In the midst of a throwaway culture, one couple seeks to create handcrafted furniture, worthy of keeping.
While the home of any millennial is likely furnished with pieces of particle board from big retailers, Sarah Bader and Matt Rink are helping their peers make the upgrade to custom-made furniture, finished with reclaimed wood.
“Not to rip on IKEA too much, but it”™s like glorified cardboard,” Rink said. “If you could buy something of quality, at the same price, why wouldn”™t you?”
Made of wood primarily from old Connecticut barns, the furniture is priced in the same range as IKEA or Pottery Barn. But when and if it breaks, the couple says they don”™t believe their customers will just throw out their pieces.
The couple”™s Bethel-based company, New Antiquity, recently celebrated its one-year anniversary and so far the future looks bright, Rink said.
The company primarily sells to younger generations looking to upgrade their home decor, but it has also gained traction selling pieces to bars and businesses in New York City.
The company”™s items range from coffee tables and dressers, to footbridges and tree houses. Most orders come out of Fairfield County and New York, but an active online storefront on Etsy.com keeps a steady stream of purchases coming.
A lot of the wood they use is from neighbors or is found by driving around, Bader said. After the region”™s recent bout of major storms, there”™s been a lot of wood to collect.
“It so exciting to see something that is useless almost, saved from a landfill,” Bader said. “Some of the trees we”™re working with are 100 years old.”
However, Bader cautioned that collecting the wood and milling it down is no easy feat. Usually it means hauling heavy beams, removing nails, cutting the wood to size and stripping it. But it gives them an opportunity to work with a broad range of colors and sometimes rare wood like chestnut.
When the two graduated with their art degrees from Alfred University in 2007, Rink said they wondered what their careers might look like.
“We got out of school right when the economy tanked,” Rink said. “But we”™re lucky. This has been such a great synthesis for us because we”™re able to compose pieces with the colors in the wood, do design work and layout, and work on these things artistically.”
The two first decided to start their company after successfully building pub tables and a bar for their wedding last year and selling it on Etsy. Rink”™s father, a carpenter in Redding, has also played a key role in helping the company take off.
“Coming out of this economy, there”™s no way to know if a company is going to work or not,” Rink said. “(But) once you take that jump you really don”™t have any choice but to make it work.”
The two don”™t have any plans to hire additional employees. For now, they”™re content working just the two of them.
“We want to make things that create charm and character,” Bader said. “When you put in so much work into something you love, it usually turns out well. I think other people can appreciate that.”
