In August 2021, Western Heritage Furniture (WHF) customers Wendy & Raul Meoz ordered a customized bedroom set for a newly-designed bedroom in their Sedona home. 

Wendy approached WHF fully prepared with a vision of the design she felt would not only suit the space but also meet their functionality needs. With dimensions in hand, we worked closely with the Meozes to build them the bedroom set of their dreams.

The Design Process

The design process is the first phase in building a custom bedroom set. The initial step is ensuring all the dimensions for the pieces are correct. 

For example, when building beds, mattress thickness and box spring height are important factors. Not only do we need to make the overall mattress height meet a client’s requirements, but these dimensions also impact how high the side rails will clear off the floor. And in the case of this project, the bedroom’s ceiling was a bit low, limiting the height we could make the bed.  

Once Wendy and the WHF team finalized the dimensions, we began the overall design look. This includes a lot of back-and-forth discussion of wood samples and images of other furniture pieces for design ideas.

For the bed’s headboard, the Meozes decided on an arched headboard design. As the bed’s placement is under four window panes, we felt this would better feature the headboard. 

A photo Wendy sent us helped in the design of the bedroom set’s nightstands. The tops of the nightstands feature the same granite countertops used in the bedroom’s connecting bathroom. Main Place in Cottonwood, AZ, handled cutting the nightstand granite tops to the size we needed and the bullnose edge work.  

Moving Into Production

After extensively discussing color tones and barn wood placement, and receiving final approval on drawings, we began production on the custom bedroom set.  

At this stage, our engineer, lead project craftsman, and myself meet for an in-depth design and build session. We go over every function and design detail in exacting language, which is all documented at the meeting in our operating system. Supporting finish samples, pictures, drawings, and all other project documents are all clearly labeled for reference.  

The building begins with culling and picking the reclaimed wood for the overall approved look. I pick and approve all the detail wood pieces.

As the building progresses and some semblance of a piece of furniture evolves, I send progress pictures to the client. As some pictures may be hard to understand, I provide explanations as to what they are looking at within the design process.   

Because Wendy had her contractor’s hat on due to her remodel, she got to see more of the beginning of build pictures. When we completed the bedroom set, we set up how it would look in our shop and sent her pictures for her final approval. 

The WHF team hand-delivered and installed the Meoz bedroom set on October 29, 2021. They were very happy with the results!

Unique Design Details

We use many building techniques and hardware that are not common in the furniture readily available today. These special details not only elevate the quality of the furniture but also the overall look and feel of each piece.

Here’s a closer look at some of the unique design details used in the Meoz bedroom set. 

Laminated Curved Barn Wood Veneer on the Headboard Radius

We have been using this technique for the past seven years, and to date, I have not seen another barn wood furniture builder use it. This allows us to utilize bended curves on round tables and arches, while still showcasing the aged weathered wood on all surfaces. See the detailed shots of the headboard for reference.

Boxed Headboard Uprights and Foot Board Feet

We build a solid wood core and then apply the approved wood skins to the core.  This allows the grain directions to align, making the piece more structurally sound.

Drawer Boxes & Hardware

We made each drawer box from solid wood with hand-cut, half-blind dovetail joints. And the drawer hardware is soft-touch and self-closing, so the drawers open and close as smooth as butter! 

Waxing

After applying a lacquer finish to all pieces, everything is hand waxed with the best wax on the market. We literally apply the wax with a nylon brush in no more than three-inch square areas and then vigorously rub it with cotton rags. It’s an intense shoulder workout!  We’ve tried machines to do this but the result is not up to our standards. 

Heirloom-Quality Bedroom Sets in Jerome, Arizona

Wendy & Raul Meoz were an absolute delight to work with. We love being able to bring a particular furniture design vision to life. WHF is grateful for every client we have and are honored that they have chosen our furniture to include in their home. We do not take this responsibility lightly at WHF. Assuring the joy of clients with their furniture pieces is our obligation. 

