Country Roads Can Take You More Places Than Home

From Amish horse barns to custom gazebos and from traditional pergolas to red brick round barns, you and your 87 year old father saw many sites on the day you traveled just more than 900 miles. Over the course of the 17 hours of travel and exploration, the conversations ranged from old neighbors to previously owned cars. And from the red dirt that stained the guard rails to the fields of milo that were just now heading, the topics changed nearly as frequently as the mile markers, or at least the counties. Through the states of Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and finally back to Nebraska, the five day trip was both exhilarating and exhausting. Traveling down to Shreveport to visit your younger daughter in college you divided the trip in half. On the way home, however, the search for two different round barns that were separated by a mere 90 miles, but 100 years, created quite the adventure. Never certain exactly what dirt road to turn on next, you and your father scanned the skyline for the unique shape of the round barns, while also checking paper maps of country roads.

Once you found the second of the two round barns, your father announced that this was another item checked off his bucket list. Unfortunately, you still had six more hours of driving to get home. The pace was slower at this point though and you continued to comment on farm buildings as you passed by, comparing them to the Amish horse barns that are more common in other parts of the country.

Amish Horse Barns and Smaller Amish Crafted Buildings and Furnishings Are Known for Their High Quality

The Amish, of course, are not the only groups that build barns, but they may be the most famous. Known for their handcrafted work on buildings as large as Amish horse barns, as well as smaller home furniture pieces, these centuries old workers continue to be known for producing high quality items. And while the average U.S. sofa is just six years old, high quality wood furniture should last for at least 10 to 15 years. More and more often, consumers are willing to invest more in their purchases if it means that they are going to get added value for the pieces that they are buying.

Oak, cherry, hickory, walnut, or maple are the five types of wood that most Amish furniture is made from, so consumers have options to find exactly the kind of coloring and grain that they want. This quality, of course, takes more time than mass produced pieces. In fact, you should typically expect to wait between 12 and 16 weeks for an Amish furniture piece when it is ordered online.
Consider these other facts and figures about the furniture and outdoor building industry and the choices you need to be ready to make when it comes to purchasing hand crafted items:

• It takes approximately eight weeks to build new or custom Amish furniture.
• 100% of Amish furniture is hand-crafted.
• 72.7% of respondents in a survey of more than 2,000 consumers agreed that, “The design of my furniture reflects my personality.”
• 67% of the same respondents from the survey of more than 2,000 consumers agreed with the statement, “A lot can be said about a person from the furniture he or she owns.”
• 92.4% of these survey respondents said they plan to keep wood furniture for at least 15 years.
• 95.1% were more vague and said that they “expect furniture to last for many years.”
• A wooden shed, in comparison, should last at least 15 to 20 years.
• In fact, when purchasing a shed, it is wise to determine current space needs and add 25% for future storage needs.
• At a time when dealers and historians placed great value upon the beauty and quality of the pieces, Amish furniture first gained attention in the 1920s, when early American folk art was “discovered.”

In a home or out in the country, there are plenty of examples of quality pieces of woodworking. From towering Amish horse barns to delicate pieces of carefully crafted and carved spindles in a home dining room set, it you are willing to invest the money you can purchase quality pieces that will last for years.