My grandfather built and repaired furniture with his hands. When I was a boy, I would sit in his dusty workshop and watch him work with his hands, building chests of drawers and bedside tables without power tools. I would study his techniques as he repaired chairs that were sure to last another 30 years. As a carpenter in the era of communism, his shop was mostly empty, but the work was never ending. In the evenings, when the dust had settled, I would sneak into his shop and run my hands across the furniture, admiring the beauty of his work. By watching him my own hands were acquiring the skills that would allow me to follow in his footsteps. At the time I didn’t realize it, but I would one day become a carpenter and furniture maker like him.
In time, communism collapsed, and I stopped watching my grandfather in his workshop. I went to university and later began working for the government but was never quite satisfied with my career. One day a friend who was living in the United States called me and asked if I wanted to come to Lake Tahoe and work at a ski resort. Over the next several years I settled into a new life in the United States, where I met and fell in love with an artist.
Together we started a business in 2011 buying, restoring, and selling old furniture. Soon our online furniture store, DSARTE, was thriving. We painted, restored, and repaired furniture, and even built custom projects for our customers. We began traveling to antique fairs in Europe, sending home shipping containers full of old furniture from places like England, Wales, and Denmark.
Eventually Reno/Tahoe couldn’t contain us, and we sold our home and business and moved to California, where we started NUMBER2PROJECT, a mobile furniture repair company. Lately the pandemic has run many great furniture stores out of business, and we feel fortunate that we got into mobile repair when we did. There is not as much furniture on the market now, and shipping delays have people waiting months for their orders. My wife used her artistic passion and began to design furniture. I got a contractor license as a cabinetmaker. Together, we again began designing and building custom furniture.
Now we want to share our passion and experiences with you. We will show you how to start a furniture company from scratch—what mistakes you might make early on and how to avoid them. We hope that the knowledge we can share with you will allow you to achieve success in the modern era of online sales. Watching my grandfather in his workshop all those years ago is where I first began learning my craft. Now I hope that you can benefit from the experience of a professional carpenter.
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