A day in my life..... running a studio/factory

I enjoy posting beautiful photos of things that inspire me. However, my  every day life of designing and making furniture is far from glamorous. I thought I would share with  you some things that we have been working on the past couple of weeks. A lot of people still are not aware that we make everything in our studio/factory. I am proud to put an American Flag on our pieces and let people know that our furniture is proudly made by American Artisans! Here is an image of my precious husband Gene and our awesome leadman Ryan. They are going over a custom cabinet that we are making for a customer.  Since 70% of what we make is custom. All of our pieces start with a CAD drawing of what we are going to make. The client signs approves it and we start the building of their piece.

On pieces that are very custom we start with drawing out the piece on plywood and seeing exactly where things will go. It also allows me to see proportion and scale of things. This is the mock up of the trim that was custom made as well as the column detail that will be on the cabinet.

It is difficult to see the scale of this fabulous china cabinet. Our ceiling height in the mill is 24 feet. Ryan had to work off a rolling ladder to work on the trim detail on the cabinet. Impressive!

The cabinet took several weeks to construct and finish. We created custom art and colors and finishing. The glass and the wire in the doors are an outstanding combination. The art work on their side of the doors are actually sliding doors that hold glasses and china.The red that is in the artwork is repeated on the inside of the cabinet and is in a toscana finish.  The inside of this piece  is set up recessed  halogen lighting to allow the clients china to be seen.

We love the designer that the client uses.. His name is Peter Ferwerda. He is based out of Florida. Many designers are afraid to work outside of the box. Peter allows his imagination to lead him in his design. We are so blessed to dream with him and make his dreams come to life! Now we have to pray that this incredible piece of furniture is shipped with care by our LTL carriers. We will be making a custom crate for all the pieces to be shipped in.

Ok... here is a sneak peek at some of my spring designs. These are some fabulous acrylic chairs that we are introducing next week. I am so excited about them. Since the chairs are simple, I had fun using a really strong fabric. The flame stitch fabric is from F. Schumacher.  I am heading out to the LA bloggers convention Friday and having dinner with our friends Brooke and Steve Gianetti. I will be sure and take photos and share what happened.