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MODERN AMISH?

Prepare to be surprised by stylish new furniture with up-to-date features at traditional standards

By Mary Beth Breckenridge
Beacon Journal staff writer

Published on Saturday, Jul 05, 2008

This is Amish-made furniture:

A two-way dresser mirror that hides a flat-screen TV.

A wine bar constructed from unstained maple and cherry.

A display cabinet lighted by fiber optics that were developed by Swarovski to make its crystal sparkle.

If you thought Amish furniture was all oak breakfast sets and rocking chairs, you're in for a surprise.

Furniture makers in Ohio's Amish country have adapted to changing American tastes by producing furniture in a range of styles and finishes — contemporary Pottery Barn looks, elegant Queen Anne pieces and clean-lined Arts and Crafts designs among them. Yet they're having trouble shedding the image that all they build is country-style furniture with little heart cutouts.

''That label has stuck, and it just drives me nuts,'' furniture maker Ernest Hershberger said. Hershberger owns a furniture-manufacturing operation and a retail store, Homestead Furniture, in Mount Hope, an unincorporated community in Holmes County's Salt Creek Township.

Hershberger is Amish, but what his company makes isn't Amish furniture, he insisted. ''Amish is a chosen lifestyle. It's not furniture,'' he said.

What he and his contemporaries do make is solid hardwood furniture, much of it customized. But if the label ''Amish'' gets applied to imply quality, he said, he won't argue with its use.

Hershberger and other furniture makers and retailers in the area — many of them
Amish, but not all — banded together in 2005 to more effectively market their goods. With help from the Holmes County Chamber of Commerce and the Akron public-relations firm Kleidon and Associates, they're promoting the Amish settlements of Wayne, Holmes and Tuscarawas counties as the Furniture Heartland, a destination for fine hardwood furniture.

Small business

The furniture-making businesses in Amish country tend to be small by industry standards, employing anywhere from a couple of workers to a couple of dozen. Altogether the area has about 30 retailers and 450 manufacturers, making it the largest concentration of hardwood furniture builders in the nation, said Hershberger, a member and former president of the collective.

Many of the businesses sprang up as an economic alternative for Amish people who are being priced out of agriculture by the rising cost and dwindling availability of farmland, said Bonnie Coblentz, marketing coordinator for the chamber of commerce. Furniture making allows them to work close to home and maintain an agrarian lifestyle centered on family and community.

Many of those businesses built their reputations on country-style oak furniture, because until fairly recently it was popular in this area.

''That's what got us to where we are today,'' said Steve Swartzentruber, who works in his family's manufacturing and retail business, Green Acres Furniture near Mount Eaton in Wayne County's Paint Township. But ''as the styles and trends changed, we changed with them.''

The sales floors at Green Acres and Homestead exemplify that transition. You'll still find a few blond oak breakfast sets, but you'll also see a rustic, hand-distressed cherry dining table at Green Acres that was featured in the luxury magazine Robb Report; an Asian-inspired china cabinet in an up-to-date dark finish, also at Green Acres; and a bedroom set at Homestead with a design of intersecting arches, inspired by the Sydney Opera House.

''This is not what people expect,'' Hershberger said, showing a visitor a hand-planed, antiqued table and hutch.

Modern ways

Neither, most likely, are the manufacturing operations. Visitors might expect the Amish, who shun much of today's technology, to be building furniture from hand tools, but in at least some cases, these are modern manufacturing facilities.

Both Hershberger and the Swartzentrubers operate their equipment on diesel-generated power rather than electricity from the power grid. Steve Swartzentruber said diesel is more of a tradition among the Amish than a requirement, but it's one that's getting increasingly costly. Diesel fuel costs his company almost $500 a day, which recently prompted it to cut back to four 10-hour workdays a week from five nine-hour days.

While some smaller shops might rely on belt-driven tools, both the Hershberger and Swartzentruber operations are equipped with such up-to-date power equipment as laser-guided rip saws, air-powered nailers and hand-held sanders. Some of the equipment is quite sophisticated, such as machines that automatically cut dovetail joints or pocket holes for screw joinery.

Hershberger's operation has even been certified green by the Sustainable Furniture Council. Among its environmentally friendly features are skylights that eliminate the use of electric lighting on sunny days, an in-floor radiant heating system warmed by heat from one diesel engine, and a system that captures heat from another engine to help warm the fresh air drawn in by the air exchanger.

Hand labor is part of the companies' construction process, but only when power tools can't do the job as well. For example, Green Acres still leaves its distressing to artisans using such tools as specially designed mallets, planes with blades as tiny as a half-inch wide and even a chunk of quartz.

At both shops, like many in Amish country, pieces are built individually to order rather than being mass-produced. That allows for customization, from making simple changes such as altering the dimensions or switching out the legs, to having pieces designed from scratch to suit the customers' tastes and needs.

Much of the furniture produced in Amish country is heirloom quality, Hershberger said, yet the prices are considerably lower than those of bigger manufacturers making comparable pieces. For example, during a recent visit to the International Home Furnishings Market in High Point, N.C., Steve Swartzentruber spotted pieces from major high-end manufacturers that were commanding retail prices of $10,000 to $12,000; he said his company might sell similar items for $2,300 to $3,000.

''You're not going to find value like that anyplace else,'' he said.

Mary Beth Breckenridge is the Beacon Journal home writer. She can be reached at 330-996-3756, or at mbrecken@thebeaconjournal.com via e-mail.

 

This is Amish-made furniture:

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