by Juanita | Nov 8, 2019 | Ava Lee's History Corner, Furniture Care, Georges Difference, Hutch
Commitment to Quality
From the beginning, George’s Furniture is committed to create quality, hardwood furniture, crafted by a single craftsman and safely delivered to the customer’s home. As a child, I heard George lament over customers requests to cut costs by utilizing a commercial delivery service. As a result, the furniture arrived in poor condition. Nothing matches the quality of furniture delivered and assembled by individuals who understand its design.
A typical delivery includes transportation from George’s Furniture to the customer’s home. The cost per mile includes assistance of George’s delivery driver. The customer will provide at least one individual to help carry furniture into the home. Additional delivery personnel can be requested at an additional cost.
Affordable Safe Delivery by George’s Personnel
George’s Furniture groups deliveries, going to a similar region, together to help customers share delivery costs. While viewing one of George’s 15 passenger vans holding 4-5 separate orders headed for a region, one person commented, “That looks like a tight fitting puzzle.” Yes, each piece is blanket wrapped and packed with care. During difficult corner maneuvers, desks and other large pieces are placed on their sides, protected by thick furniture blankets and escorted to their desired location.
Up Elevators, Over Balconies
Over the past 45 years of delivering furniture, we have encountered challenging situations navigating around unique house layouts. Creativity, persistence and strong skills in spatial relations served us well, resulting in satisfied customers. One challenging occasion, an executive desk was delivered to a customer’s home. Although George’s Furniture is designed to fit through a standard 30” door, this door was narrower. The delivery/craftsman personnel quickly ascertained that the feet could unscrew from the desk and the base placed on its side to maneuver into the office. A few minutes later, the reassembled desk brought delight of another satisfied customer.
A customer living Manhattan purchased two hutches. The flexibility built into George’s Furniture paid off when the elevator servicing the multi-story building was small. George’s design allowed the hutch tops to be disassembled from the bases. Each of the four sections fit snugly into the elevator. After 4 trips up and down the elevator, all parts arrived safely to the apartment. George’s delivery man secured the screws between the Hutch’s top and bottom as the delighted customer viewed the new edition.
Flexible designs inspired
Building flexible designs is a work in progress. During the early 1970’s, George designed a king size poster canopy bed. Upon delivery to her home, it was discovered that the hallways were too small to maneuver the large bed into the bedroom. She was so taken by its design that she stated, “I’ll just keep the bed and build a bedroom around it.” Following this experience, George redesigned the structure, allowing the bed to be a designed in smaller sections without compromising the strength of the bed.
An Ounce of Prevention….Measure
George’s delivery personnel are creative, however they do not know the dimensions of your home. Please measure all hallways, rooms and stairways along the path to the desired destination. I recall stories of a desk or bed entering a house over a outside balcony because the custom piece would not fit through the interior hallways or up the steep narrow stair steps. Pieces can be designed with increased flexibility, but these details should be discussed during the design process. George’s Furniture designers work hard to take all aspects into consideration when working along side our customers, Contact us to begin the design of your next new piece of furniture.
by Juanita | Aug 9, 2019 | Ava Lee's History Corner, Furniture Care, Rocking Chairs, Tables
What do you love about your antique furniture? Sentimentality & nostalgia. Those nostalgic feelings probably trigger wonderful memories with your family. Maybe it reminds you of visiting for Christmas as a child or bringing your children over to play baseball in the yard with their grandparents. That is why it is so important to craft furniture that can withstand the years, the memories, the horseplay so you & your families can have visible mementos of those experiences. (Plus, it helps that our furniture is also super comfortable & durable!)
Even though antique furniture lasts longer than low quality furniture it also deteriorates. Some of the biggest causes of weakness in antique furniture include poor adjustability to extremes in humidity, weak joints or low-quality workmanship. In fact, today I want to share with you 3 of the biggest issues we see in antique furniture & how we design our furniture differently to avoid those problems.
