Our Foliage Season: A Time of Need For A VT Visit

Foliage season in our area is perhaps the most stunning Fall experience in the Northeast. Vermont and the Slate Valley Region shine with a colorful glow in a dry, cool air atmosphere. A setting that brings many to peace and relaxation as the climate changes to more mellow times.

In honor of our regions beauty this time of year, and with it’s staple natural resource, our Slate Top Furniture is not only a mark of locally made craftsmanship, but an attitude and design that very much exudes this Fall season.

Manchester Wood's Slate Top Furniture Collection features local resources in both slate and wood as well as crafted in our mill in the Slate Valley Region.

From slate top end tables to coffee tables, and more, Manchester Wood has worked to provide a product that shows our local pride but with a design of global appeal. An attitude that very much resembles Vermont, which is in a darker time but with a glimmering approach in survival.

Vermont, Manchester Wood‘s birthplace has taken a heavy hit with Hurricane Irene, the devastation to business, homes, roads, and historic bridges has been near catastrophic for many.

It’s fitting though, that Fall, our busiest tourist season has arrived in a time where visits are at there most needed for business and community, to a state derived from independence and a peaceful, positive spirit.

Be sure to visit Vermont this serene season, support what it provides.  It almost metaphorically resembles the need to domestically become more aware as a country fighting to provide in a world of a select power.

Visit the Hurricane Irene Flood Relief Fund page to support small businesses effected in Vermont: http://www.vtirenefund.org/

To visit Manchester Wood’s slate top collection click here.

Table Surfaces

Slate Top Coffee & End Table

At Manchester Wood, we offer a variety of table surfaces that are great for every room and need in the house. Whether for work, entertainment, or storing the necessities, we have several designs and collections available to fit your needs.

Also, while you picnic or work while enjoying the sun we have table surfaces for the outdoors that partner well with our Adirondack Chairs, Equinox Chairs, or our other seating options in our Outdoor Collection.

When looking for a solid wood table, there isn’t a better source than Manchester Wood as we provide not only solid wood tables, but also solid wood furniture in many designs and collections.

Glass Top End Tables, Coffee Tables, our popular Chairside Storage Table, locally mined Slate Top End and Coffee Tables. Our shaker style shaker tables with Shaker End Tables and Coffee Tables, the Solid Cherry collection with solid cherry tables in many shapes and sizes to fit your desired table surface area.

We believe when it comes to table surfaces and furniture made in the USA, you’ll find everything at Manchester Wood. Let us provide you with wood furniture that will last a lifetime.

Space Effective Furniture

Manchester Wood prides itself on producing small, compact furniture with storage solutions in several styles of locations for the home. We’ve released several top sellers this past year that our ideal in Apartments, Condominiums, Senior Homes, and those tight spaces needing to be utilized.

Check out our Cabinet Furniture

Our Chairside Storage Table is an item we discuss often, as it has been praised the most by customers for it’s convenient uses. Also our Compact Desk is great for paying bills, or for a tight computer space, and handling other basic dealings for the home.

Jelly Cabinets have also been taking off, a classic design with tons of storage space. Our Tall Double Jelly Cabinet was actually recently selected by ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer’s Made in America series.

For mobility, our Multipurpose Cart and TV Tray Tables have always been a great choice. Both items have been classic products over the past 25 years for us. We’ve experienced nothing but positive feedback since their introduction.

From the aesthetic prospective, our Underwindow Bookcase and Periodical End Table are the best fit. The Underwindow Bookcase is beautifully designed to store your possessions while giving you a clear view to see the beauty that surrounds you outside – which at times can be a critical way to gain inspiration.

Whatever you’re looking for when it comes to furniture, especially space effective pieces, please consider Manchester Wood – crafted in America from Solid Hardwood.

Check out our online catalog here: http://www.manchesterwood.com

Living in your Rooms: Designing for the 21st Century

The objects we possess that hold special and important memories are the most natural and spiritual expressions of your unique “lifestyle.” Whether in art, pictures, or furniture, we hope the presence of our Manchester Wood pieces spark the same sense of positive creation in your day. After all, everything we showcase and use in our homes should accent and excite our life.

Some feel when designing rooms that a luxurious feel may mean not ideal comfort for the sake of artistic expression, but that’s not necessarily true. Luxury is found in making yourself and others completely comfortable, no desire felt by anyone to leave this oasis you created.

We believe through our coffee tables, end tables, slate-top or solid wood, tray tables, and bookcases, you’ll find the key ingredients to create a successful living space.

Your Living Room is in fact that, a room you live and share in. It’s important to think of all your rooms like that when designing and furnishing spaces. The exciting part is recognizing the change and growth you make as your rooms evolve to match the present you!

As we enter the cold months of the season here on the east coast, our outdoor interests in furnishings turn towards indoor, working on the scenery we hide in away from the cold. We hope you find what you’re looking for at Manchester Wood when designing your living spaces with quality products that will last generations.

All our furniture is proudly still made in America from solid hardwood in the Adirondack foothills of Upstate New York and the Green Mountain valleys of Vermont.

The Slate Valley

We recently visited The Slate Valley Museum in Granville, NY to further understand the fascinating history on one of the World’s richest slate deposits. The photos shown in this article, and much of the below information can be kindly found at the Museum. Please visit their website for more information.

His Grandfather is top row, 4th in from right, arm around friend (Courtesy of The Slate Valley Museum)

In preparing this article, one of Manchester Wood’s great friends and hardworking mechanics took a look at a picture from The Slate Valley Museum. It was a picture from the early 20^th century, dating back to the 20’s.

Upon looking it over, he cracked a smile and said:

“I don’t know if you’d believe me, but that’s my Grandfather right there.”

Drawing his finger down on the image, pointing in delight to a smiling young man.

Many peers and colleagues in our community work or once worked in the slate mines. We love the material they produce, not just for our products, but also for its countless other uses.

“The Slate Valley” as it’s called, is a region over twenty miles long and extends six miles wide along the New York/Vermont border from Granville, NY to Rupert, VT, and north to Fair Haven, VT.

In the early-to-mid 1800’s, slate was discovered in the area.

“The roof of a barn one mile south of Fair Haven was the first to be covered with slate in 1848. It was feared the barn would not withstand the weight of the stone. The barn is still standing today and the same slate roof is intact.” (The Slate Valley Museum Website)

Slate quarry strikes were riddling Wales, so in 1850, the first Welsh immigrants arrived. They came with experience in the art of mining. Slate companies began forming.

(Courtesy of The Slate Valley Museum)

The immigration of workers increased as the industry boomed through the early 1900’s.

From Poland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Italy, Ireland, Hungary, and later Canada. Hardworking families arrived from all over the World, seeking the abundance of American life.

We’re happy to have known some of them, and even prouder to have their lineage working under our roof.

At Manchester Wood, we’d like to thank The Slate Valley Museum and join them in “paying tribute to these workers and their families and to preserve their way of life and their many contributions to the fabric of human history.” (The Slate Valley Museum Website)

To view our Slate Top Collection (using locally mined slate), click here.

To visit or learn more about The Slate Valley Museum, click here.

(Courtesy of The Slate Valley Museum)