The Price for Solid Wood Furniture

Luke Eriksen here, I’m a grandson of Manchester Wood’s founder Cliff Pierce, and the 3^rd generation at work at the mill. I had a moment I wanted to share with you… I was taking photos this morning for an instruction manual on a new solid wood bookshelf. It’s a very basic piece of furniture. It has a bottom shelf, a top shelf, and a middle adjustable shelf. We had just pitched it to a strong wholesale client of ours and they felt it was out of their price range. And I got thinking… here is a basic, simple, beautiful piece of handcrafted wood furniture, and I know we’re not asking too much for it – we’re really just covering our bases in expense here – but the question swirled “why can’t it be cheaper?” Then I quickly realized, yet again, ‘it’s solid wood!’ I often forget the quality of solid wood furniture when discussing Manchester Wood’s furniture.

Mike, an employee since nearly day one 36 years ago, sanding a piece for finishing.

We only use the highest quality resources here from the highest quality timber companies providing you (and us) the best wood to produce the solid furniture that I know my kids and grandkids will see at antique shops for years to come. That’s just the price we pay for making quality. That’s just the kind of ‘Made in USA’ item you receive when you buy from Manchester Wood. It has become increasingly hard to sell the larger items to wholesalers because of the competition, but we shouldn’t be silenced, and we won’t be. There is no question our furniture – for its quality – is affordably priced above and beyond competitors. However, for the most part we make simple American shaker style furniture that might sell quicker if it was cheap not affordable. But that’s not our business, that’s not our model, or the message of our leader who built this company we rest our hat on today. Manchester Wood is a family-run business that operates as families do, not as a corporation. We operate using 3 Principles – and you’re going to hear them a lot from us – Value, Honesty, and Community.

Our value is the dedication to solid wood when most competitors have moved to cheaper resources like plastics and lower grade wood (like particle board). We’ve remained American hardwood; that’s the kind-of solid wood that makes a grown man able to stand on a Manchester Wood TV tray table without anything happening. Try that at a box store emphasizing foreign quantity over American quality.

Our honesty speaks for itself. Including this blog and all the others we’ve ever written. From our mailers, product copy, site copy, instruction manuals, it’s all there. When you buy from us you’re buying ‘Made in USA’ furniture; you’re buying a piece of home, and that’s beyond the stamp. 

Luke and his dad, Manchester Wood’s President, Ed Eriksen.

The community aspect is with this being a family business, not a corporation, and how it’s run like a family. It has ups and downs, twists and turns, emotions of all kinds. It’s life; and we strive to develop a loving, open environment for our employees and partners in making timeless solid wood furniture. Aside from our regular celebratory events at the mill we have a lot of other exciting news developing in the community we’d like to share with you, and that’ll come in due time as plans unfold.

So there it is, just my thoughts for today. To me, regardless of opinions, this is the price for buying solid wood furniture made in the USA from our family-run mill and retailer, Manchester Wood.

Much Gratitude,

Luke Eriksen

Manchester Wood: American Made Furniture

The Pride of Made in the USA Furniture

‘USA Made’ furniture is Manchester Wood furniture; and as American furniture manufacturers we recognize the importance of things made in America – here – at home. It provides a level of rootedness in tradition and stability, remembering who we are and what we can do as a people with our own hands. It’s not a flag-toting nationalist perspective, a “rah-rah” thing…it’s about not losing sight of each other. Not forgetting the craftsmanship and resources so bountifully available to us through products made in America.

Instead of deals and steals, chopped down prices outsourced to sweat-shops to make due for America’s overzealous consumption hunger, we stand in a new America and say “we want quality, affordability, and a sense of where things we support come from.” This revolution in thought touches on all aspects of our lives, and even with those who supposedly run it in Washington. By touching on tradition, by remembering each other, we reconnect with the pride of who we are – as people of earth and as family of America. In this family, as both a country, and as this business, Manchester Wood now being a 3^rd generation family-run business (excluding our woodworking history outside Manchester Wood since 1891) we take pride in what we make. We produce solid wood furniture, American made furniture in fact, as our brand claims. And we wish for nothing more.

May the desire of quality ‘Made in USA’ furniture run forever more; and if you’re contemplating the extra few dollars it may take, or where it’ll fit in your home – we promise it will, because this type of quality solid wood furniture is made from your home. Born, raised, and produced in America; from a tree seed to a TV Tray Table; Desk, or Adirondack folding chair. It’s all here for you. Keep it Made in America today.

Our latest ad in Yankee Magazine!

Be sure to check out the Portable Folding Work Desk, only $89.95! Great value!
Shop: www.manchesterwood.com

TV Trays for the Warmer Months!

One of our favorite features about our solid wood TV trays is their versatility. Due to their light weight and clever folding design, they can be easily moved about the house to fill a wide variety of needs. With the advent of summer, it’s time to start taking TV tray tables out on the patio or deck to maximize their potential.

Although folding TV tables are usually associated with indoor activities (they are called TV trays, after all), they are also very useful for better enjoying the great outdoors. For example: bird enthusiasts can keep a copy of their favorite guide and a pair of binoculars close at hand or families can enjoy dinner outside without an outdoor dining table. They are also great for outdoor cocktails.

