Handcrafted Cottage Furniture

[Country~Cottage~Chic]

Hello...
My husband and I design and build Cottage Chic furniture. We have been doing this for a few years now...it started off as a hobby for Doug and has since turned into our passion and business.
I would love any ideas any of you may have as to what we can add to our designs. We use salvaged woods and adornements on each piece...we try to make each piece an original. Our main customer base comes from shop owners who order display units from us and sell them as well...as the pieces sell, we design and build another for their shop.
We live in a small mountain community that is mainly log homes and cabins, so our furntiure is shipped mainly to CA, FL and PA.
Within the past few months, we have become quite busy with new customers finding our website and by word of mouth.
Please visit our site and and feel free to give us feedback on what we can add.
Thank You.
Michelle
~ www.countrycottagechic.com (http://www.countrycottagechic.com/) ~

[zuzus_garden]

Hi Michelle and Doug!

Welcome! Your furniture is wonderful.

I do have a suggestion for your website. You have so much to offer that it takes quite awhile for all the images to load. Perhaps you could create more pages with fewer pics per page. For example, create a page just for your pet beds (very cute by the way), another page just for Armoires, etc. Not only would the images load faster, people could go directly to the items they are most interested in.

Glad you've joined us here.

:)

Zuzu

[Country~Cottage~Chic]

Hi Zuzu...
I have actually been working on the site today adding pages...I really like your suggestion. Thank you. I will continue tomorrow and see what I can do.
I am new at this and am so glad I found this forum...I have had great emails and suggestions.
Thanks Again.
Michelle
~ www.countrycottagechic.com (http://www.countrycottagechic.com) ~

[CarolB]

Cute website! Thanks for sharing!

Carol

[Country~Cottage~Chic]

Carol,
Thank you for taking a peek at the site!
Michelle
~ www.countrycottagechic.com (http://www.countrycottagechic.com/) ~

[greenoak]

nice site!!!! your designs are beautifulll....i like the new cupboard a lot.....

can you tell me about your shipping?
how do you ship the big stuff? do you have to put it on a pallet? what are the shipping costs like? how much prep work do you have to do to send out a big piece? the best i have found is trucking companies who want it strapped down on a pallet so they can move it with a fork lift.....we dont ship and sell ours from our store.....

thanks ....ann
www.greenoakantiques.com

[Country~Cottage~Chic]

Hi Ann,
We use Old Dominion Freight...they are wonderful! The only fault is they will not deliver to a home...they will drop off at their nearest port to the customers address and the cusotmer is responsible to get it home. We also use R&L Trucking...also great. We do not crate many pieces...Just pack the heck out of them and wrap them in cardboard. Huge pieces we will crate...but very rare. If you need phone numbers, let me know. We are very happy with both of these shippers.
Thank you...I also love the new cupboard. I keep hinting around that I would love this in our new home...we are moving in a month or so. So far, not much luck!
Have checked out your site in the past...Very nice! You all make furniture too? We had a showroom in town, but live in a tiny mountain town in NC and our website did much better, so we shut the showroom down. We are moving back to FL and have not decided whether to have a shop or just keep with the website...guess we will see how it goes once we are settled.
Let me know if you need the shippers info.
Thanks.
Michelle
~ www.countrycottagechic.com (http://www.countrycottagechic.com) ~

[greenoak]

thanks michelle..i have the phone numbers.... glad to hear its possible......the truckers tell us we have to strap and put on pallets....i know its not exactly right because of what you and others say....we might not have the time to do it anyway.....do you charge for packing? i would have to pay someone to do that part.......

i have 3 guys who make ours..and we dont use pine...they get wood in quantity at a mill, elm, maple, beech etc that might have a knot hole etc....but its all painted so its good..and so much better than what you would get at lowes etc......i design ...then we paint at the store.... we make between 10 and 20 a week.... we are happy as long as we can sell everything right here and not ship......then dh takes 30 to penn. to a cash and carry 2 times a year.... my favorite type of customer here at the store is a woman with a big store and a big truck!!!!


i want to get more into the rehabbed , but the best carpenter likes to have it simple and do the same thing over and over....he might make 30 of the big porch post cupboards in a year...and rehabbed drives h im nuts....

the others will do it tho....i get so many neat parts up here at the auctions....
the rehabbed takes more time to explain and all that... right now im interviewing a nice amish man and hoping he will work out for me.... my carpenters used to do all the cut out hearts country stuff so they never get to design!!!! they are great tho and dont want to do shows anymore so its a win win situation...
your site is wonderful and i think your stuff would look beautiful in florida.... or any beachy place......i really like your cathederal cupboard... with the pointed top....we made a 7 ft tall pink cupboard once!! it was cute..


hope to hear more of your ideas.........ann

www.greenoakantiques.com