Humidity
One of the most common issues you may see in wood antique furniture is wear & tear due to changing humidity. Dry Forced Air heat will dry out furniture in the winter while damp summer weather provides extra moisture. Considering these two extremes, all joints are constructed with movement in mind. Wood is dried in George’s kilns and furniture is constructed in a humidity-controlled environment similar to most homes. This helps the furniture expand and contract as one unit. When the furniture can respond to humidity as one unit, it is more protected from warping or weakness.
Weak joints
Let’s talk about rung joints. Maybe not a typical topic of conversation until you sit in a chair and the rung pops out leaving your chair in pieces. Aside from the frustration & inconvenience, this can become an expensive situation when your only solution is gluing the rungs for the rest of its life or replacing the chair. We avoid this situation from the beginning with our method of attaching rung joints. We give special attention to our sanding for each rung joint. When completed, the glued wood joint is stronger than the wood itself. George’s chairs have held up over years of hard use. It also saves us wasting time repairing older chairs.
Warped or Stressed Wood
This is caused by wood that is not properly dried before it is protected completely by a finish to slow the change in moisture content during the life of the furniture. The wood needs to be dried to 8% moisture content. Through the planing and sanding process, the wood is ready to be used to build the furniture.
George’s understands that natural wood furniture will continue to breath causing slight expansion and contraction throughout its lifetime. All joints are assembled to allow for this movement in the wood, removing the possibility of loosening of joints and even cracks in the wood itself. Our custom sprayed finish allows wood movement to occur over the complete unit evenly throughout its life.
How Strong Your Table will Be
Our unique way to demonstration table strength. One year we took all our craftsmen along with their families into our showroom and extended one of our tables. We started having 2 people at a time climb up and stand on the table. We continued 2 by 2, the younger kids started laughing, until all 14 people stood on the table, totaling 1,900 pounds in weight, almost a ton. The center legs prevailed.
Non-Tip Rocker
You can especially see the strength of high-quality wood in our non-tip rockers. When George was small, he was having so much fun rocking in his rocking chair that he tipped it right over. After recovering from the fall, he promised his mother that he would build a rocker that would not tip over. George built that rocker and now there are 7 different sizes from a child’s rocker to a rocker for the large people (300-400 lbs.) Large or small, tall or short, there is a rocker designed for you that does not tip over.
Ready for strong, heirloom furniture that does not wear with age or bad construction?
George’s unwavering commitment to building strong, hardwood, heirloom furniture continues with each new design. Each piece is signed and dated by its maker and finished with a water-resistant finish. Bring your ideas and desires for functional furniture and George’s craftsmen will make those dreams come true. Call us or request a consult as soon as you are ready to jump in to designing your own high-quality furniture.
by Juanita | Sep 29, 2018 | Accessories, Events, Gifts
Summer is winding down, and while we LOVE all things summer here at George’s Furniture, we’re ready for cooler days and fall treats. We’re excited for all the great fall festivals and activities happening all over the county. One such fun event is The Best Kept Secret Tour which is scheduled for October 4th – 20th.
What better way to explore Lancaster Country then visiting hidden treasures like jewelers and boutiques to wineries, farmers markets, and creameries!
So while we can’t say who all is participating we’re happy to give you a minuscule hint…. Your favorite handmade furniture store is in the lineup! That’s right, George’s Furniture is excited to be one of over 40 tour stops on The Best Kept Secrets Tour of Lancaster!
Stop by our showroom for a ticket/tour bag to discover the hidden secrets of Lancaster County. Only ticket holders will see the 40 businesses selected. Each tour bag includes a guide and coupons along with many items from the participating shops.
While exploring, each tour-goer will experience a wide range of entertainments, gifts, refreshments, raffles, tours, demos, and games. A Best Kept Secret tour sponsored drawings for over $1,100 in gifts cards is part of the secret! Tour bags are $10 each and limited in quantity. Visit our showroom at Georges Furniture, 9 Reich’s Church Rd, Marietta, PA or reserve your bag by calling 717-426-1004.
Showroom Hours M-Sa 9-5. Wood Shop tour hours M-TH 9-4, F 9-2.
