COMING SOON
Environmentally Conscious
Each piece of furniture from Practical Hardwoods is made from logs attained right here in Northern Indiana. These trees once adorned residences for decades until something happened that they had to be cut down. Instead of chopping them up and burning or discarding them, we decided to save them and turn them into fine furniture.
The results are sometimes unique grains and colors you don't often find at a retail lumber mill. We’re not buying lumber that doesn’t need to be cut down. We’re saving trees that couldn’t be saved.
For more information about how we work to reduce our carbon footprint, click here.
Each Piece has a Story
Because the source of our materials come from unique places, we include the story behind each piece we build with our shipments. You may have ordered a Crazy Uncle, Farley’s Landing, or Captain Joe Smutz for your living room, but that Crazy Uncle began in someone’s yard, had to be cut down for whatever reason, was milled up by a friend of ours nearby, and then was custom crafted for its new life in your home. We’ll tell you about it! We might even include a few photos. Then, when your family and friends ask about your Crazy Uncle, you can tell ‘em where it came from and how it ended up in your living room!
Functional Elegance
Our designs are strong and simple. Pieces are made with practical use in mind. We won’t waste time adding little doohickeys just for show. If it doesn’t have a point, it’s not on the piece. All the parts serve a purpose to the overall structure and strength. As a constant, these purposeful parts must provide a proper benefit and be built with bold brandishing to make your family and friends say, “Wow, that’s really cool!”
Strong and Solid
Okay, so when you first started on your own, you decorated your apartment in the “Early American Hodgepodge” motif. Your days of thrift store shopping and hand-me-downs are over. No more wobbly stuff. No more stuff that collapses after each move. No more spending hours assembling your own stuff only to find they didn’t include all the parts! Time to get serious about your furniture selections.
Each of our solid-wood pieces are glued, screwed, and jointed with age-old furniture craftsmanship. No particle board in this stuff! No veneers either. This is the real thing. Seriously. We’ve also slapped a 3-year warranty on it just to ease your worries. How do we know? Because our prototypes have withstood the kid test and still stand strong today.
About the Builder
Sam Shultz
Sam Shultz is a single father, a pastor, and works multiple jobs while maintaining a love for fine furniture. He attended Anderson University and has a Master’s degree from Ashland Theological Seminary. He has three girls between the ages of 9 and 13. He is located in Goshen, Indiana, right in the heart of Amish country and has been influenced by their simple craftsmanship with acute attention to detail.
As a child, when other kids spent their mornings watching Saturday morning cartoons, you could find Sam watching woodworking shows on PBS. His father is a skilled craftsman and gave Sam his first workbench, complete with some scrap wood and set of tools, at age 12. Pretty sweet gift! While in high school, Sam further developed his love for custom woodworking while excelling in shop class. He built all the required pieces in a few weeks and then a few more of his own concepts with the extra time.
After his wife left, Sam couldn’t afford to replace all the living room furniture. So he built his own. Friends and family were impressed by the furniture and the stories behind them. Needing to make some extra money to fully support his family, Sam started selling a few extra pieces he made.
Sam still custom builds each piece of furniture in his home wood shop while maintaining a full-time job. You’ll hear him signing along to the radio in his shop or laughing at something funny. Despite the hardships he’s faced in life, Sam’s kept his sense of humor, his pleasant smile, and his genuine heart for others.