Wood goes with everything

I was in the midst of shifting furniture around to make room for my Christmas tree, with the help of a friend. When we moved my beloved curly maple end table next to my cherry tv credenza, she made a comment about my mismatched wood, "Why didn't you, of all people, build a credenza that matched the rest of the pieces?" she asked. I looked around the room and didn't see anything that didn't work, but then, I'm an eclectic. So, I asked her why she thought all the wood pieces in the room had to come from the same type of tree. We stared at each other in one of those Mars/Venus kinds of moments. It never occurred to me that putting cherry with maple could be considered like pairing stripes and plaids. I believe that wood's natural beauty and the common thread of the grain make them symbiotic, regardless of species. I asked around and discovered that most designers agreed with my take. Wood goes with wood. Wood, in fact, goes with everything. If you want to step outside the confines of convention, add an accent piece of a contrasting wood and see how it adds lie to the room.

Get a move on!

You can get very bored with a room — same thing, day in, day out — but not your furniture, if you buy classic styles that are well made. So, if you're feeling a little antsy and need a change, try moving what you have. Are you one of those "up against the wall" decorators? Well, give your furnishings a parole. Try placing an upholstered chair at an angle in a corner and create a reading nook. Move out your sofa, and put a sofa table behind it to add dimension. Break one room into two smaller areas, like a game table and conversation pit. Move your sectional, maybe breaking it into two smaller sofas. And, if you want a bigger change, add one new piece, whether it's a lamp, a different coffee table, a mirror, or an accent table. In my house, we seem to have an unwritten rule that as son as I can navigate the furniture in the dark without banging my shin, it's time to move things.

Afterglow or aftermath?

"Black Friday" sounds so ominous, like a disaster movie. And "Cyber Monday" seems like it should be a marauding video game. And with the horrific tragedy at WalMart in New York where impatient crowds trampled a security guard whose only crime was opening a door for them, maybe the concept of a shopping vigilante is not too far from reality. We are in tough economic times, and holiday shoppers are hungry for a bargain, but I have to wonder if retailers are feeding into this frenzy with the pre-dawn shopping extravaganzas and limited offers that are designed to turn consumers into sharks. Let's not forget what the holidays are really about. It is a time to celebrate the spirit of giving, one that has nothing to do with cheap televisions, laptops, and gaming systems. It's about giving of yourself, not your cash reserves. This season, please stop and take the time to do something kind for someone who will truly appreciate it. Donate a gift to Toys for Tots or your local shelter for victims of domestic abuse. Take some pet food to the humane society in your area. Spend an hour at a nursing home reminding the residents that someone cares. In the words of my beloved Linus, "That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown!"

Get your own private craftsman.

When I started ClearLake Furniture in 1992, I wanted the company to be different. I decided that it was important to have one craftsman handle a project all the way from wood selection to the final touches, rather than having an assembly line process where one person does the cutting, another does assembly, and someone else handles the finishing. This approach helped with quality control, but I also found that a craftsperson takes pride in creating a piece this way. They enjoy being hands-on, using their various skills, and not pigeon-holed into a single task that can get monotonous. Every ClearLake Furniture piece is a unique creation because we customize our furniture and craft every item to a customer's specifications. So, every project is a little different than the last. Some have more challenges, but our woodworkers tell me they enjoy that. I've watched them pick through the wood with a customer to find just the right pieces, with the grain or color they want. They get excited knowing that this raw material will become an heirloom in their skilled hands. When a piece is finished, the craftsman signs and dates it, adding the customer's name, because he has pride in the family heirloom he just completed. How many businesses are confident enough in their work to sign it? And I don't mean "Inspector 17". Wouldn't you feel a connection to that individual whose hands created your product? Doesn't it feel better to know that a person, not a machine, is on the other end? I thought so, and I still do.

Got an appetite for quality?

I was talking with my marketing person the other day and asked her for a ballpark figure on a marketing campaign. She looked at me like she always does when I use the term "ballpark" — with a mix of trepidation and humor. The she turned the tables on me and asked, "How much does it cost to go out to dinner?"

"Well, that depends on where you go and what you order," I answered, a bit confused.

"Exactly!" she said, and went on to explain that until you know the quality you want, you can't put a price tag on it. We talked about how this applies to ClearLake Furniture. Each piece of furniture we make is hand-crafted by one of our our master craftsman. The piece gets the attention of a craftsman from start to finish, someone who can see it through, not handed off from one to another, which can jeopardize quality control. There's no assembly line, no shortcuts. We deliver heirloom quality and you can't achieve that with speed. So it costs more and takes longer. Some customers want that "gourmet meal" while others are satisfied with fast food or casual dining.

