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.
24 Comments
I love all of these pieces! Buying handmade furniture is such a great idea . . . you support an artisan, it’s unique, and it’s probably better quality than you’d get from a store!
All of these things. And I made great friends out of it too!
I love the table! The wood grain looks wonderful is so many of the finished products too! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you! It’s so heavy and sturdy! I think we’ll have it forever.
I am not handy AT ALL, so I am always in awe of people that can make beautiful things!
I would love Mark to teach me. I’m such a DIY girl
Wow there are some really great pieces of furniture here. I really love the pieces you picked.
I don’t even know if I can confidently pick a favorite!
I love love love the bench seating and table! We have a harvest table and I have been playing with teh idea of doing bench seating on one side – I love this trend!
The table behind the soda is absolutely amazing!!
Basically, what I am asking is, when can I move in?
Ha! I love this! Thank you! Really I basically wanted about $20k in furniture from Crate & Barrel and West Elm and I got it for about $3k. UNREAL!
I love their work! You took awesome pictures of each peice. i wish that I could make furniture.
They did a wonderful job. I never thought I would have been able to afford all the pieces but we did! It’s nice to have all our furniture in place.
Wow, all that is handmade? That’s amazing! My grandfather was a carpenter in his younger years and had great skills.
Wow, I can’t believe how many pieces came from those hands. I love handmade items for the home. It really gives the place character.
I like how simple the table look and I wonder if it is easy to fix them? The bench also look unique! i would love to have such setting in my garden.
Wow, the furniture looks professional yet they are handmade. I love the table, the bookshelves… ahhhh, I love everything. They are simple yet beautiful. Nice job!
This furniture definitely looks so amazing! I love the style of it and would love something like this in my home.
wow! woodworking is always the best. Everything looks so beautiful and cozy and I bet it has wonderful smell as well as special feeling of handmade items
I love handcrafted furniture and decor and all these pieces matched so well together. I love all of it!
I like making handcrafted decorations but I have never done it like you. I like all of their ideas and they are very nice and warm. I adore you, you are very good. Thank you!
Love it. Thank you 🙂
That sounds so great! I will definitely try if I have chance. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for commenting!
I like it too much!
Oh that’s funny!