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How Amish Furniture Is Made

Our Amish-made furniture is built to order, one piece at a time, in small independent shops across Ohio and Indiana. Every piece is solid hardwood right through, cut to the size you choose and finished in the stain you pick, and none of it exists before you buy it. Our craftsmen have been doing this for generations, and we stand behind every piece that leaves their hands. Here is how yours gets made, and what handmade does not mean.
SHOP ALL FURNITURE GET IN TOUCH

Whose Hands Does Your Order Pass Through?

Four sets, each with a defined job. Your order starts with you, comes to our desk in Nolensville, goes out to the shop in Ohio or Indiana that builds that design, and arrives at your door on a truck we arranged. Our craftsmen hold the chisels. We are accountable for everything on either side of them.

We set it out this way because choosing the right craftsmen for a design, and holding them to a written specification, is our half of the work. It is why your piece arrives built the way the last one was.
You place the order Your wood, your size, your finish and your options become the specification
We take it from there We hold that specification, send your sample, and own payment, delivery and the warranty
Our craftsmen build it An independent Amish or Mennonite shop in Ohio or Indiana builds that exact piece to that paperwork
Our carrier brings it A private delivery service calls you to agree a date and sets the piece up in the room you choose
Where we are not At a bench. Nothing is built at our Nolensville showroom, and there is no warehouse stock behind any listing

Step three is the one that explains the rest of this page. A piece nobody has made yet can be made in your wood, at your size, in your finish, and that is only possible because we never built it in advance.

What Gets Made This Way?

Almost the entire catalog. Dining, bedroom and office furniture all run through the same arrangement, built to order by the same network of shops.

The exception is the outdoor range, which is poly lumber rather than hardwood and ships on a different schedule entirely.
Amish Wilmington Leg Table

Dining

Tables, chairs, benches and storage, built in the species and size you specify.

A Sample Arrives Before the Timber Is Cut

Order a piece and we send a chip of the wood and stain you picked, so you can check it in your own rooms before anything is cut. Ten days to change either, by email, at no cost.
ORDER STAIN SAMPLES
Flint-Hickory

What Is a Piece Made Of?

Solid North American hardwood and nothing else. No particleboard, no MDF and no veneer appear anywhere in the construction, which is a materials policy rather than a feature of certain ranges.

What sits on top of it is a catalyzed conversion varnish, applied over the exterior and inside the drawer boxes. That coating is why the furniture needs no oiling or waxing for as long as you own it.
Jackson Distressed Five Drawer Chest

Why the Drawer Is the Tell

A drawer is the hardest-working component in any case piece, pulled and pushed several times a day for decades while carrying weight.

Dovetail joints interlock the sides into the front, so the joint resists being pulled apart by the exact force a drawer applies to it every time somebody opens one. A fastener through a butt joint relies on the fastener.

The limit is that none of it shows itself. Slide a drawer free and tip it on its side, because a dovetail is invisible from the front of a closed case.
Jackson Six Drawer Chest

Why the Varnish Goes Inside

Finishing the inside of a drawer box costs money and returns nothing a customer will photograph.

It is done because bare wood inside a case takes up moisture at a different rate from the finished outside, and a panel absorbing unevenly is a panel that moves unevenly. Sealing both faces keeps the movement even.

The limit is that no finish stops wood moving. It slows the exchange and keeps it balanced, which is a different and more realistic claim.

Why Bed Backs Are Finished

The back of a headboard faces a wall in most rooms and nobody ever sees it.

In an open bedroom, or anywhere the bed floats rather than sits against a wall, that surface is on display. Finishing it as standard means the piece works in either layout rather than only one.

The limit is that one finished back is evidence, not a blanket promise across the catalog. Ask about the specific piece you intend to float in a room.
Timber Solid North American hardwood throughout
Never used Particleboard, MDF, veneer
Standard species Cherry, maple, oak and quartersawn white oak
On request Walnut, elm and other hardwoods
Drawers Dovetail joints, on full-extension slides
Bed backs Fully finished, for rooms where the back of the bed is visible
Finish Catalyzed conversion varnish over the exterior and inside the drawer boxes
SEE ALL FURNITURE

Which Construction Standards Apply to Everything?

Four, and they hold across the catalog rather than appearing on selected lines. Solid timber only, dovetailed drawers on full-extension slides, finished backs, and a sealed finish inside and out.

They are worth knowing as a checklist, because the same four questions work on every other maker on your shortlist.

Solid Timber, With No Exceptions

Every piece is solid hardwood right through, with no composite core anywhere in it.

The practical consequence arrives years later. A solid board takes a sanding and a fresh coat when something goes wrong on a surface, with no thin skin to cut through on the way.

The limit is weight and price. Solid timber is heavier to move and costs more to buy than a composite panel with a printed face, and both of those are real.
Amish Brockport 36.5" Six Drawer Chest

Dovetailed Drawers on Full-Extension Slides

The drawer box is joined with dovetails and runs on slides that pull the whole box clear of the case.

