What's New

Many of you are aware of the changes we’ve been making to our core product itself, mostly because they are changes made in response to suggestions from you, our retailers. We are always thrilled when we receive feedback on how to make our product better, and proud when we push those suggestions to fruition. For those of you familiar with the legacy of our product and also those of you new to our brand, here is a quick summary of some of our most recent product improvements:

1. Deeper drawers: Our case pieces now have “right sized” drawers, making drawer gaps consistently near 1” from box top to frame opening. In many pieces, this has moved our formerly 7” drawers to 8” deep, and many 5” drawers to 6” and even 7”.
2. Plywood drawer boxes: Since switching to solid wood drawer boxes several years ago, our drawer boxes have pushed the quality bar far higher than the “typical” bedroom case drawer box, even compared to our domestic competition. While we believe this is a strength, we also understand that not all customers require this and our value proposition weakens as a result. To address this, we’ve launched a new “standard” drawer box fabricated from solid birch plywood. These boxes have four-sided English dovetails, finished bottoms, and unfinished sides.
3. Finished case backs and bed decks: Historically unfinished, we are now finishing these components.
4. Solid tops: Now standard on all styles.
5. Custom Finish Program: A custom finish program allowing access to any finish vendor’s color offerings, as well as a GREENGUARD certified option.

It’s a little-known fact that up to 50% of the raw material used in furniture manufacturing goes to waste (https://bit.ly/2Iv37zl). We think that’s unfortunate – a wasteful reality made worse by the fact that the material being wasted starts as some of the most beautiful material harvested. Last year, we began looking for ways to highlight this issue and turn trash into treasure through reclamation. We searched the country for sources of this high-quality scrap and found makers willing to panelize it for us through the use of finger joints — a magnificently strong joint fit for furniture making.

To be honest, we didn’t quite know what to expect before we built our first few prototypes. Would it look too busy? How would the material behave in the hands of our craftsmen and women? We were astonished by the results. The randomized blend of heart and sapwood, stitched into a quilt, adds a natural warmth and beauty that is unexpectedly striking. Whether it be a classic style like Canterbury or the clean lines of our new Newton Collection, the reclaimed material feels right at home.

And the good news keeps coming. While the end result is first quality, because the raw material starts as a second we are able to offer it at a discount to our standard offerings.  Check it out for yourself. Now available in Bedford, Canterbury, Cottage, Exeter, Newton, Portsmouth, and Shaker styles.

Posted on March 1, 2019

One element of this technology is the ability to create images of furniture pieces before they land on the loading dock. Recently, we’ve begun using this tool internally to communicate design intent to both our operations and production team. With a few tweaks, we’ve realized that this is a helpful communication tool for our customers to get a snapshot of what their final product will look like before it gets to the customer’s home. Especially for those custom pieces, a CAD rendering can be a great way to visualize what the actual product will look like compared to the picture you had in your mind’s eye. If you’d like to get a sneak preview for yourself or your customer, feel free to ask — we can send you an image for review before it heads out to the production floor. Below are a few examples of requests we’ve had recently:

We are excited to announce the launch of two new bedroom furniture styles to our offering. Both enhance our ability to cater to wider audience, specifically those seeking transitional and contemporary looks.

Exeter brings a strong footed stance with straight, clean lines and modest reveals (1/4″) tucked into its inset case design. To complement it’s style elements, we’ve launched the Groton bed series, available in both a standard platform bed and matching platform storage bed. The style folds nicely into our standard birch offering, using a blend of solid and veneers as a canvas for all our standard paints and stains.

Newton pushes us even further into the contemporary space with exceptional simplicity. The core of the style is a solid wood frameless case matched with inset styling. A deeper look reveals that this style is three in one! Any case configuration can be matched with one of three base styles to transform the style to just the look you want. Base styles include a robust block foot, a mid-century inspired base, and slim 3/8″ wire hairpin feet. This style matches exceptionally well with our new reclaimed wood selections, or as always in our core birch offering. The Davis platform bed, launched last Fall, has been the go-to thus far to match the style elements of the collection.