Questions are part of the process.
Some are about wood. Some are about shipping a dining table across the country. Others start with, “I have this strange space in my house…”
We’ve answered the questions we hear most often below. If yours isn’t here, ask us. You’ll hear back from the people who actually make the work.
About Dovetails & Stitches
Dovetails & Stitches is a small family furniture and home goods studio in Bessemer, Alabama, just outside Birmingham. This is where we design and build our work, pack the smaller pieces, and usually have music playing somewhere in the background.
We’re based in Alabama, but our work isn’t limited to Alabama. We build for customers across the United States, and our work has made its way to homes around the world.
Yes. Our furniture and home goods are built in our studio in Bessemer, Alabama. We aren’t designing pieces here and sending them somewhere else to be manufactured.
We select the hardwood, mill the wood, cut the joinery, shape it, sand it, finish it, and put our hands on the finished piece before it leaves the studio.
Asha and Richard do.
Dovetails & Stitches is our small family studio. Asha is our designer, with an eye toward home decor, proportion, color, and how a piece actually lives in a room. Richard is a fourth-generation furniture maker with nearly 40 years at the bench.
We work together from the first idea through the finished piece. Sometimes that starts with a design Asha has been thinking about. Sometimes it starts with a board Richard couldn’t leave at the lumberyard. And sometimes it starts with a customer asking, “Can you make this?”
There isn’t a production team somewhere else making pieces with our name on them. We choose the materials, develop the designs, build the work, answer the emails, pack the orders, and put our hands on every piece before it leaves the studio.
So when you ask about a wood, a dimension, or something completely off-menu, you’re talking to the people who will figure it out and make it.
Meet the makersYes, by appointment.
Our studio is in Bessemer, Alabama, just outside Birmingham. It is a working furniture studio rather than a retail showroom, so please contact us before stopping by.
If you’re discussing a commission, choosing wood, or simply want to see a piece in person, we’ll arrange a time.
Not at all.
Birmingham is home, but the vast majority of our customers are outside the Birmingham area. We build furniture and home goods for people across the United States, and our work has made its way to homes around the world.
You do not need to live in Alabama, or even in the United States, to work with us. If you’re considering a commission from outside the U.S., get in touch and we’ll work through the details with you.
Wood & Craftsmanship
Yes. Solid hardwood is at the center of what we make. Walnut, cherry, white oak, quartersawn white oak, maple, and other hardwoods are regulars in the studio.
We like solid wood because it ages well, can be repaired, and gives us something manufactured materials can’t: every board is different.
There are places in fine furniture where veneer is the better material, particularly when we’re working with highly figured or unusual woods. When we use it, we use it deliberately as part of the design, not to disguise inexpensive material as solid wood.
The materials used in a particular piece are always listed on its product page.
Walnut, cherry, white oak, quartersawn white oak, hard maple, ash, hickory, mahogany, and other hardwoods are regulars in the studio.
We also work with figured hardwoods and less common species when a design or commission calls for them. We’ve built pieces using walnut burl, Carpathian elm, olive, rosewood, figured cherry, and plenty of boards that were simply too interesting to leave at the lumberyard.
If you have a particular wood in mind, ask. If we don’t have it in the studio, we can usually tell you whether it makes sense for the piece you’re considering.
Yes, when it’s the right material for the job.
Veneer has been part of fine furniture making for centuries. It allows us to work with spectacular burls, figured grain, and other woods that either aren’t available or aren’t stable enough in thick solid boards.
What we don’t do is use a thin layer of ordinary wood to make inexpensive material look like solid hardwood.
If a piece uses veneer, we’ll tell you. It is part of the construction, not something we’re trying to hide.
No two pieces of wood are exactly alike, so no two pieces we make are either.
The design, dimensions, and construction will be the same, but grain, figure, mineral streaks, color, and other natural characteristics vary from board to board. Walnut can range from chocolate brown to nearly black, sometimes with lighter streaks. White oak can be quiet or full of ray fleck. Cherry can have dramatic grain that becomes more pronounced as it ages.
We consider that variation part of working with real wood, not a defect in it.
It depends on the piece.
A dining table has very different demands from a knife block, cutting board, menorah, or decorative object, so we don’t force one finish onto everything we make.
We choose the finish based on how the piece will be used, what it needs to withstand, and how we want the wood to look and feel.
The product page will tell you what finish is used on the particular piece you’re considering and how we recommend caring for it.
Custom Work & Commissions
Yes. Custom furniture is a big part of what we do.
That can mean changing the dimensions or wood species of an existing Dovetails design, or starting with an empty page and building something specifically for your room.
Tables, desks, media consoles, cabinets, storage pieces, and the occasional thing that doesn’t fit neatly into any category are all fair game.
Usually.
Changing dimensions, wood species, storage configuration, knife capacity, or another detail is often straightforward. Other changes can affect the proportions or construction enough that we’d rather rethink the design than simply stretch or shrink it.
Tell us what you need to change and why. We’ll tell you what works.
Yes.
Some of our favorite pieces started with a photograph, a rough sketch, a difficult corner of a room, or a sentence that began with, “I haven’t been able to find…”
You don’t need to arrive with finished drawings. Dimensions, photographs of the room, pieces you like, and a sense of what the furniture needs to do are usually enough to start the conversation.
From there, we work through proportion, materials, construction, and the details that make the piece yours.
Absolutely.
Wood species affects much more than color. Grain, figure, hardness, movement, weight, and the way a wood changes with age can all influence whether it’s right for a particular piece.
If you already know you want walnut, cherry, white oak, maple, or something less common, tell us. If you don’t, that’s fine too. We’ll help narrow it down based on the piece and the room it’s going into.
