Handcrafted in Woodshops, Available with a Mouse Click
Few items of furniture are as grand, impressive, and elegant as a well-appointed entertainment center. Imagine one with fluted columns, each topped by an intricately carved corbel, and an ornate crown molding decorated with a rope trim. Raised panels and seedy glass grace the sides and doors, respectively. The dark wood stain adds an opulent touch. This masterpiece doesn’t come from a massive factory in a big-city industrial complex. Skilled Amish craftsmen build it in a small woodshop at the end of a quiet country road lined with soybean fields. That’s the beauty of Amish solid wood furniture—handcrafted in woodshops with care in rural America and ready to order with just a click.
How popular is Amish furniture?
Amish furniture is popular thanks to its enduring designs, superior quality, customization, long-lasting value, and sustainability. Amish cabinetmakers build furniture for every room in the house, allowing you to buy single pieces or complete collections, like a living room set or bedroom suite.
Enduring designs
Amish furniture comes in a variety of styles, including Traditional, Shaker, Mission, Rustic, and Modern. Many pieces blend elements from different styles, letting you choose a look that reflects your personal taste.
Superior quality and durability
Amish artisans handcraft each piece from hardwoods like oak, cherry, and maple, known for their toughness and longevity. They use time-tested woodworking techniques such as dovetail and mortise-and-tenon joints, lap joints, and tongue-and-groove joints. The result: furniture that looks beautiful and lasts for generations.
Extensive customization
One of the biggest reasons customers choose Amish furniture is the ability to customize. You can select wood species, hardware, finish, soft-close doors and drawers, glass types for door inserts (clear, smoked, leaded, etc.), touch lights, and more—ensuring your furniture is exactly how you want it.
Long-lasting value
Amish solid wood furniture is highly durable and often passed down to the next generation. Solid wood also holds its value well and can even appreciate over time, making your purchase a long-term investment.
Sustainable practices
Environmentally conscious buyers appreciate that Amish cabinetmakers source hardwoods locally when possible and use natural stains and finishes. These sustainable practices minimize environmental impact while producing beautiful, lasting furniture.
Where is Amish furniture built?
Small, family-run woodshops—primarily in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Ohio—painstakingly handcraft Amish furniture. These woodshops often specialize in producing different types of furniture. For example, shops may confine their activities to building dining room furniture, entertainment furniture (such as TV cabinets, entertainment centers, and wall units), occasional tables, dining room chairs, or outdoor furniture. Other shops focus on other aspects of furniture building, such as steam bending (forming wood into complex shapes like chair backs) or finishing — applying paint, varnish, etc. By paying close attention to detail at each stage of production, Amish artisans make sure every item of furniture they produce is flawless when it leaves the woodshop.
Assembly lines put together most of the furniture sold in big-box furniture stores. These pieces of furniture are typically built with manufactured woods like particleboard and medium-density fiberboard (MDF), often with veneers or laminates bonded to them. This explains why manufactured wood furniture looks so much like actual hardwood furniture. Yet, manufactured wood furniture does not deliver the natural beauty, strength, and durability of solid wood furniture. Nor does it replicate the perfect fit and finish of handcrafted furniture made in Amish woodshops!
Are Amish cabinetmakers trained?
Yes. Amish cabinetmakers are highly skilled craftsmen, having received hands-on training from their fathers, who in turn were taught by their dads in a tradition that goes back to the old country.
Amish boys (and girls) attend Amish schools through the 8th grade. After that, the young men train in a practical craft that can provide an income and help ensure they remain in the Amish community. Farming, welding, carpentry, and cabinetmaking are the primary trades.
For the most part, training in cabinetmaking focuses on handcrafting using traditional tools such as hand saws, chisels, and hand planes. Also, the Amish use modern tools that utilize compressed air powered by diesel generators. In this way, the Amish can work more efficiently without depending on municipally supplied electricity.
Amish dads also pass on several tried-and-true techniques to their sons. These include joining pieces of hardwood with dovetail and mortise and tenon joints, which are renowned for strength and durability. Amish boys also learn how to use countersunk screws instead of nails and brads.
The extensive training of Amish cabinetmakers shows up in the exquisitely crafted, incredibly elegant, heirloom-quality furniture the Amish are famous for!
What tools do Amish cabinetmakers use when Furniture is Handcrafted in Woodshops?
Amish cabinetmakers utilize a combination of traditional tools and modern power tools, along with first-rate craftsmanship and careful attention to detail, in order to create superior-quality solid wood furniture.
The Amish use hand saws, hand planes, hatchets, and awls to cut, smooth, shape, and drill holes in furniture, respectively. To increase efficiency and stay within the Amish church’s rule of avoiding ‘worldly’ municipal electricity, Amish craftsmen use pneumatic tools powered by diesel engines. These tools include power drills, miter saws, circular saws, sanders, and buffers. Power tools enable the Amish to enhance efficiency while retaining their personalized, hands-on cabinetmaking style.
What woods do the Amish use for cabinetmaking?