If you would like to discuss making your dream furniture a reality, call Western Heritage Furniture today at 928-852-0061.

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Why Should You Choose Bench Made Furniture?

When you buy bench made furniture, you’re not only buying the highest quality furniture, your purchase also helps craftsmen excel in their careers so they can continue making original, unique pieces. At Western Heritage Furniture, we appreciate our craftsmen, and when they create a piece of furniture, they own the design. 

There’s simply something special about handcrafted furniture, starting with knowing that one person made it especially for you. And when your friends ask where you got your custom piece, you can tell them it’s one of a kind!

When you place a custom order, our craftsmen follow your instructions and then enhance the piece with their skills and years of experience. They take personalization to a whole new level. Whether you want to add a specific finish to your furniture, or need it to be a certain height, we can make it according to your specifications. 

The detail on our Gathering Height Table (chairs included) demonstrates the skills and years of experience our craftsmen have, as well as their unmatched care and attention to detail. The spiral-like design with varying shapes is an excellent example of how versatile bench made furniture can be.

Bench Made Furniture vs. Production Line Furniture 

Furniture made on production lines takes a lot of people, which can be great—we always support teamwork. But when numerous people are working on different parts of the same piece, there is a higher chance of miscommunications along the way. 

Production lines are under strict time restrictions. Because they are working to meet a deadline, a production line may prioritize quantity over quality. When mass manufacturing is the priority, you’re not only compromising the quality, you’re also sacrificing originality.

When one craftsman finishes a piece of furniture, they have full control and can take their time. We like to think of the creation process of hand-crafting furniture as similar to creating a work of art. Just like any artist, our craftsmen begin each piece with a unique vision. This makes our furniture 100% genuine—a great amount of thought and effort go into every piece we create. Because we make each piece to order, we can prioritize quality and protect the environment by avoiding mass production and creating less waste. 

Bench Made Furniture in Arizona

Bench made furniture is environmentally friendly, and you can select almost every detail of your custom furniture. At Western Heritage Furniture, all of our pieces are bench made by skilled craftsmen, from materials with a history that goes back hundreds of years. Talk about one of a kind! 

Located in Jerome, Arizona, we serve many of the surrounding cities in the area, including Sedona and Phoenix. If you’d like more information on any of our products or would like to order a custom piece of bench made furniture, contact us at 800-616-1424 or send us a message today.

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Sorting and Grading

Our process begins once a building is dismantled and we receive the boards from it. As an environmentally conscious company, we don’t mass-produce furniture but rather create pieces as new orders come in. We first sort through the boards and choose only the ones that are of the highest quality. We then put them into categories according to characteristics such as color, marks, weathering, and grain. Each piece is unique and can date back as far as the 1800s when the first European settlers harvested them. If any boards are not structurally sound we discard them—we only use the best wood pieces for our furniture. 

Selecting Wood

After we’ve selected the best boards, we move on to the selection process. In this step, we carefully choose pieces of wood that have different colors and patterns that blend well together. Unlike pieces from many large furniture companies, our wood pieces are natural in color. Whereas other companies may stain their wood to create contrast, we create contrast in our pieces by curating boards with different natural shades and colors in a strategic manner.

Crafting

When it’s time to actually build our furniture, a single craftsman builds it on a workbench, meaning the furniture is bench made. We are passionate about this part of the process because it shows how much care and hard work goes into creating our furniture. When furniture is made by a single person, there is a significantly higher amount of detail. Also, when one of our craftsmen finishes a piece, they own it and get the credit they deserve. Compared to large-scale productions, bench made furniture is special because you receive a piece of furniture that a single person tailored specially for you.    

Sanding 

We now move on to the sanding portion of our process. In this step, we intentionally maximize the weathering the wood has experienced from wind and natural aging. This gives the wood character, giving you a piece of furniture that is smooth to the touch but still has personality. To perfect our pieces, this is the portion of the process that we spend the most time on. Our craftsmen can spend hours perfecting corners, blending edges of wood, and making sure everything is smooth.

