CustomMade at the Providence Fine Furnishings Show

It was a blustery, leaf-crunchy autumn day when Ben from Sales and I set out to Providence to set up the CustomMade booth for the 15^th Annual Fine Furnishings Show at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

The CustomMade booth at the show

I work showcasing hundreds of custom pieces every day on the site. I read all about how each piece was crafted, what materials were used, what techniques were employed, and I try to capture the story of each individual artisan. But when I got to see and feel the rippling, shimmering waterfall bubinga of Michael Gloor’s custom entertainment center in real life for the first time as it made its entrée into the CustomMade booth, I was taken aback by the amount of care and attention that goes into choosing and honing each element of a custom piece. The pictures don’t do these pieces justice.

Shortly after we unwrapped Michael’s entertainment center, set his Window Chair in place, and lit up the group with a lamp from his Enoki Floor Lamp series, Jane from ECustomFinishes arrived with a warm smile and a show-stopping barnwood dining table. It was built like a rock. Jane explained, as Ben and I helped her attach the table legs easily with one wing nut apiece, that all of the salvaged barnwood that ECustom sources has been exposed to the elements and weathers as strong as granite. Jane also brought along a reclaimed barn door replete with original hardware and decorated with a photo-realistic custom portrait of the client’s dog painted by in-house artist George, pictured below. Bathing the table in warm Soutwestern light was David Sheppard’s Whitetail Lamp on Maple Burl, which added a whole different style element to our eclectic showroom. We chose work from seven diverse makers to illustrate that CustomMade embraces the uniqueness of each maker; part of the beauty of custom, we sought to convey to show-goers, lies in boundless variety and possibility.

Image taken from ECustomFinishes website

And that was only the left half of our booth! Rounding out the right half with some autumnal flair sat Roger Johnson’s Shaker End Table and Jewelry Box made of warm toned cherry, flanked by twinkling Spring Daisies, a delicate custom mosaic created by the team at Artaic: Innovative Mosaic, whose vitreous glass tiles went perfectly with our autumn mums and pumpkins and really turned the CustomMade booth into a décor space.

And last but certainly not least perched Geoffrey Warner’s wonderfully whimsical and colossally comfortable Owl Stool, making its second live appearance of the season in a CustomMade show space (the first time being at the Maker Faire in Queens which you can read all about here.) This time Geoffrey included an Owl Stool kit for people to purchase at a reasonable price and take home and assemble themselves.

The Owl Stool by Geoffrey Warner Studio, available at CustomMade.com

Having decked out the CustomMade booth with this cornucopia of fine custom furnishings of all stripes and styles, Cassie and I returned the following day to spread the custom message to all of the furniture connoisseurs in attendance (one lucky visitor went home with Michael’s elegant Window Chair!) and to meet a whole contingent of skilled furniture makers interested in learning more about CustomMade as a venue for garnering real internet attention for one-of-a-kind quality custom furnishings.

It was a pleasure to meet everyone – artisans from our site who we met in person for the first time, new faces of artisans producing outstanding work that we’re eager to welcome on board, and a wonderful group of consumers with discerning eyes and appreciation for custom quality and innovation.

Let us know what you thought of the show and where else you’d like to see CustomMade in the community!

-Arielle