Amish cabinetmakers typically build furniture with several hardwoods, including oak, maple, cherry, hickory, and walnut. To a lesser extent, the Amish also use elm, birch, and mahogany. Furniture builders prefer hardwoods over softwoods (like fir, pine, and spruce) because hardwoods are denser, tougher, and more durable.
People choose different hardwoods because of their individual characteristics. For example, oak is highly favored due to its strength, durability, and relatively lower price compared to other hardwoods. Cabinetmakers also favor oak when they cut the log in a “quarter-sawn” manner. Lumber with this cut is more impervious to warping, compared to ‘plain-cut’ oak. Quarter-sawn oak also has an attractive ‘flecking’ grain pattern.
Maple is the wood of choice due to its strength and resistance to dings and bumps. Add its eye-catching grain pattern, and it’s easy to see why maple is ideal for furniture with smooth, even surfaces – such as cabinets, armoires, and dining room tables and chairs.
Cabinetmakers love using cherry for bedroom and office furniture, to a great degree because of its warm, reddish-brown color and resistance to warping.
Hickory has the distinction of being one of the toughest regional hardwoods and one that has a unique grain pattern. Hickory’s strength and texture often lead people to choose it for rustic furniture. Rustic pieces made from hickory often have a ‘live edge’ featuring bark or unfinished, rough-hewn wood.
With its rich, dark color, walnut frequently inspires makers and buyers to select it for high-end furniture.
Can I custom-order Amish furniture Handcrafted in Woodshops?
Yes. You can custom-order most Amish furniture. This includes asking for the hardwood of your choice — such as oak, maple, cherry, and hickory. You can also request the hardware and finish of your choice from a long list of options. Other elements you can choose include the type of glass in a cabinet or door (such as plain, smoked, seedy, or leaded). Also, some pieces of furniture let you select items like LED lights, soft-closed doors and/or drawers, plus a mirror back (used in dining room hutches and curio cabinets).
Customization gives you the freedom and joy of ordering furniture just the way you like it.
Are there Amish retail stores where you can see the furniture?
Yes. There are several ‘brick-and-mortar’ Amish furniture stores where you can see, touch, feel, and smell Amish furniture for yourself. You’ll find most of these retailers within or close to large communities of Amish people in places like Shipshewana and Nappanee, Ind., Holmes County, Ohio, and Lancaster County, Pa.
The Amish stores sell handcrafted Amish furniture and accessories made by Amish artisans who work in small, family-run woodshops and similar facilities within the respective Amish communities.
Weaver Furniture Sales in Shipshewana, Ind., is one such Amish furniture store. A full-line furniture retailer, Weaver offers a complete range of solid hardwood, custom-made Amish furniture for your entire home. Small shops in Northern Indiana and North-Central Ohio craft the fine furniture that fills their 25,000+ square-foot showroom. Also, Weaver sells furniture through their online furniture catalog.
Weaver focuses on selling Amish furniture made with hardwoods like oak, maple, cherry, hickory, and walnut. These pieces are all designed and handcrafted to last for generations. Weaver’s number one goal is to serve customers by providing handcrafted heirloom furniture custom-built to fulfill a plethora of needs and desires.
Can I get good online help when shopping for Amish furniture Handcrafted in Woodshops?
Yes. You can get online help when ordering Amish furniture online through the real-time communication tool, LiveChat. It allows businesses like Weaver Furniture Sales to interact with customers. After you log into the Weaver site online, simply click the chat box icon in the bottom right corner of the webpage for the Amish furniture item you’re interested in. A knowledgeable product specialist will respond to and answer your questions in real time.
Can Amish furniture be delivered to my house?
Yes. Our team ships Amish furniture to homes across the continental United States — including yours. Dealers typically offer three delivery options: curbside delivery, in-home delivery, and in-home setup (also called white-glove delivery). Simply choose one of these options when you place your order.
Curbside delivery: This means the driver will place your furniture on your driveway or on the sidewalk outside your apartment or townhome. You will be responsible for taking the furniture into your home. Many people who choose curbside delivery arrange for friends or neighbors to help them move the furniture inside.
In-home delivery: The truck driver will bring your furniture into your home and remove the packaging. Setups (like for a bed or hutch top) may not be part of this plan.
In-home setup (also called white glove delivery): The delivery crew (usually the driver and an assistant) will carry your furniture to the room/s requested and set up the furniture (such as assembling beds or placing hutch tops on hutch bases).
Furniture dealers sometimes ship smaller items of furniture or accessories via delivery services like UPS, FedEx, and USPS.
Can I order Amish furniture online?
Yes. Many Amish furniture retailers maintain an online presence, making it easy for customers to order furniture and accessories directly from their websites. One such dealer is Weaver Furniture Sales, located in Shipshewana, the Amish capital of Indiana. Weaver offers handcrafted Amish furniture and accessories for every room in your home. You may order pieces directly from their inventory. Alternatively, you can custom-order pieces, and they will be built exactly as you like them. That’s Weaver furniture — handcrafted in woodshops, available with a mouse click! Weaver offers handcrafted solid wood Amish furniture for your work and Amish furniture made for living spaces in all areas of your home.