Adding the Finish

Adding a velvety finish is the last part of our creation process. After several sessions of sanding and lacquering our pieces, we hand wax them which gives your reclaimed barn wood piece a glistening finish while keeping its rustic tones. Hand-waxing takes a lot of effort and allows us to have complete control over the way the finished product looks. You can see the variety of finishes we offer here.

Wood Inspection

Before we send off each of our pieces, we do a final inspection to make sure they are the highest quality handcrafted furniture in Arizona. If there are any changes we need to make, we apply them before we hand wrap your furniture in a blanket for delivery.

Special White Glove Delivery 

White glove delivery is the last part of our process. This means that when we finish building your one-of-a-kind piece, members of our friendly team will deliver it to your home. At Western Heritage Furniture, we take the utmost care as we deliver your furniture to you. That means carefully wrapping your furniture and riding alongside it in the truck to make sure your tailored piece arrives in perfect condition. We also help you set up your new piece of furniture wherever you’d like in your home, as well as provide tips on how to care for it. 

Artisan Furniture in Arizona

And there you have it! The step-by-step process of how we make our handcrafted furniture that is tailored just for you. Our friendly staff here at Western Heritage Furniture in Jerome, Arizona is here to help you find the perfect piece for your space. If you have any questions regarding our process or are interested in buying one of our handcrafted pieces, give us a call at 800-616-1424 or send us a message. 

Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels

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What Is Reclaimed Barnwood?

At Western Heritage Furniture, we always go the extra mile to seek out authentic, sustainable materials. Our Old Growth wood reclamation project redefines the term “renewable resource” by reclaiming virgin hardwood from old, deserted buildings and giving it a second life.

All across America, the abandoned barns, railcars, and farmhouses of our ancestors are either demolished or left to decay. However, we’ve made it possible to reuse the wood from these venerable buildings and bring back bygone eras through responsible inspection, sorting, grading, and selection.

Each piece of aged and weathered barnwood tells a unique story. Every crack or nail hole, every notch or axe mark speaks of American history and gives each board a character all its own. We hand-select each piece of wood so that every table we make has a completely unique pattern and authentic detail.

A Personal Touch for Your Home

For a home decorator, a dining room table crafted from authentic barnwood is more than just a simple choice of wood. Anyone can choose just to use new-grown hickory, cedar, rustic cherry, or aspen for a house and pay the price for it in dollars. 

Reclaimed barnwood makes a statement as a living piece of American history brought into your home. A table made from barnwood gives you the authenticity of the old frontier, and becomes the centerpiece of your family history whenever you gather around it.

Western Heritage Furniture uses only the highest quality wood to construct every piece of our growing dining table collection. When purchasing from us, you can rest assured that the dining room table you’ve chosen will continue to tell its story for decades and generations to come.

A Better Future Through Conservation

Another reason to consider barnwood as the best wood for your dining room table is its sustainability. By purchasing a dining table made of reclaimed wood, you support a nationwide woodworker initiative to support growth through sustainable methods. 

There’s no need to feel concerned that using wood for your home decor might harm our national forests. When you choose reclaimed barnwood, you become part of the solution that will help support reforestation efforts, protect our nation’s heritage, and preserve the beauty of our natural resources.

Reclaimed Barnwood Furniture

When you want to infuse a rustic spark into your dining room, it’s not only about the type of wood you use. It’s also about the story that wood tells, how it oozes with an authentic scent of history at every family gathering. Located in historic Jerome, Arizona—once a booming copper-mining town of the 1800s—Western Heritage Furniture seeks to preserve our storied past. Visit us today so that we can work on bringing history to life in your home.

Photo by Terren Hurst on Unsplash

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What Kind of Wood Is Ghostwood?

