The CustomMade Experience Featured on NorthJersey.com

Do you realize just how many different things can get the custom treatment, like a “lobster tickler,” a stool made from a sawed-up telephone pole, or a feng shui inspired entry door that holds a mezuzah?  At CustomMade, we love promoting the diversity of custom services we make accessible and telling the stories behind the one-of-a-kind projects consumers commission through our website.  These two aspects of the CustomMade experience and the works of three CustomMade artisans from New Jersey were featured extensively in an article by Sachi Fujimori on the news website NorthJersey.com and in the print newspaper, The Record.

Website creates marketplace for hand-crafted furniture and more

By Sachi Fujimori, staff writer for The Record

When decorating your home, investing in a few well-constructed and unique furniture pieces can really make a room. But if you’re on a budget and no longer in the colonial era where you can visit the village cabinetmaker, are you simply stuck with that generic, mass-produced coffee table?

Not anymore — thanks to CustomMade.com, an online marketplace that shepherds the work of some 2,100 artisans and independent furniture makers into the digital age, making it easier for customers to find them. The search capabilities are powerful, allowing shoppers to browse by location, price, material and even style. If Arts and Crafts is more your look than country, Art Deco or Art Nouveau, you can save time by clicking on that specific design category.

For those who have a clear vision of an item they desire, but have neither the means nor skills to create it, another section of the site allows customers to post requests for products to be made. One recent customer, a scuba diver from Massachusetts, posted a request for an aluminum “lobster tickler,” a device to catch crustaceans under water, and even uploaded a hand sketch of what it should look like.

While the Cambridge, Mass.- based Web company originally began as a community of carpenters, it has since expanded into an Internet shop for all things handcrafted — including bronze horse statues, engagement rings, Native American flutes, stained glass windows and steering wheels. If you’re looking for something made by hand, chances are you can find it on this site, or at least an artisan who can create it.

Bentley GT Speed Steering Wheels by Rau Automotive Woodwork at CustomMade.com

It didn’t occur to Teaneck’s Terry Schile that she could have a tailor-made front door for her family’s newly built home, until all the suppliers kept telling her she’d have to go custom made. “I thought it was too expensive,” said Schile, a mom of two, who runs a fashion program for girls.

But what she wanted was unique. The entranceway is more than 10 feet wide. And she wanted a single door to fill that space. After consulting with a feng shui expert, she and her husband also wanted to have hidden compartments in the door to hold Hebrew scriptures, welcoming good energy and prosperity into the home — their own spiritual interpretation of the Jewish practice of hanging a mezuzah on the doorframe.

Searching CustomMade.com, Schile found furniture designer Scott Dworkin of Fort Lee, who was able to bring their vision to life. Dworkin came up with the idea to install rows of square, raised panels to hold the scriptures, and suggested a rich, dark, solid mahogany. “He really questioned us on what we like, and navigated us very well,” said Schile, whose husband owns a medical financial business. The final price tag was over $8,000 for the door, said Schile, but this was not much more than if they had gone the manufacturer’s route. “It really changed the way I thought about custom made. At the end of the day it’s a little bit more, but no one else would have done what we wanted for our dream home,” she said.

Exotic Wood Door by Scott Dworkin Designs at CustomMade.com

E-mail: fujimori@northjersey.com

Eugene Greco File

Business: TEG Enterprise with partner Dave Zeltner

Where: Washington Township

Specialty: cabinet making and fine woodworking

Training: A former pharmacist who did woodworking as a hobby/passion. Ten years ago he went full time. His partner has 35 years of experience, starting right out of high school.

FYI: If you’re ready to invest in a piece of furniture that can stay with you for life, and even be passed onto your children, Eugene Greco can help. He recently created an armoire/shoe closet for a client, built to fit perfectly between a doorframe and opposite wall. Sure, this customer spent a lot more than you would for assemble-at-home pieces, but now she doesn’t have to worry about it falling apart, and the 8-foot-high maple armoire with a white lacquer finish makes an elegant statement in the room. “It’s better quality, better finish, and it will last,” said Greco.

Greco worked for two decades as a pharmacist but always had a passion for woodworking. One of his early projects was to create a cradle and crib for his daughter. About 10 years ago, he turned his hobby into his full-time job. As a furniture maker, Greco understands the beauty of wood. “It’s unique, very beautiful, nothing compares to it.” Cherry, mahogany, zebra wood and bird’s-eye maple are among his raw materials. He recently outfitted a client’s entire corporate office in rich, black walnut— the shelving units, the wainscoting, the espresso bar, even the fish tank. “The color is very unique, it’s brown with no stain, and has very good grain details,” said Greco.

How much: $500 for single cabinet up to thousands for certain jobs.

Shoe-Clothing Armoire by TEG Enterprise Inc. at CustomMade.com

Scott Dworkin File

Business: Scott Dworkin Designs

Where: Fort Lee (home), Palisades Park (workshop)

Speciality: Creates one-of-a–kind “live edge” slab tables, custom doors and other furniture.

Training: Rhode Island School of Design, industrial design 1985.

FYI: A graduate of the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, Dworkin is a wood purist. His specialty is modern slab tables that are made from large, irregular pieces of wood — stripped, sanded and oiled, and left relatively untouched, so the material’s natural beauty can shine through. On a recent morning in his Palisades Park workshop, he had recently finished the table top for a 137-inch-long dining room table, worthy of the Last Supper. Its sides curved with the natural shape of the tree, its surface was as smooth as silk.

Another of his specialties is working with burl slabs, an abnormal growth found on tree trunks that are prized by woodworkers for their swirled patterns and rough edges. His burl jewelry boxes look like abstract sculptures— with a playful side—boasting secret storage compartments. One of the oddest requests he ever received was from a client who sent him stumps from a sawed-up telephone pole from Colorado, hoping to turn them into stools. “My pieces have their own personality,” he said.

How much: Cocktail tables start at about $500, dining room tables start at about $1,200.

Helmut Schreiber file

Business: Trunk to Trunk

Where: Haledon

Speciality: Hand-dovetailed wooden trunks.

Training: Three-year apprenticeship in his native Berlin in mill work and cabinetry. Moved to the U.S. in 1955. Worked as a carpenter for many years.

FYI: It would be more efficient if Helmut Schreiber used a machine to cut the dovetailed corners on his trunks. A centuries-old technique, a dovetail joint seamlessly connects two pieces of wood, like interlocking fingers— with no unsightly nails or fasteners needed. Carving the interlocking pieces by hand results in a beautiful, albeit slightly imperfect joint. “Most people don’t do it because it’s time consuming,” said Schreiber. “But some people still appreciate the hand dovetailing. I love doing it.”

His one-of-a kind quilt and blanket chests take about three to five days to create, and are meant to be family heirlooms that last for generations. Schreiber has relationships with local tree doctors to obtain prized pieces of lumber. He works with oak, cherry, walnut, ash, Kentucky coffee wood and Chinese elm.

The German-born cabinetmaker also does wooden repair work for classic cars and fireplaces, and has created custom furniture pieces from hutches to doors.

How much: Dovetailed trunks $800-$1,700. Trunks without dovetail (such as toy chests) start at $450.

Blanket Chest with Drawers (Elm and Cedar) by Trunk to Trunk at CustomMade.com

Congratulations to CustomMade and TEG Enterprise Inc., Scott Dworkin Designs, and Trunk to Trunk!