SMC Furnishings started with three graduates of the Art Institute in Chicago who wanted to create accessible, welcoming home environments that incorporated elements of their fine arts training. Now in its tenth year, our small New York-based company produces high-quality, handcrafted furniture with eco-friendly methods.

Most pieces feature wood from reclaimed building timbers or locally sourced trees downed by storms, disease or nuisance issues. In 2004, we acquired three early 19th century barns and a 30-acre plot of woods in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York, which provide 10,000 square feet of workspace and additional timber that requires no commercial logging.

Our collection features more than 30 original designs that range from elegant to minimal, rough to textured — each inspired by the natural beauty of the wood and created with lifestyle demands in mind. We also produce custom pieces for a range of commercial and private clients.

Environmental commitment

No waste — it's a philosophy drives everything we do, from making furniture to renovating our facility to heating the workspace.

In 2004, needing more workspace, we acquired three early-19th century barns in the Finger Lakes region of New York and started low-impact renovations. We use three separate buildings and vertical flow manufacture instead of a typical horizontal approach, greatly minimizing our heating needs and electrical consumption. Installing large windows allowed us to reduce our lighting needs. And most building components we removed were recycled: gutted stories provided doors and window frames, wall studs became worktables and flooring was reborn as siding. We heat the facility only with our wood waste: off-cuts, sawdust and mill scrap.

As a smaller manufacturer, we're able to maximize our materials and use nearly all parts of the wood. Materials are warehoused to allow for the right piece of wood to go into the right piece of furniture, leftover pieces are re-milled until no components can be reasonably re-cut and the remainder is fuel. It's a labor-intensive and time-consuming process, but it has reduced our waste by 90 percent compared to our Brooklyn shop.

Nearly 90 percent of our wood comes from waste and recycled sources, while local woods provide other timber. Most of our pieces feature reclaimed building timbers that are kept as close as possible to their original sizes. We also obtain materials from local tree services, private homeowners and farmers that would normally be burned after removal, while we purchase all of our mahogany as waste from a national guitar manufacturer. Recently, we've utilized nearly 150 fallen and dead trees from our wood lot in the Finger Lakes, a process that requires no commercial logging.