Full extension does more work than the phrase suggests, because a drawer that stops three quarters of the way out turns the back third into a place things go to be forgotten. Combined with a solid box, it is the difference between storage you use and storage you dig through.

The limit is that hardware is hardware. Slides are a serviceable component on any piece of furniture, so one that eventually needs attention can have it.

Finished Where Nobody Looks

Backs, undersides and drawer interiors get the same treatment as the faces.

This is the clearest signal of how a shop thinks, because none of it photographs and none of it sells a piece in a showroom. It is done on the assumption that the furniture will end up spun around, pushed against a different wall, and living in rooms nobody has drawn yet.

The limit is that finishing is not armor. It protects the surface; it does not make the piece indestructible.

Built to a Specification, Not a Pattern

The shop receives the wood, the size, the finish and the options you chose, and builds that version.

That is why the same design can be a 42 inch top in brown maple with a wood seat and an 84 inch top in quartersawn white oak with leather, and why neither is a special order. Both are simply what was on the paperwork.

The limit is that the paperwork is what gets built. Anything you leave fuzzy gets settled by somebody who has never seen your room, which is why the sample and the ten day window exist.

Ask Us How a Specific Piece Is Built

Construction varies between shops, and we would rather answer than have you assume. Tell us which piece is on your list and we will walk you through that particular build.
GET IN TOUCH

Where Is It Made?

Ohio and Indiana, in independent shops rather than a factory. Our timber is North American and our furniture is made in the United States, which together are why the wait between order and delivery is counted in weeks rather than in ocean crossings.

Four things follow from that arrangement, and a couple of them are inconveniences rather than selling points.

Independent Shops Rather Than One Factory

Different shops build different parts of the catalog, each to its own strengths.

It is why one design offers seven species and another offers one, and why a bench might be available in a wood a matching table is not. The range is wider than a single factory could produce and less uniform as a result.

The limit is availability. Species and options are set by the shop that owns that design, so what is possible depends on the piece in front of you and not on a house-wide list.

The Timber Is Domestic Too

Our hardwood comes from American forests, not just American mills.

American hardwoods are what fill the catalog for a straightforward reason, which is that they are what grows here. Oak, maple, cherry, hickory and walnut are domestic species, and the range reflects that rather than whatever is cheapest to import.

The limit is that domestic does not mean unlimited. Some species are scarcer than others and the price ladder reflects it.
Amish Wakefield Trestle Table

Nothing Is Built in Nolensville

Our showroom at 7350 Nolensville Road is exactly that, a showroom. Nothing is made there.

What you can do in it is sit on the chairs, pull the drawers out and hold a stain chip against a finished piece, which is worth more before a built-to-order purchase than after one.

The limit is what is on our floor. We hold a selection rather than the whole catalog, so call ahead if you want to see something specific.

The Shops Are Not Open to Visitors

We are asked this often and the answer is no.

Our craftsmen work in communities that avoid publicity as a matter of conviction, and we are not going to arrange tours of them. It is also why you will not find photographs of individual craftsmen anywhere on this site.

The limit is that it makes the process harder to see. This page exists partly to answer what a visit would have answered.

What Does Handmade Not Mean?

It is worth being straight about this, because the word carries a lot of romance and some of it is misleading. Handmade here means built to order by skilled people in small shops. It does not mean cut with hand tools, identical to a photograph, or available next week.

Four honest limits, all of which are easier to accept before you order than after.

Machines Are Used

Saws, planers, sanders and shapers are all part of how this furniture gets made, and pretending otherwise would be nonsense.

What the craft is in is the decisions. Which board goes where, how a joint is cut and fitted, when a surface is finished and when it needs more work. Those are judgments rather than settings.

The limit is the mental picture. If you are imagining everything shaped with a hand plane, that is not what you are buying and it never was.

No Two Pieces Are Identical

Every board came out of a particular tree, so figure, color and grain vary between pieces even in the same species and finish.

That variation is more pronounced in some timbers than others, and in rustic grades it is the whole point. A set ordered together will be closer than pieces ordered years apart, which is the main argument for ordering together.

The limit is matching a photograph. The piece you receive will be the same design in the same finish, and it will not be the same board.

It Takes Weeks

Nothing is sitting ready, so the clock starts when you order rather than when you decide.

The time goes into the queue at the shop, the build itself, the finishing, and then the journey. None of that compresses meaningfully, which is why the Quick Ship range exists for anyone working to a date.

The limit is planning. A deadline is solvable before the order and awkward afterward, so raise it early.

It Is Not the Cheapest Way to Furnish a Room

Solid hardwood costs more than a composite panel with a printed surface, and built to order costs more than a warehouse clearing stock.

If you are furnishing a first apartment, or a room you plan to redo in three years, the honest answer is that we are not the right shop for it.

The limit is how the comparison is framed. Measured over the years you keep it rather than the day you buy it, the arithmetic looks different, but that only helps if you are planning to keep it.

Which Room Do You Want to See It In?

Everything above applies identically across the catalog. What changes room to room is how much of the construction is on show and which parts of it matter most.

