Store furniture is built for an imaginary average house, and your house is not average. Maybe the dining room is long and narrow, maybe the breakfast nook wraps around a radiator, maybe you seat nine on Sundays and four the rest of the week. When the showrooms keep disappointing you, having a table built is not a luxury move. It is often just the practical one.
Why people ask us to build instead of buy
The requests that come through our Myerstown shop door usually fall into a few buckets. Someone has an odd space and needs a top sized to the inch when stores only sell three standard lengths. Someone inherited chairs they love and cannot find a table that suits their height and style. Someone is tired of replacing wobbly flat-pack tables every five years and wants the last table they will ever buy.
A built-to-order table solves the exact problem you have, not the average of everyone else’s problems. You choose the length, the height that fits your chairs and your knees, the wood, the finish, and the edge profile your kids will be leaning on for the next thirty years.
How our process works, sketch to delivery
- The conversation. You tell us what the table needs to do. How many people on a normal Tuesday, how many at Thanksgiving, what the room measures, what furniture it has to live with. Photos of the space help more than most people expect.
- The sketch and the materials. We draw it up with real dimensions and walk through wood and finish options together. You see and touch actual samples instead of squinting at a screen.
- The build. The table takes shape in the same shop where we do our upholstery work. Proper joinery, no cam locks or allen bolts, and construction that lets the wood move with the seasons.
- The finish. Stain and topcoat chosen for how you actually live. A family with young kids gets a tougher film finish, a formal dining room might get a hand-rubbed look. Finishes need cure time, so we refuse to rush this stage.
- Delivery. We arrange delivery around Lebanon and Lancaster counties, set the table in place, and level it on your actual floor, which in an older Pennsylvania farmhouse is rarely level itself.
Timelines depend on the design and our shop schedule, so ask when you order. We would rather promise you an honest few weeks than a fantasy few days.
Solid wood or veneer? An honest answer
Solid wood is what most people picture, and for good reason. It can be sanded and refinished decades from now, dents can be steamed out, and it ages into character instead of shabbiness. The catch is that solid wood moves. Central Pennsylvania swings from soupy July humidity to bone-dry furnace heat in January, and a wide solid top expands and shrinks through all of it. A properly built table allows for that movement. A poorly built one cracks.
Veneer is not a dirty word, no matter what your uncle the antique hunter says. A thick real-wood veneer over a stable core stays dead flat, which makes it a smart choice for very wide tops and for dramatic grain matching. What gave veneer its bad name is cheap furniture with paper-thin veneer over particleboard, and that is simply not the same product. We will always tell you exactly what is under your finish, and if any maker gets cagey about what is inside a tabletop, walk away.
A table is only half the picture
Here is where being an upholstery shop changes what we can do for you. Most furniture makers build the table and wish you luck on the seating. We build custom furniture and cover it under the same roof, so benches, banquettes and chair seats get planned together with the table instead of hunted down afterward.
That matters in practical ways. Seat height and apron clearance are matched so nobody bangs their knees. Fabric or vinyl is chosen against the actual finish sample, not from memory in a fabric store. And because we also build and recover restaurant booths, a wall-side banquette with commercial-grade cushions is familiar work for us, not an experiment. You can see examples of past builds in our portfolio.
Thinking about commissioning a piece?
Call 717-383-6917 and describe the space, or start with our custom-built furniture page to see the range of what we make. On price, we will be straight with you. A commissioned hardwood table costs more than flat-pack and usually lands in the neighborhood of good showroom furniture, while fitting your room exactly. Every piece is different, so call for an exact estimate.
FAQ
Can you build a table to match chairs I already own?
Yes, and it is one of our most common requests. Bring a chair to the shop or send photos with measurements. We will match the height for comfortable legroom and pick a wood and finish that works with what you have, or reupholster the chair seats so the whole set ties together.
What woods do you work with?
Mostly domestic hardwoods like oak, maple, cherry and walnut, which suit Pennsylvania homes and take stain predictably. If your heart is set on something else, ask. Availability changes, and we will tell you honestly what holds up as a tabletop and what does not.
Do you deliver, and how far?
We deliver throughout the Lebanon Valley and Lancaster County, including Lebanon, Lititz, Ephrata, Palmyra and Hershey. For longer trips, call and we will figure out what makes sense. A table should not survive the build and then get wrecked in transit, so we handle that part ourselves.
If a real table has been sitting on your someday list, send your room measurements and a photo through our quote page or call 717-383-6917. The estimate is free, and the conversation usually takes less time than one more lap around the furniture stores.