Unlike our line of outdoor furniture, our tray tables aren’t meant to be left outside for extended periods to suffer from rain and other environmental hazards. Fortunately, when it comes to tray tables, the folding design makes it quite easy to take them back inside and put them somewhere out of the way.

Our new Urban Camp Tray Top Sofa Table

We are also excited about our new Urban Camp products. They are great for providing some extra surface area either indoors or out. They feature removable tops; which is great for serving food or drinks, plus it makes them easier to clean.

If you decide to purchase one of our solid wood TV trays or Urban Camp pieces, you can be sure of a few things. First, you are buying quality, American made furniture: we make everything we sell in our Granville, NY factory, which is snugly nestled in the foothills of the Adirondacks. Second, you are making a responsible environmental decision: 100% of the lumber we use comes from certified sustainable North American forests. Finally, you can be sure that your purchase will last for generations with proper care. We are proud to have a very high standard of craftsmanship and treat every single thing we make like a potential family heirloom.

Happy springtime: enjoy the warm weather!

Another Kind of TV Table Tray: New Tray Top Wooden End Tables

Our Urban Camp Tray Top End Table is an innovative piece of living room furniture. Now made available on our online store, ManchesterWood.com. The slatted top can be removed, exposing a middle and bottom shelf underneath with plenty of storage capacity. We thought about our popular TV tray tables when the sample arrived on the showroom floor. Our folding tray table is an incredibly convenient piece of solid wood furniture with easy stow-away design, especially when bought as a TV tray set. However, this new Tray Top designed furniture, which is also available as a coffee table and sofa table, allows storage in the form of becoming a tabletop! Pretty convenient we felt, and unique to the genre of mobility in furniture, especially as wood end tables.

At Manchester Wood we’ve specialized in narrow end tables and small end tables, but this Urban Camp Tray Top End Table unleashes a whole other character of design in our more recent end tables, with storage and versatility beyond all others. As with all our made in USA furniture, its been resourced and crafted from Northeast hardwood in our “mill” in the Adirondack foothills of New York; built to last generations.

To view the Urban Camp Tray Top End Table, Coffee Table, and Sofa Table, click here.

To view all our handcrafted wood end tables, click here.

These ‘Urban Camp Tray Tops,’ now available, are a preview to our new Urban Camp Collection, which merges classic Americana solid wood furniture design with a signature simple, clean storage capacity, as well as versatility with these ‘Tray Tops.’ A modest yet brightly drawn aesthetic that brings a lightness and functionality to any home, furnishings available in either Chestnut or Golden Oak finish.

Manchester Wood’s April Eco-Act Tray Table Giveaway

This Month’s FREE Raffle Giveaway…

Contemporary TV Tray Table Set

What action, big or small, are you willing to make this month to help our environment?

In accordance with Earth Day this month (April 22), Manchester Wood is asking those interested in our FREE monthly giveaway item to enter the raffle by telling us how they plan on initiating environmental action. Whether by simply telling us you’ll throw a piece of garbage away you find on the street, or that you’re planning to organize an event to bring awareness to a certain ecological cause, let us know about your impact in supporting our earth this Spring season by emailing us (service@manchesterwood.com), tweeting us (@manchesterwood), or writing on our Facebook wall (facebook.com/ManchesterWood).

This month’s giveaway item is our popular Contemporary TV Tray Table Set of 2, valued at $169.95.  For the past thirty years, our tray tables have been a customer favorite. They’re great for enjoying dinner while watching TV, playing a card game, using the laptop computer, or as a convenient side table while paying the bills.

We hope you enjoy helping green up our planet this month, and be sure to share it with us so that you may win this beautiful set of handcrafted solid wood tray tables. Manchester Wood’s ‘eco-friendly’ standard can be read about here on our website. Our furniture is produced from American-grown wood in sustainable Northeast forests with environmentally friendly harvesting practices that encompass favorable growing conditions across much of the U.S. including the Northeast mean that its hardwood forests are most effectively sustained through natural regeneration.

Happy April!

Manchester Wood: American Made Furniture

To view our online catalog, visit ManchesterWood.com

Made in USA TV Tray Sets

During the 1950s due to the advent of television, folding tray tables became a popular item with the American public due to their versatility and convenience. At Manchester Wood we pride ourselves on our classically designed folding tray table, as well as the other varying types of solid wood furniture made in the USA we carry. From our wood end tables, bookshelves, desks; our TV tray sets are some of our most popular items.

Whether the Portable Folding Work and Laptop Desk, which is a single folding tray table designed for a mobile workspace with laptops and tablets, or one of our TV tray sets, like the Rectangular Folding TV Tray Table Set of 2, or the Contemporary Folding TV Tray Table Set of 4, we offer several different designs for the perfect function necessary in folding trays for your home over the last 36 years.

Manchester Wood’s made in USA furniture is a stamp of true domestic production. From the lumber, to paint, to the hardware, and of course the craftsmanship, all is entirely produced in America from the foothills of the Adirondacks of New York. If you’re looking for the mobility, versatility, and convenience of folding tray tables, you can seek no further. We believe Manchester Wood is the finest designer and supplier of made in USA TV tray sets in the Americana style, and that’s carried by our family business belief in three principles as a business: Value, Honesty, and Community.

