Featured on Texas Homes For Sale

I was just interviewed for Texas Homes for Sale. Here’s the link:

http://www.texashomesforsale.com/articles/expert-tips-on-custom-designed-furniture-for-your-home

And here’s the article:

Expert Tips on Custom-Designed Furniture for Your Home: An Interview with John Loftis of Lonestar Artisans

By John Loftis

Tell us a little bit about your company and the services you offer.

LoneStar Artisans creates hand-made, heirloom-quality furniture and cabinetry. Our principle market is Texas, but we’ve shipped custom pieces to clients all over the world. Our philosophy is in stark contrast to the cheap, disposable, imported furniture that is mass-produced these days.

What are the latest trends of furniture design that you build for people’s homes?

Two popular trends right now are live edge tables and furniture made from reclaimed wood. With live edge tables, I work in partnership with my sawmill to find really extraordinary slabs of wood. Rather than milling the lumber in a traditional rectangular shape, they flatten the two faces and leave the edge alone, resulting in a beautiful, organic feel that follows the natural contours of the tree trunk. In the last month, I’ve made a live edge walnut kitchen island top, a dining room table, and two conference tables. They are challenging to make, but it is a lot of fun to let the natural beauty of the wood shine through.

With reclaimed wood, customers are generally looking for a rustic/distressed feel and often like the idea of re-purposing old wood. It can be challenging (and expensive) to find just the right pieces of reclaimed lumber, but the results can be really beautiful. Furniture made from reclaimed lumber can also have really great stories. I made a coffee table out of lumber from a 120-year old barn in North Dakota and am currently working on 3 desks out of reclaimed pine flooring from a really old building torn down in Dallas.

What are the biggest differences between a custom-designed and a ready-made piece of furniture?

With custom-made furniture, the answer is almost always “yes.” You don’t have to settle for cookie-cutter pieces. I can make you exactly what you want. And I love to collaborate with customers, lending my design experience so that we can come up with something truly extraordinary.

The flip side of this, of course, is price. Hand-crafted custom furniture is more expensive than mass-produced furniture. And it takes time for me to make each piece, so there isn’t the instant gratification of taking it home today.

What are your personal favorite advantages of using custom furniture that you can share?

The biggest advantage of custom furniture is getting a piece that has been built to last. Solid wood tables can be refinished if they get banged up rather than being left out in the alley on heavy trash day. Dovetailed drawers should hold up 50 years from now, when you pass the piece on to your children. It’s an important philosophical distinction, I think. You can either get something beautiful and hand-made, with the intention of keeping it, enjoying it, and then passing it on to future generations. Or you can buy an inexpensive thing that you will discard after a few years once it starts falling apart.

When I started LoneStar Artisans, I did so because I felt like there was already enough “fast food” out there in the marketplace. Craftsmanship is disappearing, and I wanted to create a company that really celebrates well-made things.

Can you briefly describe the main steps of the design process?

It’s all about collaboration. Some customers know exactly what they want; others only have a vague idea. In our initial meeting, I listen and ask lots of questions. I’ve found that pictures are extremely helpful, so I love to send customers to “idea” websites like houzz.com to get inspiration and show me what they like. I tell customers it won’t bother me at all if they send me lots of information. The more I know, the better able I am to create something they love. Once we’ve gone back and forth and settled on a design, I almost always create a 3D rendering of the piece to ensure that we are on the same page with the final design.

Interestingly, the majority of my customers don’t meet me in person. We do almost all of our collaboration via the phone and e-mail, which saves a ton of time. Some customers still want to look me in the eye, which I totally understand. But the Internet can really streamline the process.

What advice would you give someone who wants custom-designed furniture but is afraid they won’t be able to afford it?

I never play games with price. So the best thing you can do is to be honest with me about your budget. If there’s a number we need to be under, then I’ll do my best to come up with a design that allows us to meet that budget. Sometimes there are simple design changes that can really save money. As long as we don’t compromise on craftsmanship or quality, I’m happy to try to save customers money.

I do need to give a caveat though. Every week, I’ll get at least one call from someone who wants me to make a less expensive version of a desk they saw at Ikea. It’s just not going to happen. Custom furniture is always going to cost more than mass-produced stuff. So if your budget is tight, it is always better to have that conversation early rather than later in the process.

What’s the best way for people to contact you and your company?

E-mail is great: john@lonestarartisans.com or I can be reached on my cell at: 469-387-8581. Our website is www.lonestarartisans.com.

– See more at: http://www.texashomesforsale.com/articles/expert-tips-on-custom-designed-furniture-for-your-home#sthash.I8uI1yvg.dpuf

They like us… they really like us!

Somehow, our company completely missed this announcement, but we are grateful for the honor (even if it happened six months ago)!

