Starting tomorrow, February 17, 2010, Fine Woodworking author and CustomMade.com subscriber, Tony O’Malley will be taking part in a 3-day building competition – the Buildoff.  He’ll compete with Gary Striegler at Fine Homebuilding to make a mudroom built-in.  (Apartment Therapy readers might remember Tony from the post on his amazing Home Library with Window Seat.  Wow.)

You can join them for a live video chat from the set tomorrow.  Check out more information about the Buildoff here: http://www.finehomebuilding.com/item/11021/a-countdown-to-the-big-buildoff

P.S. Make sure you check out Tony’s post on custom cabinetry for your flat-screen TV – he’s got some great ideas!

Rockler Woodworking and Hardware is the official sponsor of the 2010 CustomMade.com Design Challenge. Celebrating its 55th anniversary as a family-run business, Rockler Woodworking and Hardware is the nation’s premier supplier of specialty hardware, tools, lumber and high-quality woodworking products.

Tiger maple, Birdseye maple, Curly cherry, Flame birch. Guest contributor Bob Kloes of Kloes Custom Furniture shares with us what it is that makes the furniture made from these woods so unique:

Tiger Maple tabletop

“Most all the furniture I have built and sold in the last 10 years has been made from one or more of these woods. Some of the best and most valued pieces in America’s history have been made from these woods. When built and finished correctly, the furniture made from these woods are like nothing else on Earth. The figure of the wood adds depth and makes it appear like you are looking into a deep pool of water. You want to touch it.

The cost and labor in making furniture from these can be much more than the same piece made in plain cherry or maple.  Just finding these special woods takes lots of time and effort.  I can buy 1000’s of feet of curly maple, but to make the best piece I need to pick and choose my material slowly. I have to match grain and color and even the shape of the figure from board to board. I can spend several days laying pieces out so everything comes together just right.

Curly Cherry keeping chest

I want wide pieces for the sides and tops, including tabletops.  But, when using wide boards, you have to make sure they are properly dried and finished, so the boards stay flat and won’t crack.  And working figured lumber entails the use of special cutters that must always have the sharpest possible edge. Everything involved in working and finishing these woods takes time and expertise to get the best out of the lumber’s figure.  But the finished product is something that no store or large furniture factory can give you; beautiful, hand built, custom furniture for a lifetime of enjoyment.”

Bob Kloes

www.bobkloes.com

Our New Partner, Rockler Woodworking

This week we announced a strategic partnership with Rockler Woodworking and Hardware. You can read the press release –as picked up by Forbes– here.

Some have been asking us what a strategic partnership between two of the larger players in the industry means to the custom woodworking industry.  We wanted to partner with an organization that believed in the same thing that we did:  The value proposition in buying something custom. We believe that as more and more consumers realize the value they can get by purchasing custom, the market for these products will grow exponentially. Together, we are going to put a lot of hard work, time, and resources behind making this vision a reality.  Please, before you decide to buy something that was cheaply made, consider CustomMade.

Browse our galleries and see what our woodworkers have to offer!

When you can’t seem to find the right piece of furniture to fit your space, it’s tempting to try to just do it yourself. But unless you know what you’re doing, the results can be pretty comical.

This is what we came up with when we built a base for a few extra tabletops to create two more desks in our office.

Some Custom Joinery on our New Desks!

Check out the exposed joinery (the screws)! It reminded us why it makes sense to pay someone who actually knows what they are doing.

Do you have a photo of your own DIY project that could use a custom made makeover? Share your photos on our Facebook page.

This weekend, we travelled to the Fine Furnishings & Fine Craft Shows at the Rhode Island Convention Center. We enjoyed touring around the show and seeing many examples of Custom Furniture, Custom Furnishings, Living Room Furniture, Dining Room Furniture, and many other furnishings. We also were able to hand out flyers to each of the 1200 attendees. These flyers urged the attendees to visit CustomMade.com so that all of our members could get exposure even if you could not make the trip down to Providence.

We were perusing an internet woodworking forum and noticed a thread talking about CustomMade.com and whether or not it was a good value. A lot of the discussion in that thread revolved around the topic of how many “hits” the site generated for its artisan members. While we often discuss average “pageviews” on the older website in our marketing materials, we noticed some people using the terms “hit” and “pageview” interchangeably when talking about the value proposition of subscribing to our website.

Here are our definitions of these terms;

A “pageview” is the same as an “impression” – it’s anytime a user views a picture of an artisan’s work or their profile page. On the old website (replaced by the current Version 2.0), the average subscriber received between 4,000 and 6,000 pageviews a month. About 60,000 pageviews per year.

A “hit” is a click-through from our website to the Artisan’s personal website. The new site has been up for a little more than 30 days – in that time, we have subscribers getting 20 click-throughs, and we have folks who have gotten over 300 click-throughs. Interestingly, the folks with more content seem to be getting less click-throughs and far more pageviews and exposure. We think that makes perfect sense – consumers seem to prefer the profiles they can browse without going offsite to clicking off site to view more work examples. It’s easier, after all.

The most common misconception seems to be that a “click-through” or a “hit” is much better than a pageview… which we don’t think this is necessarily true. Consumers coming to our website do so in order to see everything in one place – they don’t want to click-through to individual artisan’s web pages primarily because it’s a hassle. They enjoy the ability to browse and contact artisan’s without having to jump around. The majority of the contacts/leads that occur through our website are now actually happening through the “Contact” button in the individual Artisan’s profile… meaning that people are viewing the work example and choosing to contact the artisan without ever having gone to the Artisan’s personal web page.

We think the key is getting exposure to your content (examples of your work) in as many relevant places as possible – so the consumer can interact with the Artisan in a streamlined way that meets with their browsing preference.

Please refer to this video to better understand how to use the new version of CustomMade.com. Please make sure your volume is on, there is lots of great information here!

Directions for Subscribers on how to use CustomMade.com Version 2.0 from CustomMade on Vimeo.

Jonathon Cox of Brigham Young University created a piece called “Split Personality,” which features some detailed some wonderful surface detail on a carved natural edge. His tabletop is cantilevered and the pedestal is connected with a pinned double bridle joint.

He entry was in the post-secondary school category and this career goal is to eventually become a high school woodshop teacher.