Wood-Mode Fine Custom Cabinetry, based in Kreamer, Pennsylvania, recently launched a new furniture-grade line, The Curio Suite, a collection of freestanding, furniture-type cabinetry designed for use throughout the home. With many cabinet companies expanding their focus to whole-home solutions, this launch comes at a timely moment. 

The initial rollout includes six distinct design styles and features a variety of coordinated components:

• Bath and storage: Preassembled vanities (24 inch to 72 inch), matching medicine cabinets, and linen towers.
• Bedroom and closet: Dressers, highboys, and armoires with internal organization, such as jewelry drawers and dividers.
• Customization: All pieces can be specified with standard Wood-Mode door styles and finishes.

According to Rod Hunter, general manager at Wood-Mode LLC, after COVID, the company noticed that dealers were taking on smaller remodeling jobs in the bath, dressing areas, and even some bedrooms. Since many of the components requested by the dealers were already manufactured by the company, they wanted to develop a process to make it easier for dealers and installers to complete a job onsite faster and less labor-intensive.

“We have always sold the component parts individually, and then the dealer or installer would cut the pieces, cut and fit, and trim, on the job site,” said Hunter. “The idea that came about was to pre-assemble these furniture-type features at Wood-Mode, so the dealer or the installer could carry the fully assembled piece into a room, place it, and walk out, making the job site, labor, and time spent much less.”

Again, focusing on its ability to create these products, often on a one-off or custom basis for dealers, Hunter said that they decided to combine features from its Brookhaven and Wood-Mode product lines to create The Curio Suite.  They connected with a couple of their designers, incorporated feedback on their vanity line, and basically created the new pieces.

They included higher-end packages, side sub-assemblies, drawer boxes with flush-sanded dovetails (variable and profiled dovetails), and a few of their crown-top and foot packages from the Wood-Mode line, combined with the Brookhaven constructed cabinet. 

“We have a lot of Wood-Mode features combined with the Brookhaven product in this line,” Hunter added.  “We have both a framed and frameless line for each of these. I would expect this product offering to grow. We've already received a number of inquiries and custom quote requests for features our dealers are customizing and implementing. This line is definitely going to grow over the next two to three years.”

Disruptor potential

When asked about the possibility of being a disruptor in the furniture market, Hunter acknowledged the potential but also said Wood-Mode is a cabinet company first.

“We are a cabinet manufacturer, and we don’t ever plan on getting away from the cabinet,” he said. “When you think about armoires, highboys, and dressers, they're thought of more as furniture-type pieces, and we do a very good job of constructing a solid, quality cabinet into a piece of furniture.” 

How far Wood-Mode moves into the furniture light market largely depends on further feedback from its dealer network. For now, The Curio Suite is another area they can explore, giving their customers more selections and flexibility, much like the company is adding more materials and innovative opportunities.

“We're trying to keep our dealers loaded with options, materials and innovation for them to use in their designs,” Hunter noted. “Let them be creative with products that we are introducing and let them be even more creative with those products by customizing them. We are a custom manufacturer, so you plant a seed, and it’s amazing how quickly things grow and change in the design world.”

Hunter believes one of the keys to the adoption and success of The Curio Suite is the features available in its cabinetry pieces that are not typically seen in furniture, such as interior lighting. Another example is profile drawer boxes. “There are added features that are available with the Curio line that you don’t see in most furniture,” he explained.

Expedited job site efficiency and production

By far, one of the most marketable features of the new line is that it includes pre-assembled pieces for the installer to carry in and place, reducing the need for on-site cutting and fitting.

While some work is still required onsite, the new line significantly reduces the overall labor needed, Hunter said, making it particularly beneficial for smaller jobs like baths, dressing areas, and bedrooms.

While these pieces had already been manufactured by Wood-Mode, the company developed a new production process to improve factory efficiency for the line. A work cell was implemented for pieces like the toe kick package and the crown package - items that had to be finished as individual pieces and then assembled after the finishing process.

“Once the cabinet is built, we have a staging area where the cabinet is taken to meet up with the toe kick packages and the top crown aesthetic from those work cells,” Hunter explained. “Once all of the sub-assembly pieces arrive, they are pre-assembled, hand packaged, and then delivered to our warehouse for shipping. These pieces will be shipped in a more confined area so that the crown doesn't get broken, and the foot packages are not damaged. There will be extra care taken for shipping.”

When it comes to future plans for The Curio Suite line, while it’s early, the feedback has been positive, and Hunter said the company is considering expanding it to more areas of the home, such as closets.

To learn more about Wood-Mode, visit woodmode.com.