that be?

One of my favorite VCE project areas is bird conservation.  In fact, we named a line of our furniture after Roz Renfrew a champion VCE ecologist. Roz has dedicated her life to conserving tropical habitat for Vermont migratory birds in places like Hispaniola and Bolivia.  Through her work we've come to understand the importance of buying shade grown coffee.

 

 

 

It turns out that the reason we started Vermont Woods Studios (to promote rainforest conservation) is also the reason to buy "bird friendly coffee".  Whereas coffee used to be grown under the canopy of the rainforest (thus providing great habitat for birds) it's now more profitable to cut the rainforest down and grow coffee in the sun.  Besides requiring tons of pesticides and fertilizers which destroy life in nearby streams, rivers and coastline this un-natural practice eliminates critical habitat for birds.

So... I've been able to make the switch at home, no problem but now I've got to get Douglas to find Bird Friendly coffee for our Kuerig dispenser at work.  I've looked everywhere and can't find it. Any ideas?  I'd welcome your suggestions below or on our Facebook.  Thanks!

Good Things Take Time

In the world of Vermont's Made to Order Furniture there are many advantages:  your furniture is handcrafted especially for you, you can customize it to fit exactly into your space, you can feel good about the fact that your furniture is made from trees that are harvested sustainably with respect for the forest environment... and so on.  But there is one downside to having furniture built just for you:  it takes time.

Depending on who is making your furniture (we work with a dozen or so independent furniture makers), and what they've already got in their cue, it can take anywhere from 2-16+ weeks from the day you place your order to the day it is complete.  Typically the crafting time is about 6-8 weeks, but specialty items or furniture that's being made by our most popular craftsmen can take longer. 

Then after the furniture is built, it takes another 1-5 weeks to ship it, depending on where the customer lives.  Fine furniture cannot be FedEx'd (unless maybe it's an end table or something that's been designed for quick-ship).

So Rebecca uses a series of emails and phone calls to keep clients in the loop during the crafting and shipping process. She and a customer were talking aout it in terms of old Vermont sayings yesterday-- like "slower than molasses running uphill in January" and "It takes less time to do something right than to explain why it was done wrong".

In this world of instant gratification, where most furniture buyers walk into Bob's Discount Furniture, Ikea or Ashley Furniture and walk out an hour later with something that's substandard and unsustainably produced overseas by huge multi-national conglomerates, we find ourselves immensley grateful to our customers for their patience in waiting for the real thing.  When buying furniture that's built to last a lifetime, we hope you'll feel it's worth the wait.

ps-- Vermonters have a bunch of other funny old sayings.  If you're interested, learn what "dryer than a popcorn fart", "flatlander" and "a chewing match" mean here at Virtual Vermont.

Vermont Reclaimed Barnwood Table To Be Featured in Yankee Magazine

 

Keep an eye out for the March/April issue of Yankee Magazine.  One of our reclaimed barnwood benches will be featured as part of an editorial on rustic barnwood furniture.

We extend our thanks to Heather Marcus, Photo Editor of Yankee Magazine for including us in this article and will look forward to reading it. 

Check back in March and we'll post a link to it here.

Vermont Furniture Featured on Apartment Therapy

Apartment Therapy is one of our favorite interior design websites.  They're always finding some new, creative way to beautify your home and make it a relaxing respite.

I love their motto:  "saving the world, one room at a time".  Check it out for gorgeous photos and ideas about achieving simplicity, luxury and affordability in your home.

We're always pleased when Vermont Woods Studios gets a mention from Apartment Therapy because our missions seem synergistic.  This week they featured our Vermont Made Shaker Style Furniture Sale on their Weekend Guide-- I guess because it's simple, luxurious and affordable. 

So, if you made a New Years resolutions to de-clutter and organize your apartment, check our natural, sustainable Shaker bookcases and file cabinets sale.  2012 is your year to go green and go home!

