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Thread: Colonial Furniture Company?

  1. #1
    dboneusc Guest

    Default Colonial Furniture Company?

    Is anyone familiar with the quality of Colonial Furniture Company?

    I'm interested in one of their "formal cherry" poster beds, and wondering how quality stacks up against classic manufacturers like Henkel Harris, Councill, etc. Price is probably 50% of those makers for comparable products, so I'm not necessarily expecting it to be the exact same standards, but would be good to know anyone's experience with quality.

    http://www.colonialfurniture.com/

    Thanks!

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    Default Re: Colonial Furniture Company?

    Well, other than having one of the worst web sites I've ever seen for a furniture company - I don't know how good their builds are. There are no detail photos to be had. Beds are pretty simple to make, however here are basic construction standards to look into and you ask them how its put together....

    The 'carving' appears to have been done a on plunge router or overhead pin router - and that's pretty cheezy looking, but doesn't affect use or durability. They should at least have it laser-cut as it would look better.

    Bed stock for posts is costly these days, typically made of 12/4 or 16/4 lumber. I don't imagine these are single piece posts and they are probably glue-ups, but I'd have to see detail photos to tell. again, nothing but cosmetic on glueups....like the carvings.

    The real thing to look for is how the bed assembles. On a correctly made bed everything is mortise and tenon and long 6" screws hold the rails together at each joint. A bed made that way will last for hundreds of years and never squeak or rattle as you can always tighten it up (hence the saying 'sleep tight'), but that's a laborious method and takes time and money to do. When made in this manner every rail, every post, and the headboard are separate pieces of wood and fit together once in the room and being setup.

    The shortcut method is to glue the headboard and post section up as a single unit and the footboard / foot posts as well. These woirk great when new, but eventually the glue bonds break over time and the the bed wiggles and squeaks, sometimes in as little as 5 years. Wooden beds and wooden chairs are stress items, and joinery and method of construction is critical to longevity of the pieces, unlike a small table or even a chest of drawers.

    Good luck!
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

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