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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Furnish

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 weekends. He didn’t have a garage at the time, so he had to craft his pieces in a spare bedroom of his apartment. To indulge his dream of becoming a professional furniture maker, he worked nights as a hotel doorman. “The furniture wasn’t much to look at, but I can tell you that for people starting out it was affordable,” he said, smiling. 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 The crude construction has been replaced by curved drawer fronts, marble tops and fluted columns.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 for a couple of 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, and investors enjoying a seemingly unstoppable bull market, the Wood Extension, Johnston’s and Marie-Michelle’s Tarzana-based business, has found a profitable niche catering to people who are looking for a way to up the Joneses. The company’s stock in trade 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. The partners’ timing was good. Demand for custom furniture has soared in recent years, particularly for woodworkers who do high-end pieces, according to Helen Kuhl, editor of Custom Woodworking Business, an Illinois-based magazine that caters to the industry. Kuhl said there are a number of reasons people are turning to custom furniture. “Some people just want something no one else has, sort of the snob appeal. 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,” said Kuhl. “And then some people just appreciate really fine things.” For the most part, customers of the Wood Extension are well-to-do, usually business or movie-industry executives who are looking for something different to complement their homes. For example, the company is building an entertainment center for Paul Verhoeven, the director such movies as “RoboCop” and “Total Recall,” to conceal a stereo system as well as 1,300 CDs. The equipment and discs will be hidden behind oak doors and antique brass grillwork. But the company also designs and builds things for people of more modest means, including one woman who wanted to give a truly unique wedding gift to her husband-to-be: a set of handmade chopsticks. The firm’s creations sell from anywhere from $75 for the custom chopsticks to $35,000 for Verhoeven’s massive entertainment center, but the majority of its work sells 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. For Marie and Johnston, the creative process 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 be putting it and what you’ll be using it for,” said Johnston. “You have to understand the function of a piece before you design it.” Most of the time, people have very specific ideas about what they want, and will come to the interview armed with photos of certain features they want to see incorporated into their design. “We try to build each piece so it has its own artistic integrity while also being functional,” said Johnston. For example, Marie-Michelle and Johnston built one piece that looks like an antique, three-drawer chest. But a push of a button on a remote causes a pop-up dry bar to emerge. The couple also built an elaborate Tuscany-style cabinet for $10,000 that the wealthy client wanted to use to conceal a television. It turns out the only one in the family who used the television was a small child who liked to watch Barney. “The client wanted the piece to hold the purple guy, and that was it,” said Marie. One of the duo’s biggest frustrations is dealing with interior designers who don’t understand the intricacies of designing furniture and attempt to act as go-betweens for the company and clients. Often, the designer fails to ask the all-important question about how much a client wants to spend, and Johnston and Marie-Michelle will waste time designing a Rolls Royce-quality product when the customer was looking for something in the Chevy price range. “The trick is designing a piece that fits the target price,” said Marie-Michelle. 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 clip each year. Merely the fact that the company has been in business for more than 20 years is a credit to the partners’ business acumen, Kuhl said. “A lot of furniture makers are great craftsmen but poor businessmen. Most of them go out of business after a couple of years,” she said. The Wood Extension recently released a line of furniture designed for wine cellars, and is making a push to build more home office centers. The company showcases its work during open houses in designer homes and has begun a direct mail campaign aimed at people who own homes worth $750,000 or more. The company’s goal is to make potential customers aware of its products directly, so Johnston and Marie-Michelle don’t have to work through interior 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.”

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