Handmade Furniture, Georgia – Designing Our New Home Without Breaking the Bank #OurFirstHomeStory

It’s nearly impossible to find affordable custom furniture in Cherokee County. Handmade furniture is also notoriously expensive. Having just spent everything we had on our brand new home, my budget was limited. I spent many painstaking hours trying to find the right pieces for our brand new home, but they were way expensive for the look I wanted. I felt like my house would be empty forever.

That’s when I found Mark and Marea of Mark’s Woodshop. If you’re trying to make your own furniture and using this as a design inspiration, then be sure to click here for the best hand saws for the job. 

Mark and Marea gave me a little discount to help them out with photos and sharing. I paid for the majority of this work. All opinions are mine and sincere.

Handmade Furniture, Georgia 

During the contingency period of our home, I was super excited to start decorating. Realistically, we needed about 19 pieces plus shelves for 3 different rooms. And we had about $2.5k. Even at Walmart prices, getting everything we needed to fill our new home was going to be impossible.

I wasn’t finding anything new that I could afford but I wanted that Crate and Barrel meets Pottery Barn look. If you’ve ever looked for a dining table on Crate and Barrel then you know you’re going to be in for about $5k. And that’s just one piece! I just couldn’t spend that much.

I knew that our budget would be limited since we were spending everything on the down payment so I started digging through the Facebook Marketplace for furniture I could repurpose. That’s where I first saw this beautiful farm style dining room table. It was custom built and being sold for about $500.

I contacted the seller and was told, “if you can think it, Mark can build it!”. So I found a $5k West Elm table that I loved and before I knew it I was making sketches of pieces and had an order of 14 pieces for my home. All within my budget!

The Custom Building Process with Mark and Marea

Before I go into the details of all the beautiful pieces Mark and Marea made for us, I want to take you inside their building process. The very first thing that took place was a phone consultation. I gave Marea a verbal idea of my vision and she priced everything out. Then, I used a drawing app to conceptualize my ideas and sent her the drawings. I also sent photos of the things I found online.

Since it was the contingency period for my home buying process, we didn’t live in the house yet. But Mark and Marea were able to meet me at the property to take customized measurements so everything would be perfect.

After that, Marea met me at Home Depot to pick out the perfect stains for the pieces. I loved her attention to detail and how she paid close attention to everything We needed.

Since Mark builds everything by hand it took several weeks to get everything in. But for about the first 8 weeks of our new home ownership, they were making weekly deliveries. They also gave me regular updates on the progress so everything would be perfect.

Every single time we got a delivery I was elated. And in the end, my home looks like a showroom. We still can’t believe how many pieces we were able to get under $2.5k. We ended up adding on a few more pieces and now our home is complete!

Just Take a Look at This Photo Journal of All the Work They Did!

Handmade furniture, Georgia photo journal

We could never have filled our home with such amazing pieces, customized to all of our needs and size requirements anywhere else. Mark and Marea are total wizards, they made our house a home. And there isn’t a single day that goes by that we don’t step back and say, “wow, this is beautiful!”

If you’re looking for handmade furniture in Georgia then get with Mark and Marea. There is no doubt in my mind that they can make your special pieces come to life just as they did for us. For those of you who might not be local, consider checking out Resident Home for quality home furniture brands.