For many commissions, yes.
When the wood is an important part of the design, we’ll often send photographs of boards we have in the studio, or a few we’re considering for your piece, and let you choose.
Sometimes we’ll go even further. Once the board is milled and the grain and figure really begin to show, we’ll send another set of photographs so you can help choose which face becomes the show face of your piece.
You don’t have to care that much about the wood. We do. But if you do too, you’re welcome to be part of it.
It starts with a conversation.
Tell us what you’re looking for, where it’s going, the approximate size, and anything else that matters. Photographs, sketches, inspiration images, and measurements are all useful.
From there we’ll work through the design, dimensions, wood, construction, price, and timing. Once those are settled, we select the hardwood and start building.
We stay in touch during the build, particularly when there are decisions worth showing you rather than making on your behalf.
More about commissionsOrders & Lead Times
Both, although much of what we make is built to order.
Some smaller pieces may be finished and ready to ship. Others are made after you order them, and custom furniture is built specifically for you.
The product page will tell you what applies to the piece you’re considering and give you the current expected lead time.
It depends on what we’re building and what is already on the benches.
A smaller home good and a custom dining table obviously don’t require the same amount of time. Our workload also changes through the year.
Rather than promise one lead time for everything, we list current timing on the product page whenever possible. For commissions, we’ll discuss timing with you before the project begins.
If you need something by a particular date, ask us before ordering. We’ll tell you whether we can realistically make it happen.
You can certainly ask.
Because we build one at a time, there are limits to how much we can move the schedule around. We’d rather tell you no before you order than promise a date we can’t keep.
If you’re buying for a wedding, holiday, move, birthday, or another date that matters, contact us first and we’ll tell you what’s realistic.
Possibly. The sooner you ask, the more options we usually have.
If we haven’t started making your piece, a change may be simple. Once the hardwood has been selected, cut, or milled specifically for your order, changing dimensions, wood species, or other details can become more complicated.
Contact us as soon as you know something needs to change and we’ll tell you what is still possible.
That depends on where we are in the process.
A cancellation before we’ve started work is very different from one after we’ve purchased special material or cut hardwood specifically for your piece.
Our cancellation and refund policies explain the formal terms. If something has changed, contact us as soon as possible. The earlier we know, the more options we generally have.
Shipping & Delivery
We ship throughout the United States and internationally.
Our work has traveled from our Alabama studio to homes across the country and around the world.
How we ship depends on what we’ve made. A knife block and a dining table don’t belong on the same truck or in the same box, so we choose the method based on the size, weight, value, and destination of the piece.
If you have a question about delivery to your location, ask us before ordering.
Yes.
We build furniture for customers across the United States and arrange shipping or delivery based on the piece and where it’s going.
Large furniture requires more planning than something we can hand to a parcel carrier, so we’ll work through delivery with you as part of the commission. Being hundreds or even thousands of miles from our Alabama studio doesn’t prevent us from building something for you.
Yes. We’ve shipped our work to customers around the world.
International shipping takes a little more planning, particularly for larger furniture. Size, weight, destination, customs, and import requirements all affect what’s practical and what it will cost.
If you’re outside the United States and interested in something we’ve made or in commissioning a piece, contact us. We’ll figure out the shipping or delivery options with you before you commit to anything.
We pack our own work in the studio.
That matters to us. We know where a piece is delicate, where it can take pressure, and what needs extra protection because we’re the people who built it.
Packaging varies with the object, but the goal is simple: what arrives at your house should look like what left our bench.
Delivery depends on the size of the piece and where it’s going.
Large furniture may require freight, furniture delivery, or another delivery arrangement rather than ordinary parcel shipping.
For a commission, we’ll work through those details with you so you know how the piece is getting from our studio to your home before it leaves Alabama.
Take photographs of the packaging and the damage and contact us as soon as you can.
Don’t throw the packaging away until we’ve had a chance to see it. Photographs of the box, packing material, shipping label, and the damaged area help us understand what happened and, when necessary, work with the carrier.
Then we’ll figure out the right next step with you.
Care & Living With the Piece
It depends on what we made.
A dining table doesn’t need the same treatment as a cutting board, and an oil-finished knife block doesn’t necessarily want the same care as a piece of furniture with a different finish.
That’s why care instructions belong with the piece. Check the product page for the wood, finish, and care recommendations specific to what you own.
As a general rule, avoid prolonged standing water, extreme heat, and harsh household cleaners on solid wood. If you’re unsure about something, ask us before trying a new cleaner, polish, oil, or finish.
It can. That’s part of living with real wood.
Different species age differently. Cherry is especially known for developing a deeper, warmer color with time and exposure to light. Walnut may soften somewhat in color. Other woods change more subtly.
The finish and environment matter too, so check the product page for information about the wood used in your particular piece.
Furniture is meant to be lived with.
Solid wood will collect some evidence of that over the years: a small scratch, a softened edge, maybe a mark from a dinner that went later than planned. We don’t think every sign of use needs to be erased. Over time, some of those marks become part of the story of the piece.
If something goes beyond normal wear, don’t start sanding or refinishing blindly. The right repair depends on the wood and finish. Check the care information for your piece or send us a photograph and we’ll tell you what we’d do.
Often, yes.
That’s one of the things we like about building with solid hardwood. A well-made piece doesn’t have to become disposable because something gets scratched, worn, or damaged. Solid wood gives us options.
Exactly what can be repaired or refinished depends on the construction, wood, finish, and damage. Before doing anything major to a piece we’ve made, send us a photograph. We’ll help you figure out the sensible next step.
Ask us. You’ll hear back from the people who make the work.