Furnish/Woodard//dt1st/dp2nd/mark2nd
By CHRISTOPHER WOODARD
Staff Reporter
Scott Johnston got his start as a custom furniture maker more than 20 years ago, building simple pieces out of 2-by-4s and selling them at swap meets on the weekends.
He didn’t have a garage at the time, so he had to craft his pieces in a spare bedroom of his apartment. “The furniture wasn’t much to look at, but I can tell you that for people starting out it was affordable,” he said.
Today, the pine lumber Johnston used in his early offerings has given way to ribbon mahogany and birds-eye maple. The crude construction has been replaced by curved drawer fronts, marble tops and fluted columns.
And instead of selling items for several bucks at a swap meet, a one-of-a-kind creation by Johnston and his partner Marie-Michelle can command as much as $35,000.
With the economy in hyper drive, the Wood Extension has found a profitable niche in catering to those looking to up the Joneses. The company’s specialty is signed and dated furniture that can’t be found in a showroom and is tailored to fit the personality and home of each client.
“Our expertise is asking the right questions, so we can reach inside and find out what people really want,” said Johnston.
Talk about good timing demand for custom furniture has soared in recent years, particularly for woodworkers who do high-end pieces.
“Some people just want something no one else has, sort of the snob appeal,” said Helen Kuhl, editor of Custom Woodworking Business. “Or on a more practical side, a person may want a piece of furniture that does specific things, like store their collection of CDs or act as an entertainment center. And then some people just appreciate really fine things.”
Paul Verhoeven, the director of “RoboCop” and “Total Recall,” is enlisting Johnston and Marie to craft an entertainment center that will house a stereo system, as well as 1,300 CDs. The equipment and discs will be hidden behind oak doors and antique brass grillwork.
Wood Extension also has more modest orders, including a set of handmade chopsticks a woman is giving to her husband-to-be. The creations sell from anywhere from $75 for the custom chopsticks to $35,000 for Verhoeven’s entertainment center. Most of the work goes for $3,500 to $12,000, said Marie-Michelle (who doesn’t use her last name).
“Everyone has what they want to spend in their head, and you have to respect that, whether a client makes $40,000, $400,000 or $4 million,” said Marie, who teamed up with Johnston 14 years ago and helps design and build the furniture.
The process usually begins with visiting the client’s home and asking lots of questions.
“We don’t just build the furniture. We want to know where you’re going to put it and what you’ll be using it for,” said Johnston. “You have to understand the function of a piece before you design it.”
People often have very specific ideas about what they want, and they will come to the interview armed with photos of features they want to see incorporated.
One of the biggest frustrations is dealing with interior designers who try to act as go-betweens (and who don’t understand the nuances of furniture design). Often, the designer fails to ask how much a client is willing to spend.
Johnston and Marie-Michelle declined to reveal revenue figures for the privately held company but said business is increasing at a 5 percent to 7 percent annual clip. “A lot of furniture makers are great craftsmen but poor businessmen. Most of them go out of business after a couple of years,” Marie-Michelle said.
The goal is to make potential customers aware of the products directly, so that Johnston and Marie-Michelle don’t have to work through designers (who take as much as a 50 percent cut on each transaction).
“Our clients can save money by not paying a third party, and it gives us and our clients more creative control,” said Johnston. “When people buy furniture, it’s a very personal thing. But to help design a piece that is in their heart and soul, it’s just aces.”