Snow in Vermont... Finally!

It snowed yesterday for the first time in 2012!  It's been a slow start for winter this year.  Douglas, Manjula and Kendall and I decided to break away from our computers for a few minutes and enjoy the wintery view outside Vermont Woods Studios.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since it was Kendall's last day, I guess he figured "who needs a supervisor?"

 

 

Check out other pictures of our snowy Vermont lair on Facebook.

 

 

 

Custom Wood Furniture, Part 2

Yesterday we were discussing the different types of furniture that people call "custom wood furniture".  My last post was about Made To Order Wood Furniture and Customized Wood Furniture.  Today I wanted to distinguish these from true custom wood furniture and ultra luxury custom artisan furniture.  Here are my thoughts:

• True Custom Wood Furniture is unique furniture that's made more deliberately and artfully than customized furniture.  Usually, you'll want to work directly with the furniture maker if you're purchasing custom wood furniture because it's born from a collaboration between you, the customer and the furniture maker.  Custom furniture is more expensive than customized furniture and for many good reasons.  Design of custom furniture can take enormous amounts of time and several iterations before the furniture maker even progresses from the drawing board into the studio.  Wood selection is also a time-intensive process with the woodworker hand-selecting each board for the proper grain, color, match, size and shape.  Building a custom piece-- well, it just takes, time, time, time.  It's all about detail and custom pieces haven't been done exactly like this before (they're unique) so every step along the way is a little challenging.  But the result with a custom piece is perfection, or near perfection anyway.  And each piece is signed by its creator. If you're someone who truly understands and appreciates the fine detail of a custom piece, this is the way to go.  It's not unusual for the price of a custom piece to be twice as much or more than a similar "made to order" or customized piece but the cost is a worthy investment for those who understand its enduring value.

• Custom Artisan Wood Furniture-- well this is yet another notch up from true custom wood furniture.  It's an ultra luxury.  It's a piece of functional art.  It's museum quality furniture that is a privilege to own. Lucky for us, Vermont is home to some of the world's most talented custom furniture artisans like Steve Holman, Dan Mosheim, Kit Clark and others, many of whom belong to the Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers.  Check out their websites and their blogs to understand how truly special and unique their furniture is. We work with these master craftspeople on a referral basis.  When customers come to us looking to invest substantially and commission custom artisan furniture we help them find the artisan who is best suited to their needs.  Usually it's based mainly on their style preference and the specific types of expertise and equipment needed to achieve their vision. But often other factors enter the decision including time constraints, budget, wood species, FSC or LEED criteria and such.  We also take into account the personalities involved to make sure the experience is enjoyable, stress-free and enriching for both the customer and the artisan. Lastly, we negotiate a fair price so both parties achieve a win.  Vermont Woods Studios was actually started as a company that would focus almost exclusively on marketing this important part of Vermont's heritage and culture.

So I hope this helps to better define "custom wood furniture" and draw a distinction between: made to order wood furniture, customized wood furniture, true custom wood furniture and ultra luxury custom artisan furniture.  Customers often ask why the price of one of our pieces may be drastically different from another, when the two pieces look similar at first glance.  The answer lies in the amount of time and expertise involved as well as the quality of the wood and hardware.  At Vermont Woods Studios we're always happy to discuss these details and refer customers directly to our furniture makers when we've reached the limit of our own expertise.  Learn more about commissioning custom wood furniture here.

Custom Wood Furniture, Part 1

What does "Custom Wood Furniture" mean to you?  In talking to our customers, I can say that it means many different things to different people.  At Vermont Woods Studios we have fine furniture that falls into varying degrees of what might be called "custom wood furniture", including:

• Made To Order Wood Furniture-- this is our most popular type of furniture and our most affordably priced.  Each piece is built here in Vermont especially for the customer however, it's not "custom furniture".  The designs are existing tried and true designs that are pictured on our website.  Some people will call "made to order" furniture "custom furniture" but as you read on, you'll see the difference.

