What is handmade or handcrafted mean? What is the difference between a mass produced item all the way through to bespoke artisan pieces? This article will help you make considered choices for your furniture buying. So take some time to stop and consider with us the importance of supporting small businesses like us, and buy handmade Australian furniture. Our workshop is in Shepparton, 2 hours north of Melbourne; and it is in our heritage listed building that we are busily designing and handcrafting timber furniture sold all over Australia, and even internationally. But with so many furniture options available, why buy Australian handmade furniture?

Buying Australian Made Furniture

Buying Australian made has never been more important. Supporting our local economy in times of global economic instability is a small but impactful action we can take every day. With so many of our furniture options being imported and stocked in so many large retailers, it is not always something we even think about. That is why we have put together this article, so that you can understand when you buy Australian handmade furniture the positive impact your choice is having.

Handmade vs Mass-Produced

Without a doubt, mass-produced factory-made, flat-packed furniture is everywhere. And often with a cheap price point, it can be an easy decision to just get what we want and need right now. However, we all know the frustration of putting together a piece of furniture only to find that it is poorly made, it won’t last long and it is the same as everybody else! Not only that, it is most often something that has been imported from overseas with the middle man most likely taking all the benefit from the sale.

Buying local handmade furniture is altogether a different experience. We love the quality of the build that we can offer our customers. We only use high-quality sustainably-sourced timbers that will last for generations, and will not end up on the nature strip hard rubbish in a couple of years like your flat-pack furniture will likely do. Our designs are also built to be strong and secure, no wobbly shelves, or things that aren’t straight up and down. Using a combination of traditional and modern joinery techniques, our handcrafted furniture will outlast the mass-produced flat-pack furniture every time. Because of the longevity of our custom made furniture you will find that it will ultimately be excellent value for money over the years.

Handmade timber furniture is special. Each tree has had a unique life and leaves distinctive characteristics in its grain that is uncovered and celebrated when it is crafted into a piece of furniture. It tells a story. It looks alive. And it certainly doesn’t look “cookie cutter”.

What does Bespoke Furniture mean?

Bespoke simply means, made for a particular customer. In other words, bespoke furniture is custom-made furniture. Sometimes this can be as simple as an existing design customised to particular dimensions, or it can be an entirely new design made specifically for a particular customer for a particular use.

We really enjoy handcrafting bespoke pieces of furniture for our clients. The satisfaction of seeing something through from beginning to end with a customer along for the ride truly completes our artisan journey. You can read more about the unique bespoke furniture design services we offer here. Or simply reach out to us via email to begin the discussion of what we can make for you. Alternatively you can also view some of the custom made timber furniture pieces we have made here.

Buying bespoke handcrafted timber furniture is buying a unique story. As each piece has a unique beginning, individually selected timber, a thoughtful design process, a considered crafting journey all the way through to a special home at the stories’ end. It is tailor-made for your space, which means that you can get exactly the right dimensions, and you can also make detailed and specific design decisions considering the room that your furniture will go into. You will also get to know us more in the process as we share the bespoke journey with you, therefore adding a lot of value when you know exactly where your furniture was made and the hands that made it.

Why buy from Jemmervale Designs?

We are like many other timber artisans regarding our passion for design and high-quality craftsmanship. And like most furniture manufacturers we use sustainably-sourced timber and reduce our waste wherever possible. But what are some of the differences you will find with us? What is the Jemmervale Designs experience for our customers?

Firstly, we believe we offer genuine friendly customer service. You will often find us going above and beyond with our communication to our customers, with emails being sent after hours or on weekends just to make sure we don’t leave our customers waiting. We also know that shopping online can sometimes be impersonal, or difficult to find out the exact information a customer needs when making a purchase, that is why we are always happy to take a phone call or answer an email so that our customers have a personal experience with us, even when they are shopping online.

Secondly, we offer a very reasonable price point for our products. We have minimal margins on our pieces and sell direct to our customers, thus eliminating the middle-man expenses you would pay for when shopping with larger brands. We rarely run sales, because we believe in keeping our regular prices as low as possible. However, we occasionally run a sale when we want to share the love with our customers, especially those who are signed up to our newsletter…if you haven’t done that, you can do that by clicking here. We also use really high-quality timber and finishes, that when compared side-by-side to other similar priced furniture, you will find ours stands out. We also don’t want our customers to be paying for “the name” of a piece. We believe in fair pricing for our time and experience and the quality of the build, and that’s it.

Thirdly, for our bespoke pieces we have a unique in-home virtual reality design service that the customers can choose. We are unaware of other furniture companies offering this service, and hope that this will provide our customers complete confidence in the design and dimensions chosen prior to build commencing. In this service we spend the time to come to the space the furniture will live along with our iPad Pro and the digital design that is being worked on and give the customer the experience of viewing a virtual depiction of the piece. So for those who find there visual-spacial skills aren’t amazing, or if you just want the confidence of knowing the design and dimensions chosen will work, then Jemmervale Designs is the right choice for your bespoke furniture needs.

Lastly, when you buy from Jemmervale Designs you are supporting our family and the local community in which we live. You are helping put “bread on the table” for our family of six, and you are helping us continue to grow the employment opportunities for our local region. So far we have been able to provide employment opportunities for several people through the disability employment network, and have also been able to give part-time employment to a number of young up-and-coming youths. We are always looking for ways to support other small business around us and always love building these relationships. Even our children are gathered up in the work of Jemmervale Designs; each at a different age and stage help out around the workshop and have their own little side-hustle of selling our timber offcuts for kindling and the sawdust for composting. So when you buy from us you really are supporting small, you are supporting the local economy and are getting excellent value for money. We hope that you will not only buy from us once, but love your Jemmervale Designs experience so much you will buy from us again!