Our Mission

Quality furniture is a great way to dovetail a tidy lifestyle with a bond to future generations. I know from experience that new children demand a new perspective on management and organization, and that can extend further than what is in one’s budget. That's the reason I started building furniture, after all, so with this non-profit I offer an opportunity to parents who need a place for everything their children have, but haven't had the means to make it happen yet. I would also hope that when the child grows up they could pass the furniture on to their kids in turn.

I believe that material wealth has more substance and longevity when it is made locally, sustainably, and is inheritable. However, makers of every kind are painfully aware that a living wage for us means our products are far out of reach for the vast majority of people who could benefit from and appreciate them. This dynamic cuts off potentially meaningful relationships between craftspeople and a wider audience, thereby separating those in need of quality goods from the people who make them.

In hopes of changing this dynamic, Hand-Joined Family Furniture works by soliciting tax deductible donations from individuals who are financially capable and interested, and putting those funds in a coffer. By working with community partners, I find a family in need of furniture to help create more organized and stress-free living environments for their children. Once the coffer fills to the estimated cost of the next project, I work directly with the family to build a custom piece of heirloom quality furniture as a gift to them. My hope is to honorably provide for my own family by helping other families as well, with means from diversely sourced capital.

Along the way, I also intend to share with all interested parties the skills I’ve learned thus far so they can make furniture of their own. Any surplus donations to the non-profit would allow me to set up a community workshop equipped with the tools and supplies necessary to build family furniture. Successively, everything made in our workshop would then be gifts to other families in need. The skills will be kept, the furnishings will be donated; thus empowering people to have a sense of accomplishment and self-sufficiency from the things they make with their own hands. Building this nonprofit has let me know the satisfaction of participating in a gift economy, and I would like to share that with as many as possible.