Valentine’s Day Customer Love with Manchester Wood!

Whether it’s a solid wood table in the form of a folding tray table or shaker desk; or the many other items of solid wood furniture made in the USA by Manchester Wood, we are committed to you – the customer – loving our product for its endless uses, unique designs, and quality handcrafted construction that sets us apart from other leading American furniture manufacturers. We take pride in our work, and the results are showing!

At Manchester Wood we offer each month a free monthly giveaway typically by raffle, and occasionally by offering gifts to every customer that month. For this month’s giveaway we’re raffling a Contemporary Round End Table, a $219.95 value absolutely free to the winner drawn randomly at the end of the month! Admittance to the drawing is by either emailing service@manchesterwood.com, writing on our wall on Facebook, or mentioning us on Twitter @manchesterwood with how you plan on spreading love this February.

We’ve enjoyed all your plans of spreading love so far, and we know this day (Valentine’s Day) is the day most celebrating that expression; so we’ve decided to celebrate it ourselves by sharing some love notes we’ve received in feedback from you – the customer – the last couple weeks on your orders!

Thanks for all the love, and keep it spreading!

Manchester Wood: American Made Furniture

I found Manchester Wood because I was looking for a stepping stool.  And I feel like I found an American gem.   The stool is simply beautiful. Quality craftsmanship. Functional. Just the right height and weight.  And beautifully designed and crafted.  Who would have ever thought that a stepping stool could be an object of beauty?  Clearly, Manchester Wood really is about delivering quality, well designed, American-made, all-wood furniture.  It has won my future business!

-Roberta

Thanks so much for your timely attention to our broken T.V. stand piece.  All is well with the set and I will definitely recommend Manchester Wood to friends and family.

-Linda

I thought you’d like to know that the cart just arrived and that I’m delighted with it.  It is sturdy and well made and is going to be very useful.  Thank you too for the speedy delivery. 

-Barbara

Wow, that was quick.  I’ll probably buy it just for the service!

-James

Need TV Tray Tables? Try Solid Wood!

TV tray tables became popular in the 1950′s, as the price of televisions fell to the point that middle class American families were able to afford them. Television trays were originally marketed as a way of conveniently eating meals and watching TV simultaneously, but have come to serve a variety of different purposes as well.

A tray table ad from the 50′s

These days, many people use their TV tray tables as a surface for their laptop or tablet so they can do things like check their email while watching the morning news or video chat with their friends while they watch the game.  Who would have imagined that television trays, originally associated with 1950′s America, would become strongly associated with digital technology?

At Manchester Wood, television trays were some of our most popular items over the holiday season. One customer favorite is our Portable Folding Work and Laptop Desk, which is designed to be a versatile peace of furniture that can either be used as a folding TV tray or as a standalone desk.

Need more that one folding tray table? We also offer sets, like our Rectangular Folding TV Tray Table Set of 2 , which also comes in a set of four. These sets are great for couples and families. If you are interested in checking out our whole selection of folding tray tables, here it is.

Finally, a note about construction and materials. Since TV table trays were conceived in the 1950s, many of them were made with a miraculous new material called plastic, with metal for structural integrity. However, soon the novelty of plastic began to wear off, and its drawbacks, like brittleness and aesthetic shortcomings, became apparent. At Manchester Wood, we make our folding tray tables just like we make our other furniture: using sustainably harvested North American hardwoods. We hope you check out our wood TV trays and choose to buy American made furniture.

Quality Apartment Condominium Living Furniture

Finding furniture that fits can be challenging when living in smaller spaces. However, at Manchester Wood, many of our handcrafted wood furniture products can be an ideal match for apartment and condominium living.

For example, when looking for an end table for tighter spaces, try our narrow end tables, like the Chairside table series featuring our popular Chairside Storage Table and Chairside Bookshelf. While browsing the  end tables with storage, check out our Periodical End Table with Drawer too.

Mobility, storage, and workspace are also key factors for smaller living quarters, and our answer to that is our Multipurpose Cart, a customer favorite for over 30 years.

We find home office furnishings are a need in any living environment; and although apartment and condominium living offers little space for these working areas, we offer affordable wood desks for home in compact fashion with our Mission Secretary Desk, Mission Compact Desk, Shaker Compact Desk, and the ultra-mobile TV tray-hybrid Portable Folding Work and Laptop Desk.

When it comes to the living room no home is complete without an effective and stylish handcrafted solid wood furniture item as a centerpiece of discussion and craftsmanship.  Our two most accessible options to date for this sort of quality apartment condominium living furniture: the Oval Coffee Table and the Tray Top Coffee Table, which offers the mobility of a portable tray surface with classic Americana lines.

Whether shopping for a larger home or looking for quality furniture in a tight space with a reasonable budget, look no further than Manchester Wood for affordable, high quality, solid wood furniture that is completely made in the USA.

To view our entire catalog of American made furniture, visit ManchesterWood.com.