• Customized Wood Furniture is the next step toward "custom furniture".  Let's say you see a table on our website that you love but you need it a little longer or wider to fit in your space.  Or you like a buffet but you'd like us to install your own drawer pulls. Or you want to select a different wood species than what's offered.  Customized furniture takes existing designs and modifies them slightly.  Since our furniture is made to order, it is easily customized and small changes don't usually add much to the price.  Customized furniture is kind of a cool way to get unique furniture, tailored to your specific style and size at an affordable price.

 

Next Post:  True Custom Wood Furniture and Custom Artisan Wood Furniture

Our Favorite Furniture

 

We've only got Kendall for a few more days before he ditches us at Vermont Woods Studios and goes back to college after a nice long winter break.  That's pretty sad because he's been cranking out the website work these last few weeks-- stuff that none of the rest of us (except Manjula, of course) know how to do.

 

 

 

Anyway, Kendall's becoming a Facebook genie and he's set up a "Staff Picks" tab.  This week he's featuring Shannon's favorite furniture, the Modern American Dining Set.  It's a beautiful solid cherry table and benches-- very simple but very elegant too. 

 

 

 

 

 

Here it is all dressed up by our favorite set designer, Erica Ell.  If you love it as much as Shannon does, fan us on Facebook and get an extra 5% off.

Modern Shaker Furniture: An Oxymoron?

 

Shaker Furniture conjures up images of traditional New England style tables, chairs and bedroom furniture designed way back in the late 1700s by members of the The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, otherwise known as the Shakers.  It's really the only style of furniture that's widely agreed upon as quintessentially American and it's changed only in subtle ways over the last few hundred years.

Vermont furniture makers are perhaps the world's most diverse group of Shaker furniture makers.  Most furniture coming out of Vermont reflects Shaker values in one way or another (highest quality craftsmanship, simple functional design, elegant straight lines, finely crafted joinery such as mortise and tenon and dovetails) but each furniture maker has a unique signature on their furniture.

We've been working with Copeland Furniture recently, as we've added their bedroom furniture, TV-Entertainment furniture and home office furniture to our website.  It's interesting to see how they've evolved from building traditional Shaker Furniture (Sarah Collection) 30 years ago to ever increasingly modern furniture today.  Copeland's Lily collection blends a modern Scandinavian style with Shaker furniture design.  Their Berkeley collection is a fusion of Arts and Crafts, modern Japanese and Shaker style.

 

 

 

 

 

Check out these and other new collections and see how you like this modernization of Shaker style furniture.  As far as I can see, the addition of Copeland furniture to our website gives Vermont Woods Studios the most expansive and diverse selection of high end Shaker style furniture on the Internet.

Natural Cherry Wood Furniture: What Color Is It... Really?

 

I was working with one of our Vermont Woods Studios customers yesterday who was looking for a natural cherry bed to match existing cherry furniture in his bedroom.  He's had the existing furniture for about 10 years and now it's a lovely, rich reddish brown color-- something like this solid cherry bed made by Robin Chase.

 

 

 

The problem is that natural cherry starts out a much lighter wood, usually with a color similar to this Cherry Moon Bed and it takes time to darken as it is exposed to light.  The length of time to go from this light color to the darker color above varies with the amount of light in the room and can take anywhere from a few months to a number of years.  Most customers, however report that their furniture darkens within 6-12 months.

 

Customers often ask if there is a way to speed up the process and the consensus among our craftspeople is that the best solution is just to expose the furniture to as much light as possible.   Adding a dark stain is also a possibility but woodworkers always plead with us to have patience and wait it out instead.  For most customers, the result truly is worth waiting for, especially since our furniture is purchased for a lifetime of use.  Check out more photos of our natural cherry furniture in the Cherry Moon Collection, Vermont-Made Shaker Collection and throughout our website.