DANVILLE – A home's personality is just as much determined by its furniture as it is by wall art and decorations.
Choosing new furniture from a big-box retailer will likely mean that your furniture is identical to that in hundreds, if not thousands, of homes of other big-box store customers.
For furniture that is profoundly unique and durable enough to remain in your family for generations, consider the handmade work of Keim's Country Furniture. The store, founded in 1991, recently celebrated its 30th birthday and prides itself in maintaining the same quality standards of its products as different owners have come and gone.
"Everything is locally made," said Becky Miller, Keim's store manager. "Everything besides upholstery is locally made and is lifetime guaranteed."
While Keim's does outsource most product orders to other Amish craftspeople, Miller said that some things are made right in the store's shop.
Keim's features display pieces in the store, and customers can build their custom piece based on a display or start from scratch. For example, a customer who likes a cherry wood bedroom set on display but is looking for a lighter-toned wood option for their bedroom can easily customize their Keim's order to their liking.
Or, if a visitor to the store falls in love with an already-finished piece on display, it can be taken home immediately. The store offers all sorts of furniture for inside the home as well as outdoor and patio sets.
If a customer does choose to design a custom piece with Keim's, Miller encourages shoppers to keep patience in mind as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect response times, especially for outdoor furniture. With builders and manufacturers running behind or still shut down, custom pieces can now take up to 24 weeks for delivery. During normal manufacturing times, the wait period averages from 10 to 12 weeks.
The finished product is certainly worth the wait. Rather than structuring the rest of a room around a cookie-cutter, mass-manufactured piece with no customization, the Country Furniture store's customers get to personalize a new piece to their home's character — right down to the wood type, stain and finish.
"Since it's custom-built, there's so many options," Miller said. "It's not like 'what you see is what you get.' You can make your furniture any color or finish, and I think that's what makes the whole thing unique about shopping Amish furniture. There's so many options and you can do so much with one piece for customization."
Keim's Country Furniture is located at 16325 Millersburg Road in Danville. It's open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, and closed Sunday.
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