Recently, I was trying to find a child-size desk, bed and night stand for a client. We wanted something nicer than Ikea or Target furniture, but not as expensive as Ethan Allen furniture. We also wanted to be able to see it and touch it before we bought it, so that eliminated furniture from catalogs like Land of Nod.
We ended up at a local furniture store called Stanton Furniture, a family-owned, unfinished wood furniture company off of Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway in Beaverton. The great thing about Stanton’s is that all the furniture is made locally out of solid wood -– no particle board is ever used. That means you don’t have to worry about your child breathing in harmful vapors, a risk you take if you buy particle board furniture. And because it’s locally made, you’re supporting a family business and virtually eliminating the carbon that would otherwise be used in shipping furniture from out of state.
Most of the woods Stanton uses in its furniture are hardwoods, a nice change from the pine you often see used. My beef with pine is that while it’s usually inexpensive, it also dents really easily because it’s so soft (I can stick my fingernail in my Ikea Trofast shelves). You can expect to spend about the same amount of money on Stanton Furniture as you would at Pottery Barn.
My client was looking for an extra-long desk, which we couldn’t find on the showroom floor. But the store clerk told us the carpenter could custom-make it for us within 6-8 weeks. After getting some dimensions from us and even offering a few ideas to improve the desk, we received a bid from the carpenter one week later. Even though it would be custom-designed and made, it was no more expensive than something you’d find at The Goodnight Room or Segals.
And finally, if I can sing one last praise to them(I don’t work for them, I swear!), you get to pick the finish on the furniture. The benefit of that is that you can match a pre-existing wood color in your house, making your new piece of furniture look like it belongs to the old set. That’s way more economical than buying an entire new set!
If you’re looking for affordable, high quality and environmentally friendly furniture, Stanton’s is your store. I would love to hear about more local, full wood furniture stores. Stanton’s has the largest selection of any I’ve seen, but if you know of someplace else I should check out, please let me know!
Jeri Dansky says
That’s exactly the kind of store I love to patronize! I love to support small family businesses providing great goods and services.