The most well-known characteristic of Ghostwood is that it’s made from wood salvaged from abandoned buildings. You might also hear it referred to as Montana Ghostwood or Reclaimed Barnwood. The founder of Western Heritage Furniture, Tim McClellan, coined the name Ghostwood in order to honor the pioneers who first harvested these timbers and for the lost forests of old-growth their wood came from.  

How Is Ghostwood Furniture Made?

At Western Heritage Furniture, we bring aged timbers back to life as stunning solid-wood furniture. Salvaged wood has a particularly smooth, dry texture and makes beautiful furniture. Often made from Douglas Fir and old-growth pine, Ghostwood will bring a fresh but rustic look to your home.

We also reuse wood salvaged from old buildings in order to avoid waste and honor the history of each piece we find. Your Ghostwood furniture could come from a rustic barn or a historic structure. If you’re looking for a waste-free, dependable wood with years of America’s history in its grooves, we can suggest a variety of our Ghostwood pieces. 

Ghostwood Furniture in Arizona

Our Ghostwood collection can accent any space you’re furnishing. Some of our favorites include our Ghostwood Writing Desk, where you can reminisce about going back in time while writing a letter to a friend or writing your next book. You can customize your Ghostwood desk by choosing the color of nailheads, the base, and the leather. 

Made from reclaimed barnwood that is more than 100 years old, our Ghostwood Dining Tables will surely spark up an interesting conversation with your guests. Its rough-hewn legs and patterned top give this handcrafted table a character all its own. Choose from several different patterns of light and dark-toned wood.

Located in Jerome, Arizona, Western Heritage Furniture serves many of the surrounding cities in the area, including Sedona and Phoenix. If you’d like more information on any of our Ghostwood products, please don’t hesitate to ask. Contact us at 800-616-1424 or send us a message today.

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What Is a Jupe Table?

The history of the jupe dining table goes back to 1835 when it was invented by an English cabinet maker named Theodore Alexander Robert Jupe. He designed a circular expanding table that later became known by his name. 

Jupe’s patent for his design described an “improved expanding table so constructed that the sections composing its surface may be caused to diverge from a common centre and that the spaces caused thereby may be filled up by inserting leaves or filling pieces.”

The main feature of a jupe dining table is its ability to expand into a larger table using a fascinating device called a Capstan Mechanism. This combination of a pulley and belt converts rotational motion into linear motion. So, when you turn a jupe table counterclockwise (rotational motion) the center stays still and the outer parts expand (linear motion).

How to Use a Jupe Dining Table

Now that we’ve gone over the technical aspects, let’s talk about how you actually use a jupe table. Here at Western Heritage Furniture, we’ve made it easy for you so you don’t have to worry about any of the technical things. We put the table top on a locking carousel so it locks securely and unlocks only when you need it to.

To use a jupe table there are 3 simple steps:

1. 1. Open the table by turning it counterclockwise. 
   2. Pull the pie pieces out and unfold the leaves.
   3. Push each leaf and pie to the center to lock it.

And that’s it!  

Uses for Radial and Lotus Tables

If you’ve heard of jupe tables, you probably know that it has many names. They’re also called radial tables, expanding tables, or lotus tables. At Western Heritage Furniture, our expanding tables and lotus tables are all inspired by the original jupe table. 

One of our most popular expanding tables is the Clover Table, which can fit up to 12 people! We offer a wide variety of expanding tables with tabletops and bases in many different colors and styles. Our gallery of expanding tables includes additional information like expansion size, amount of seating, and video demonstrations. 

Jupe tables are perfect for a big (or small) game night because you can either use the table as it is or expand it to fit more people. The same goes for dinner parties, book club meetings, or working from home. With a jupe dining table, you get a multi-functional, stylish table that can definitely serve as a conversation starter. 

Jupe Tables in Arizona

If you’re interested in purchasing one of our jupe tables, the team at Western Heritage Furniture in Arizona is ready to help you find the perfect match. We are located in Jerome, Arizona, and serve many nearby cities, including Sedona and Phoenix.  You can contact us at 800-616-1424 or send us a message today.

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