Why buy custom furniture?
Working with Smithson Woodworks on a custom design gives the customer a chance to have a unique furniture buying experience. Whether it is as simple as picking the types of wood to a complete custom design, doing so gives the customer full control of what they are buying. Combining our unique design style with your preferences gives you apiece that is truly one of a kind.
Choosing the right type of wood:
Instead of offering “painted wood” we prefer to work with real woods and use the wood itself as the coloring or styling. While most of our products are offered in oak, maple and cherry, we can make almost anything out of a wide variety of woods. By using veneer in some instances, we can incorporate exotic woods into your piece.
Choosing the right finish:
Every piece we produce will be finished to your taste. We offer satin, semi-gloss or high-gloss finishes in a water-based polyurethane, lacquer or conversion varnish. Depending on the intended use of the piece, we will make suggestions to ensure that the finish will hold up for many years to come. Finishes are applied in multiple coats and hand-rubbed between each coat.
Choosing Hardware:
We can make suggestions on hardware or let the customer choose their own. We also offer hand-made custom pulls upon request.
A little about wood:
Solid Wood: We use solid wood whenever possible, but generally are only comprised of most common woods like Oak, Maple, Cherry and Walnut. There are multitude of reasons that make these woods a favorite to work with when using solid wood, not limited to cost and availability. These woods are less expensive than slow-growing, tropical hardwoods like rosewood and teak and one can find quality pieces in larger sizes.
Veneer: Veneer refers to thin slices of wood. The thin slices of wood are then glued to a substrate like MDF (medium density fiberboard) or plywood. The benefit of using veneer is it opens the door to using more exotic woods that aren’t available in a solid form like rosewood or macassar ebony. Veneer also offers a more consistent color and pattern as opposed to solid woods. The following link will take you to great article highlighting the differences in types of veneer: http://www.certainlywood.com/readarticle.cfm?i=7