We know we can't compete with every furniture company out there and, frankly, we don't try. If you want fine hardwoods (without veneers), exceptional craftsmanship, and a lifetime guarantee, then you're looking at a Wolfgang Puck type of dining experience, that remarkable epicurean experience that will remain with you long after you've left the restaurant, because the meal was lovingly prepared by a master chef who used the finest ingredients and then artfully served to excite your visual senses as much as your tastebuds. That's what ClearLake Furniture is all about. 

Of course, there are times when a quick Chinese takeout in a box is good enough. It's a whole lot cheaper, but I guarantee you'll be wanting something more in an hour or two.

Service: The unsung hero

Did you ever go into a store where you felt like you were looked at only as a sale and not a a person? I went into a sandwich shop and ordered a BLT. The young woman who was making the sandwich asked me if I wanted lettuce and tomato with that. I stared at her for a moment, thinking she would realize the oddity of her question. She didn't. I asked her, "Isn't that the 'L' and the 'T' in a 'BLT'? If I say no, do I just get a 'B' sandwich?"

She still didn't get it. She was so used to reciting her pitch that she didn't know how to step outside that speech. I've been in many stores with clueless sales people, listened to many telemarketers read their scripts, and been treated like an anonymous buyer far too many times. In this time when customers can get whatever they want from the Web, we need to differentiate our businesses with personal service. We need to listen better and provide the solutions that our customers need. And we must learn from our own consumer experiences and tell businesses when they are coming up short. If they correct the problem, kudos. That's their job as sellers. They just earned another chance. If not, let them know they failed and that you're moving on. That's your job as a buyer.

I hope that my customers will let me know when they are less than completely satisfied. If you're out there, please email me and let me know! I will try to solve it. I can't correct problems I don't know about. 

ClearLake's Video Part 1 Thanks to Adam Everett Miller of "Everett Options"

Distressing Tables with Dad

Hello,
I am Brent's daughter, Rachel. We both distressed about 27 tables for Jackson Gore at Okemo Mountain. I wanted to show everyone how distressing is done and that sometimes things are harder than people think. :}

This is one of the tables we distressed.

This is the top of the distressed table.
This is a table that is not distressed, do you see a difference?

You might be wondering , "how did they make those holes near that knot in the picture above?"
Well we used this tool to make that happen.

Before After

This is the edge of the distressed table. Notice how it is a flat edge instead of a straight edge.
Before the chisel work

After the chisel work

The table base would have these hammer marks from the owner hammering the wedge tighter as needed in the olden days. But we glued ours together so that the hammer marks were just for show.
While we were making these tables we realized that we didn't care if we threw our tools down on the surface of the tables, because it showed real "dings" that someone would make. Some of these "dings" were real, some were not accidental and where made like this (below)
These are the main tools that were used in the distressing part of the table. We also used hammers and other banging tools :}
So there you have it, this is basically how we distressed those tables. Some customers like distressed tables very simply, like the tables we did, but others like it very distressed like rolling plates around where the plates would be to leave a round indent. Distressing is hard work but a lot of creativity and fun. :) Thanks for reading!

Garvey

I just missed Paul tapering the legs for a large Walnut Console Table. Notice the dado at the bottom of the leg to support the shelf. You can also see the mortise at the top of the leg to accept the rails. Both of these steps must be done before tapering while the leg is square.










Paul is now sanding the saw marks on the legs. He must be very careful not to sand the square flat surface at the top of the leg where the rail fits into the mortise.













I missed a lot of steps throughout the process, but this is the table clamped up next to Paul's bench.










Nothing like some hand sanding to finish up a job.

Beautifully finished table ready for our shipper to pick up.

A Blanket Chest for Ken

Steve working on the finishing touches for Ken's Blanket Chest done in Cherry wood.

Blanket Chest shown with a drawer and self supporting hinge. This piece will leave Steve and move up to our finishing room where Derek will hand rub an oil finish onto the chest to bring out the beautiful richness in color.

new life for an old tree

Ludlow Health Center

Mark from Springfield Hospital and Doug the craftsman from ClearLake Furniture standing behind maple conference table. The maple for the table was milled from the tree shown at the bottom.

This picture is of a wire that was embedded in the tree over 100 years ago when the power came from a hydro plant behind ClearLake.

Left to right: Brent, Doug , "Doc Joe" and Mark.

This is the new location of the Ludlow Health Center. The large tree in the back by the porch had to be removed to make way for the large addition. The tree was cut down, milled up, kiln-dried and turned into a 4'x10' conference table all right here in Ludlow. From seed to furniture!

A day at the lake

Paul making a piece of maple straight and ready to be made into a table's rail system.

Mark is laying out chair slats and shifting them so they will be all at the same plane. Then he squares them off and cuts them to length depending on the size of the chair.

Steve is cutting tenons on a side chest's door frame.

Jason pushing a pencil.