Six ways in, with the thing worth looking at in each.
Dining

Dining
The largest surfaces, where timber selection across a wide top shows most.
Bedroom

Bedroom
Case pieces and drawers, which is where the dovetails and the slides earn their place.
Office

Office
Desks and shelving, where a finished back decides whether the piece can face into a room.
Living

Living
Upholstered frames in hardwood, with fabric or leather over them.
Outdoor

Outdoor
The exception. Poly lumber rather than hardwood, on its own schedule.
Weathered Beige-Brown Maple-Samples-The Amish House

How Do You See It Before It Is Built?

You get a physical sample of your wood and stain after the order goes in, and ten days from that order date to change either one by email at no cost. The specification does not reach the shop as final until that window has run.

That sequence is the answer to the obvious objection, which is that you are buying something nobody has made yet.
Flint-Hard Maple

The Order Comes First on Purpose

Placing the order is what reserves your place in a shop's queue, and the sample follows it rather than preceding it.

If that feels backwards, the ten days are what make it safe. You are holding a chip of the actual wood in the actual finish, in your own room, while the build has not started.

The limit is the clock. Ten days runs from the order date rather than from the sample landing, so open the envelope when it arrives.
Mineral-Wormy Maple

What You Cannot See in Advance

You cannot see the specific boards. Nobody can, because the tree they come from has not been selected yet when you order.

What the sample settles is species and finish, which is what nearly all regret is actually about. Grain and figure are the part you accept as the nature of the material.

The limit is honesty about that gap. If you need to approve the exact board, this is not the right way to buy furniture and we would tell you so.

Or Come and Look First

Our showroom holds finished pieces you can inspect before committing to anything, which is the closest thing to seeing the process.

Pull the drawers, look at the backs, turn a chair over. Everything this page describes is checkable by hand on the floor models.

The limit is selection. What is on the floor is a sample of the range, so call before making the trip for a specific piece.
ORDER STAIN SAMPLES

Cabinetry Is Built the Same Way

Fitted work runs through the same kind of arrangement, with design, measurement and installation stacked on top of the build. That part of the business sits with our sister company, working in the same hardwoods.
EXPLORE CUSTOM CABINETRY

What Is Guaranteed?

One year on indoor wood furniture, covering defects in craftsmanship or workmanship. What it speaks to is whether the piece left the shop built right, not how many decades it has in it.

The distinction is worth drawing on a page about construction. We can tell you exactly what goes into a piece. We cannot insure the next forty years, and neither can anybody else selling furniture.

The Terms

Indoor wood furniture One year against defects in craftsmanship or workmanship
Outdoor poly Residential limited lifetime on a defective product or part
Excluded on both Normal wear, commercial use, misuse, lack of care
Delivery Flat $239 across the continental United States, with in-home setup to the room you choose
Damage in transit Inspect everything during setup and raise it before the carrier leaves
Changing the specification Wood or stain, free, within ten days of the order

Inspect the piece while the delivery team is still there. It is the one step in this whole process that cannot be done later.

Explore more guides

Choosing Your Wood

Choosing Your Wood
The Stain & Finish Guide

The Stain & Finish Guide
How Custom Furniture Works

How Custom Furniture Works
Furniture That Lasts Generations

Furniture That Lasts Generations

Check It Yourself Before You Take Our Word

Take a drawer out and read the corners. Check the back of a case. Follow the grain over the edge of a top and see whether it carries on. Everything on this page is verifiable by hand, on our floor models or on anybody else's.

If you would rather ask, call us at 615-819-2772 with the piece in front of you. We will tell you which shop style it belongs to and what that means for the build.

You can also work through everything we sell in your own time, or come and inspect it at the showroom on Nolensville Road. We are open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm.
SHOP ALL FURNITURE GET IN TOUCH

Frequently Asked Questions

No. We are a family-owned retailer in Nolensville, Tennessee, started in 2017 by Kurt and Lisa. The furniture is made for us by Amish and Mennonite craftsmen in Ohio and Indiana. We commission the work and stand behind it rather than building it.
Independent Amish and Mennonite shops in Ohio and Indiana, working in traditions passed down through generations. We do not name them or photograph them, because these are communities that avoid publicity by conviction and we respect that.
Yes, with full-extension slides so the box pulls clear of the case. Lift one out of any floor model and inspect the corners rather than taking our word for it, since that is the one component where construction is easiest to check.
Yes. The hardwood is North American, and the pieces are built in the United States. The species in the catalog are domestic ones for the straightforward reason that they are what grows here.
No. Nolensville is a showroom and an office. Every piece is built in a shop in Ohio or Indiana after you order it, then delivered by a private carrier.
Because the boards in it came from a different tree. Species, finish and design will match what you ordered, and the grain and figure will be particular to your piece. In rustic grades that variation is the intended effect.
No, and we do not arrange tours. The shops belong to communities that keep a deliberately low profile, so what we can offer instead is the showroom, where you can inspect finished pieces by hand.
Since 2017, when Kurt and Lisa started the business after years working in furniture retail. The showroom on Nolensville Road came later and the craftsmen we work with have been at it considerably longer than any of us.