Closets companies and custom woodworkers who let their designs lead their marketing efforts will be the most successful. But, we learned at Cabinets & Closets 2015, you have to automate the production side.

Game of Thrones furniture designs could be trendsetters, though everything about it runs counter to current tastes. The baroque pieces, stained dark, suggest in Westeros there lived a vast class of turners, carvers and joiners well trained in classic carpentry.

Vertical panel saws from Streibig and Putsch, and Castle's award winning pocket joint machine will be running live at Cabinets & Closets Expo, April 15-16 in Schaumburg, IL. Visitors can also learn about sliding table saws from SCM, Stiles and Felder at the Chicago event.

Compiled by Good's Furniture, this infographic provides a snapshot of the looks and characteristics that came to define furniture, from 3000 BC to the present.

While building my basement ceiling, I looked for lumber that was similar to pine. I grabbed some spruce and cypress that seemed fairly similar, and since I am whitewashing all of the lumber, I decided they would work.