Industry Insider: Hardwood Furniture and Design

As technology evolves, so does the furniture made to accommodate it.

Huge wall cabinets once made to hold both televisions and stereo systems are becoming a thing of the past. So are large computer desks with hutches above them and sliding keyboard trays, said Gerry Peterson, owner and founder of Hardwood Furniture and Design in Addison.

“Back in 1982, we were the first to design a computer desk with a hutch above it for easy access to the many manuals that went along with owning a home computer,” Peterson said.

In fact, this invention was touted in such national publications as Mechanics Illustrated, The Wall Street Journal and Woman’s Day, and was even featured on CBS News.

At one time Hardwood Furniture and Design made 24,000 computer desks per year and their newest designs were eagerly awaited at annual national and international furniture design shows.

The same was true of their entertainment centers, Peterson said. After a California company paired a television with a stereo tower in the same piece of furniture during the 1980s, Peterson ran with the idea, working to refine it and build the best stereo cabinet on the market.

According to Stereophile magazine, he succeeded. They proclaimed his stereo cabinet the best in the business, claiming it didn’t absorb sound and then release it like others being sold. It simply allowed the music to be heard in all its glory.

But once television screens grew to more than 30 inches across, the one-piece units were too big for most homes. Later, the invention of flat screen televisions changed the entire market, Peterson said.

People began to gravitate toward smaller, simpler furniture for their televisions, or they chose to hang them on the wall like a painting.

“They don’t want to enclose their televisions in big units anymore,” he said. “People want a smaller, one-piece console that is slightly wider than the television and sits below it, holding DVD players and other auxiliary items.

“As for the stereo cabinet, it only exists for high-end stereo buffs. The iPod killed the two-channel stereo.”

Similarly, the laptop computer, along with iPads, killed the large computer desks that were once popular. Today homeowners generally prefer small table desks that allow for lots of flexibility. People want to use the same space for multiple purposes, Peterson said.

Style and finish preferences have also changed. Peterson said people are looking for smaller pieces to fit into smaller homes and condominiums. They are also asking for sleeker, cleaner lines, similar to traditional, New England-style or Shaker furniture.

The big, heavy molding that was popular on furniture in the 1980s and 90s is out of favor.

As for finishes, walnut is the hot look.

“Customers are looking for darker finishes like natural walnut. But they no longer want that very dark, espresso look which was sent here from Asia to hide poor-quality wood,” Peterson said.

Hardwood Furniture and Design, one of the last remaining manufacturers of genuine American furniture, has six employees turning out bookcases, television consoles, coffee tables, end tables, desks and entertainment centers. The company also distribute beds, dressers, tables and chairs made in Vermont by another American manufacturer, Lyndon Furniture.

“We buy our lumber from the same place that Lyndon buys theirs, so we can make matching items, if someone wishes,” Peterson said.

Both companies produce hand-rubbed, wax finished, solid wood products in walnut, cherry, oak and maple. They are easy to maintain and environmentally safe to produce, he said.

Chicago-area home and business owners have the opportunity to purchase factory-direct at up to a 50 percent discount on the company’s items and up to 30 percent off Lyndon products at Hardwood Furniture’s Addison showroom, 255 Gerri Lane. In fact, 25 percent of its sales are direct from the Addison factory to Chicago-area customers.

Peterson said the rest of the furniture is sold under different brand names at considerably higher prices to retailers around the country.

“Most of the American furniture industry is gone. In the last six years, North Carolina’s furniture industry has been devastated with such big names as Henredon and Stickley either going bankrupt or moving their operations overseas. Now more than 90 percent of ‘American’ furniture is made overseas in places like China and Vietnam,” Peterson said.

“This uniquely American art form has been destroyed. We are one of only a very few small, independent furniture makers left in the United States,” he said. “People in this country need to wake up, buy only American and revive this country.”

Fortunately for Peterson and his wife, Candy, who is a designer for the company, Hardwood Furniture and Design chose to scale back its production in 2004. Today it concentrates on semi-custom furniture, which is made using a computer-assisted design system and standard sizes, but with custom fronts in the various choices of woods.

For more information on Hardwood Furniture and Design, call (630) 543-2022 or visit www.hardwoodfurnituredesign.com.