We look forward to seeing you in October!.
by Juanita | Aug 21, 2018 | George's Furniture
Tour Georges Furniture
Here at George’s, we pride ourselves on our deep Lancaster County roots. Our craft has passed down through generations. We love when visitors stop in for a woodshop tour to learn more about us. Schedule your today!
Our tours offer a fun and informative experience. A personal guided tour of our woodshop and showrooms. Knowledgeable tour guides offer an in depth look at how George’s Furniture is handcrafted by one craftsman, one piece at a time.
While we would LOVE to meet each of you in person, we know that not all of you will be able to stop in for a tour. If you are unable to stop by, we encourage you to visit our website and view our videos detailing a previous tour we provided for PNC Tours!
Our tour hours are Monday through Thursday from 9 am to 4 pm, and Friday from 9 am – 2 pm.
by Juanita | Aug 14, 2018 | Coffee End Table, George's Furniture, Office
How do I choose a wood for my custom solid wood furniture?
At George’s Furniture, every piece of furniture is made from high-quality hardwood. It is crafted from start to finish by one of our highly-skilled craftsmen. The use of hardwood for our furniture is especially crucial to our business as it ensures longevity and durability. Each piece of furniture comes in a gorgeous design and long-lasting finish with your choice of wood and stain. We can help you select the right wood that will provide a look of elegance to match the décor of any room or office. Part of the decision in choosing a wood variety will be preference (color, appearance). However part of the deciding factor should also be practicality, including the weight of the finished piece.
Not only is wood a sustainable and renewable resource but purchasing wood furniture from a locally-run and USA based company boosts the local economy and provides American jobs in the forest products industry. Hardwood is also durable, natural and draws people into the beauty of the real wood with its color variations and character. Our 100% hardwood furniture comes in Walnut, Cherry, Oak or Hard Maple with a variety of different stain options. While each wood boasts its own glory, why choose one over the other? Let’s find out.
Natural Black Walnut Blend
This blend is natural walnut using both the dark inner heartwood along with the lighter sapwood, revealing a gorgeous color combination. The central part of the tree is dark brown in color, while the outer layers of sapwood are a light off-white color. Our talented artisans choose the boards that have both the sapwood as well as the heartwood grain of the walnut tree. The arrangement of the board is an important aspect of the crafting as it creates a unique natural flow of grain.
Black Walnut
Black walnut come from the same tree as the walnut blend however the lumber selected for the furniture is taken from the center of the tree. Walnut is not as busy looking while it displays the natural grain patterns of the more mature growth rings.
Both the black walnut and the black walnut blend are air dried which makes it less stressful on the wood itself, retaining its natural beauty of the color variation. In choosing this particular wood, know that it is finished with a clear and water-resistant finish to enhance its natural beauty without staining the wood. Black Walnut has a flowing, feathery grain.
Cherry Wood
Our Cherry Wood is naturally lighter red in color with a beautiful flowing grain. This gorgeous choice of wood is typically stained. 15 different variety of stains are available to choose from – from light red to dark red and everything in between. The elegant and rich-looking result is very popular among our customers.
Red Oak
This choice of wood has a distinct, bold grain that is naturally light golden in color. Our customers choose from about 15 different stains for this hardwood which highlights the darker part of the grain. Red oak is about 15% heavier which is an important characteristic to note for our customers.
Hard Maple
Maple has a naturally light creamy color. It displays a smooth flowing grain for a softer look. It is very dense and needs to have the grain raised so that stain can penetrate into the wood. The natural maple is an attractive accent when combined with darker woods like walnut or stained cherry. Create your own unique accent piece that is a one-of-a-kind, signed and dated.
Regardless of the wood type you choose, the furniture is protected with our water-resistant clear finish, inside and out, top and bottom. Our finish will protect your furniture for decades to come. Each piece of furniture is signed and dated by the craftsman who built it. Head on into our furniture store in Lancaster county, PA to learn more about our crafting process and to take a tour with us!
