Articles by Steve Peet
Articles by Steve Peet
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Custom Shop serves up dining tables made to order
Discover custom-made dining tables from our new Custom Shop. Choose from ten styles and tailor every detail to suit your space and taste, from material and finish to size and edges. Experience our AR tool to visualize your creation in your home. Craft your perfect dining table with us. -
How many lives will your Gat Creek furniture have?
Learn about the durability and restoration potential of solid wood pieces through the eyes of expert restorer John Mark Power. Explore the challenges of modern veneered furniture and the unmatched beauty and resilience of Appalachian hardwoods. This article delves into the art of furniture restoration, showcasing how quality materials and craftsmanship ensure your Gat Creek furniture can be transformed and cherished for generations. -
Let’s Hear It For American-Made Furniture
About 90% of the furniture sold in the U.S. is made overseas where lax working and environmental standards make for easier profits. Those economics mean few “experts” see furniture manufacturing ever coming back to America. Of course, if Gat Creek listened to the experts we wouldn’t be here. And we definitely wouldn’t have invested in an expansion that doubles our capacity to create more choices, faster delivery, and a bright future for our employees, our Appalachian Hardwood forests, and our town. -
The Hidden Price To Pay For Low-Cost Furniture
Founding father and renowned penny-pincher Ben knew what was up 250 years ago when he said: “The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.” Interior designer Tiffany Cassidy updates that axiom for anyone buying furniture in the 21st Century like so: “The thing about fast furniture is you get what you get and you don’t get upset.” Caveat emptor — let the buyer beware — was coined for products exactly like fast furniture. There is a hidden price to pay for lower-cost flash, especially when we’re talking about items you live with, interact with and rely on every day. -
The Truth About Fast Furniture: Next stop, the dump
America is throwing away furniture at a disturbing clip. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 12 million tons, 450% more per year than in 1960, now finds its way into landfills.
The problem accelerated with the arrival of Covid. That event seemed to trigger consumers’ willingness to make larger purchases online, leading to a rapid rise in “fast furniture” — relatively inexpensive, trendy, made from substandard materials and designed to catch your eye, last for a year or two and then fall apart so you must buy again. It has given a whole new meaning to “one nightstand.”
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We’ve Never Made The Same Product Twice
Nature is not in the business of consistency. There are no Formica® forests. Every hardwood tree that grows in the Appalachian mountains develops its own graining and tone depending on elevation, severity of the winters, rainfall and competition for sunlight. Once that tree makes it to the lumberyard, it’s up to our buyers to determine if it is Gat Creek-worthy.
“There are specific standards for grading lumber,” said Gat Caperton. “The National Hardwood Lumber Association has spent a century making them as confusing and complicated as possible. While we consider the standards, what we rely on is the old-fashioned eye test. Does it look like it will make a pretty piece of furniture or not.”
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Timeless Design - What It Means For Our Customers
Want a dresser shaped like a milk carton? With hardware that looks like it came off a barn door? If you’re in the market for something wildly faddish you can find it. Just not at Gat Creek.
“Our design emphasis has been on the beauty of the wood rather than some carving or adornments," Gat Caperton said. "The things we tend to love the most are traditional in overall form but made more contemporary by simplifying.”
In the language of interior designers, Gat Creek’s look is “timeless,” said Katy Anderson, whose boutique design firm serves clients in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia. She specializes in creating elegant, functional spaces that are practical and highly fashionable.
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Sustainably Made-To-Order Products Are More Fashionable And Less Wasteful
For furniture companies manufacturing overseas, maximizing profits means using cheap labor and lesser quality materials, guessing consumer tastes well into the future, shipping many container loads, warehousing the stock and waiting for buyers. Inevitably, the goods that go unsold end up in the landfill to make room for the next wave of shipping containers. That model was always a no-go for Gat Creek. “A sustainable manufacturing model is what we have long been about, building to order and still being competitive with international businesses,” Gat Caperton said. “Our customer wants to pay for beautiful wood, finish and craftsmanship. So that’s what we invest in and get rid of everything else.” -
Hardwood Lumber Supplies Are Plentiful And Not to Be Confused with Softwoods
Perhaps you’ve been to the lumber store recently to pick up some 2x4s or fence pickets for a repair job. There’s a good chance you experienced a mild cardiac event when you saw the prices.
“Softwoods like two by fours are up three or four times. For us, we have a short-term bump in pricing of thirty to forty percent,” said Gat Caperton. And in hardwoods, the supply side is robust.