Bay Area sources for well-made solid wood furniture

February 6, 2022 11:07 AM

We live in the East Bay Area in CA and are looking for local furniture shops with well-made solid wood furniture.

We like the aesthetic of places like Crate and Barrel and West Elm but are looking for solid wood (a lot of stuff from the aforementioned include engineered wood). We would also like to buy from some place local where we could see things in person before purchasing. Looking around online we've seen the most stuff that fits this brief in smaller independent furniture retailers.

A while back we bought a solid wood table and chairs from this place and they constantly bring us joy when we use them. Essentially we're looking for the same thing for furniture besides tables.

For example we've been looking at bed frames and here are two pieces we found at the type of place we're looking for.

Any recommendations for other retailers to check out?

posted by unus sum to Shopping (9 answers total)

It's a bit spendy, but we've had good luck with Danish Concepts International in Palo Alto. They sell a imported Danish/Scandinavian furniture, so the lead time can be long (we were told the couch we ordered would arrive in about five months and it wound up being about 5 months and one week between order and delivery). Zero complaints about quality, though! We looked at several other furniture stores in North San Jose, too, but we really liked the lines of the Scandinavian furniture, so ended up there.
posted by Alterscape at 11:38 AM on February 6, 2022

Fenton MacLaren on San Pablo Ave in Berkeley. Mission, Shaker, and Amish styles. See their page on bed frames, looks like they have things that you might be interested in.
posted by expialidocious at 11:46 AM on February 6, 2022

Midcentury Mobler in Berkeley has a good selection of midcentury Danish wood furniture.
posted by pinochiette at 12:03 PM on February 6, 2022

An unparalleled resource that isn’t quite a furniture shop - the Caning Shop. I don’t think he officially sells furniture, but if you find, eg, MCM with woven parts that need repair, he is the place for hire or education.

Also he might have an ear on the furniture shops and estate sales.
posted by clew at 12:16 PM on February 6, 2022

Antiques and Modern in Oakland has a huge warehouse of mostly solid wood mostly mid century modern furniture with a lot more diversity than the typical vaguely Scandinavian MCM that is omnipresent these days. They specialize in teak and rosewood furniture, inventory is all on their website https://www.antiquesandmodern.com/ (I’m on mobile so I can’t quite format the links correctly, sorry).
posted by phoenixy at 12:22 PM on February 6, 2022

Seconding Fenton MacLaren, we got a great dresser and bookcase there.
posted by omnie at 5:29 PM on February 6, 2022

(sorry I see you already got Hoot Judkins)
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:19 PM on February 6, 2022

Scandinavian Designs in San Mateo and Room and Board in San Francisco sell high quality all wood furniture.
posted by hampanda at 9:40 PM on February 6, 2022

I'm a big fan of Harrington (in SF), which sells mostly vintage & custom sofas but also carries Nos Nos solid wood media cabinets and etc. Here are some of those pieces.
posted by peppercorn at 9:44 PM on February 6, 2022