The Idea

Furniturea (fur-ni-chur-ah) designs and manufactures contemporary hardwood furniture in a rural modern style. Our skilled designers and cabinetmakers work with simple, functional, traditional forms taken from rural Maine architecture and the decorative arts and imbue them with a modern style and whimsical spirit.

• The irregular outlines of old interconnected farm buildings become the inspiration for Furniturea mirrors and tables.
• The austere designs of 19th century Shaker cabinetmakers are re-interpreted in the Furniturea armoire and chests.
• Rustic Adirondack camp furniture designs are polished and updated in a shutterback chair and bed.
• The lattice surrounds on early 20th century shingled cottages are reimagined in a lattice bed.
• The architectural quality of the Furniturea side chair is reminis- cent of the striking angles created by the disparate elements that comprise an old Maine timber framed barn.

These are all examples of the genesis of Furniturea's singular rural modern designs.

Our Story

The company that would become Furniturea was started as a carpentry company in 1974 in Bridgton, a small town in rural western Maine. Brian Haddock, the 1st and for awhile the only employee, combined his formal design education and his interest in craft to found a carpentry company to repair and restore old houses. There were plenty of old houses that needed repair and restoration in rural western Maine.

After 10 years in Bridgton, the company relocated to Portland. Maine's largest city presented interesting craft challenges and a much broader range of architectural woodworking projects. The company's portfolio included buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, 19th and 20th century residential and commercial structures in a myriad of styles, and new contemporary houses developed by the growing Portland professional design community. Commissions for new contemporary houses led naturally to orders for custom contemporary furniture to complement the new spaces.

In 1992, the company ceased carpentry and architectural woodwork operations to focus exclusively on furniture production. For many years the company helped develop and build products for other companies, Maine Cottage Furniture among them.

After 14 years, however, the lure of more closely managing the design process and regaining a direct relationship with the customer led to the development of a unique collection of contemporary furniture designs and the creation of Furniturea. The Furniturea store and gallery opened in the spring of 2006 to the delight of employees and customers alike. We hope you enjoy our furniture designs and invite you to visit our store at 75 Market Street in the historic Old Port Exchange District of Portland, Maine.

Our Furniture

Our furniture is all made one piece at a time in our Portland workshop and is ready for shipment, built to your specification, within 4 weeks of the time your order is placed. Additionally, we can customize nearly all our designs to meet your exact requirements in size, shape and color.

Furniturea designs are made to last with a singular style and thoughtful functionality and are available exclusively through our website and our Portland store. Choose a style. Select a color. Our furniture will make a lasting statement of contemporary style in your home.

Our Environmental Positions

We take our environmental responsibility seriously and believe it should encompass what is made, how it's made, what it's made from, and the way employees and customers are treated along the way.

Furniture is useful, has value and is worthy of our time and effort. The raw materials that are used in the construction of our furniture are renewable and sourced locally. All manufacturing is done entirely in our Portland shop. We are a hands on company and believe that it's important to provide employment opportunities in our community.

Our furniture is designed to maximize the utilization of raw materials and minimize the production of waste. Small furniture pieces are designed to utilize the raw material cutoffs from the larger pieces. The cutting of all our veneered panels is computer optimized to maximize yield, with cutting waste routinely under 5%. In addition, our furniture meets the 2009 California Air Resources Board limits for formaldehyde emissions, the strictest production standards in the world. Our paints are all environmentally friendly water-based formulations.

Employees and customers are treated fairly and honestly. Many of our customers have made multiple purchases and a third of all our orders are custom requests resulting from collaborations between our designers and our customers. We must be doing something right. In addition, our production employees share 20% of the pre-tax profits of the company, which is only fair since they play an important role in generating those profits.

Construction Details

Furniturea uses kiln dried maple and birch hardwood and veneer harvested locally from the forests of New England and eastern Canada.

All our products are free of added formaldehyde and meet California's 2009 clean air standards (see more on "Our Environmental Position"). Our furniture makers combine traditional cabinetmaking skills with state of the art computerized manufacturing processes to build rural modern contemporary furniture that expresses the art of the individual builder and showcases the quality inherent in a 21st century manufacturing environment.

Beds, seating and case goods are glued and doweled for maximum strength and durability. Table and desks utilize a proprietary steel leg plate construction design that provides strength and a construction flexibility that makes custom sizes easy to achieve. The furniture hardware is a high quality European design with a lifetime guarantee. Drawer slides are smooth operating epoxy coated steel with ball bearing nylon rollers. Drawers are self-closing and are rated to support 100 lbs. The self closing door hinges are concealed behind the doors and are easily adjusted in the field for a perfect fit. All furniture is designed and manufactured by Furniturea in our workshop in Portland, Maine.

Product Specifications

Our furniture is made with kiln dried maple and birch timber and veneered panels and is guaranteed to be free of defects in materials and workmanship.

All described dimensions are approximate. If exact fractional dimensions are important for furniture placement, please consult with Customer Service.

Our 24 colors are all environmentally friendly water-borne pigmented urethane enamels that are safe for us to use and beautiful for you to live with. All products receive a 3 coat finish. The 1st coat is a primer/sealer which provides a good base for our colors and prevents heartwood "bleed through" on our lighter colors. The 2nd and 3rd coats are color with a thorough hand sanding between each coat. The finished surfaces can be easily cleaned with soap and a damp cloth.

Doorknobs and drawer pulls are manufactured to our design in cast brass in a choice of 3 finishes - silver, gold and pewter.

Our beds are uniquely designed to provide a comfortable, consistent 27" bedding height above the finished floor. Beds are made to order to your bedding specifications and will accommodate mattress and box spring dimensions from 6" to 18" thick. All beds are also available as platforms and are easily assembled without tools. The Settee and Daybed have a bedding height of 22" above the finished floor, a more comfortable height for seating.

The website illustrates our stock furniture but most all of our pieces can be customized with only a minor up-charge. We can accomplish this because our original designs were developed with customization in mind. Please contact Customer Service for more information on customization.

All products - except beds - are shipped fully assembled. Smaller pieces are shipped UPS while larger pieces go "white glove". Our white glove shipper is Clark & Reid, known nationally for its outstanding service.