Welcome to Willard Woodwrights! We are a family collective, utilizing our combined talents to create heirloom-quality wood furniture and toys. The word “wright” means workman, and we define ourselves as woodworkers. We are the third and fourth generations in our family to create through woodworking, and our commitme … Read more Welcome to Willard Woodwrights! We are a family collective, utilizing our combined talents to create heirloom-quality wood furniture and toys. The word “wright” means workman, and we define ourselves as woodworkers. We are the third and fourth generations in our family to create through woodworking, and our commitment to each other and our work means that this is more than a business for us. We believe that conscious craftwork has always included inherent conservationist values; ideally, our products will provide multiple generations of your family with beautiful utility.

Our efforts at conservation are constantly being refined. We currently invest in packaging materials with a high recycled content, most of which are recyclable again when they reach you. We are ever mindful of our intention to create heirloom quality while reducing our waste streams because we believe that safe, durable, beautiful products can be produced in ways that preserve resources and benefit us all.

Currently, we are exploring ways to exercise our strong commitment to the idea that displaced urban trees deserve to be memorialized in useful and inspiring ways. We have noticed, as you probably have, that many perfectly lovely trees fall prey to in-the-path-of-progress blight. Most of these trees, after being cut, will be burned, dumped in landfills or ingloriously ground for mulch. While we certainly see compelling reasons to cut down trees, we do believe that all sound, usable trees deserve to continue their lives of service in another way. To this end we are committed to the use of reclaimed, locally harvested urban hardwood whenever possible. In fact, when you see “air-dried cherry hardwood” in a product description, particularly in our current line of Rocking Horses, you are seeing a toy made from a tree that grew in the backyard of our family home. There is no finer tribute to a tree that gave great joy than to transform it into the raw materials for a joyful toy.

The inspiration for our products comes from many sources. Our growing product line includes a Wooden Rocking Horse modeled on an antique German folk toy. History offers many ideas which we find appealing and valuable to perpetuate. We also develop designs based on what we see as a pressing need for higher-quality products in a given marketplace. For example, our E-Z Bob chair was designed after we suffered through lots of events with unwieldy, uncomfortable seating. We are always looking for new ideas and improving on old ones, which is one of the reasons why we are so pleased Custommade allows us the opportunity to connect with buyers and explore new ideas.

All of our product lines are available for wholesale purchase or for purchase in smaller lots of identical multiples (or at least as identical as handmade, wooden objects can be). We will never stop creative experimentation, refining our designs and trying new ones, but we are set up for volume production as well and would love to do that.

Ultimately, the takeaway here is that we’re thrilled to be doing what we’re doing and we want you to be thrilled with what we’ve made. We believe that we are creating useful art, and that’s the best kind.