Our furniture is individually handcrafted to a high quality standard from solid wood and other natural materials, fundamentally enhancing its value.
Made From Environmentally Sustainable Materials: The solid hardwoods used in our furniture are locally grown and harvested. Most of the wood used in our organic furniture does not travel more than 50 miles from where it is grown to the craftsman's workshop.
Our solid wood furniture is designed to last longer than the time it takes for the renewable resource (hardwoods) to regrow. Furniture created from manufactured 'fake' woods begins showing its age after just a few years; composite wood can not be repaired or refinished. The obsolescence of poorly-made furniture creates a substantial carbon impact. Our organic furniture, by contrast, is built to outlast its buyer. This reduces our furniture's lifetime carbon footprint of our furniture, as it avoids the destructive cycle of disposal, re-manufacture, and repeated shipping over generations.
Please click here for more details on the origin of our hardwoods.
Supports our Local Economy and Community:
Your purchase of an Erik Organic furniture piece helps to directly support the Midwestern economy.
1. The solid hardwoods used in our furniture are locally grown and harvested in the Upper Midwest. Most of our wood is harvested from land within 50 miles of the Amish craftsmen we work with in Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin. Purchase of this wood employs midwestern farmers with sections of their land set aside for selective hardwood harvesting, tree farms, and sawmill operators. Hardwoods are the largest single expense/component of our furniture.
2. We use high quality metal hardware and wood finishes, the major components of which are all manufactured in the USA. The hardware for our baby cribs is manufactured in Tennessee. Our wood finishes are manufactured in Wisconsin and Ohio. Our organic mattresses are manufactured in California.
3. Purchase of our furniture employs Amish craftsmen and their assistants, who purchase most of their goods and services from the local community. The multiplier effect of this income is significant.
4. Erik Organic is a small business that employs several people. We strongly believe that a business must uphold its end of the social contract by being responsible to its customers, to the land, and to the community at large.
Beautiful Craftsmanship Which Will Last a Lifetime: The skill and dedication of our Amish craftsmen assures a high level of quality.
Our furniture is created from solid hardwood including cherry and hard maple. The hardwoods used in our furniture is locally grown and harvested in the Upper Midwest.
Having access to amazing stands of hardwood, as our Amish craftsman do, is very important when building a quality piece of furniture. But building to last involves more than just having the right wood that's been properly prepared - it involves a lot of knowledge, patience, and commitment.
Time honored methods of building fine furniture mean these pieces take a lot more time to assemble than mass-produced products. But a well-constructed baby crib or dining room table necessitates this kind of construction.
When things are made by the hands and eyes of a skilled craftsan, they can feel and see things a machine cannot. And when those eyes are those of an experienced Amish craftsman who takes the time to build in the way he learned from his father so many years ago, the process of making an heirloom has begun before the furniture is even started.
And so it goes, from father to son, the right way to make a piece of furniture that can stand the test of time. Building to last is something that can only be taught, not written about. The apprenticeships of the Amish craftsmen who build our furniture are part of the process of standing up over time, because the process itself has already stood up over time.
That's what makes each handcrafted furniture piece from Erik Organic special, and how you know it is built to last - because it has already stood the most important test of time.
Pass it On To Your Grandchildren: Because our solid wood furniture is designed to outlast the buyer, the overall cost of our furniture is reduced, as it can be depreciated it over a long period of time and then resold or passed on to your children or grandchildren.
Our furniture will become the next generation's heirlooms and antiques.
Additional Information
We encourage you to read about our company's history and philosophy, read comments from our customers, and give us a call to discuss your questions in detail.