 

PALO ALTO, Calif., February 4, 2014 – Houzz (www.houzz.com), the leading platform for home remodeling and design, today announced that LoneStar Artisans has been awarded the Best Of Houzz 2014, a homeowner to homeowner guide to the top home buildersarchitectsinterior designerscontractors and other residential remodeling professionals on Houzz, both in the U.S. and around the world.

“By providing homeowners with the most comprehensive view of home professionals – from images of their work and client reviews to an opportunity to interact directly with them on the Houzz site and app – Houzz empowers homeowners to find and hire the right professional to execute their vision,” said Liza Hausman, vice president of community. “Each year, our community of homeowners and home design enthusiasts recognizes the home building, remodeling & design professionals delivering the best customer experience and the most inspiring and innovative designs.”

The Best Of Houzz award is given in two categories: Customer Satisfaction and Design. Customer Satisfaction honors are determined by a variety of factors, including the number and quality of client reviews a professional received in 2013. Design award winners’ work was the most popular among the more than 16 million monthly users on Houzz, known as “Houzzers,” who saved more than 230 million professional imagesof home interiors and exteriors to their personal ideabooks via the Houzz site, iPad/iPhone app and Android app. Winners will receive a “Best Of Houzz 2014” badge on their profiles, showing the Houzz community their commitment to excellence. These badges help homeowners identify popular and top-rated home professionals in every metro area on Houzz.

About Houzz
Houzz is the leading platform for home remodeling and design, providing people with everything they need to improve their homes from start to finish – online or from a mobile device. From decorating a room to building a custom home, Houzz connects millions of homeowners, home design enthusiasts and home improvement professionals across the country and around the world. With the largest residential design database in the world and a vibrant community powered by social tools, Houzz is the easiest way for people to get the design inspiration, project advice, product information and professional reviews they need to help turn ideas into reality. For more information, visit www.houzz.com

The Loser of the Pittsburgh Marathon

 

My wife and I were spectators at the Pittsburgh Marathon this weekend.  As we watched from the 11-mile mark, the African runners passed us in a flash, the first drops of water in a coming storm. Then the torrent began in earnest, with a constant stream of 30,000 runners thundering by. We cheered for the effortless runners at the front of the pack. We cheered for the runners in the middle who had trained for this for years. We cheered for the folks at the back who were about to lose a lung. And then, inevitably, the storm dissipated as the torrent became a trickle and the final runners limped past. And then there was silence as we waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, Jonathan Powell turned the corner and crossed the Birmingham Bridge.

Jonathan is not the poster child for a marathon runner. He’s short. He’s heavy. He wears thick glasses. As he turned that corner and headed towards us, he was tired but smiling, decked out in a bright purple shirt from the Team in Training charity that he loves so much. Jonathan is a pediatric oncologist and he was sporting a bright orange digital watch, a gift from a young boy under his care at the DuPont Hospital for Children.  This young boy was worried that a car might hit Johnathan while he ran the marathon, so he used his Make a Wish money to buy Dr. Jonathan a brightly-colored watch as a warning to passing cars.

Inevitably, the yellow ‘sweeper’ school bus pulled up behind Jonathan and offered to give him a ride to the finish line. Traffic needed to resume, after all. He politely declined. He’d made a promise to ‘his’ kids that he was going to finish this marathon. And beneath the smile, there was steel in his eyes. He was going to finish.

At mile 15, a police officer gently asked that Jonathan move over to the sidewalk. So he did. The crowds were gone by then. There was only Jonathan, flanked and protected from oncoming vehicles by his dogged Team in Training coach, Angela Flannagan.

At mile 20, he had nothing left physically. But the same strength that allowed him to finish a pediatric oncology residency, that allowed him to hold the hands of hundreds of worried parents as days turned to weeks and months, that allowed him to smile through the tears as he cared for children who were suffering with leukemia and lymphoma—that same strength let him keep…moving…forward.

At mile 25, we joined Jonathan on the sidewalk. We made our way together down the gentle decline on Liberty Avenue and turned into downtown. We crossed Third and Grant, and Smithfield, and Wood Street, and Market. Jonathan’s wife and three kids joined us there, and we kept moving forward.

The loser of the Pittsburgh Marathon crossed the finish line at the eight-hour mark. Of course, the Finish Line was gone by that time, as were the banners and the crowds. There was the just the street littered with trash and steel scaffolding and barricades being disassembled by a construction crew. When the crew saw Jonathan, they put down their wrenches, set down whatever they were carrying, and started to cheer. With no other fanfare, the loser of the Pittsburgh Marathon was celebrated briefly but loudly by a rag-tag band of friends, family, and construction workers. And it was beautiful. The loser of the Pittsburgh Marathon is more than my friend. He is my hero.

Mile 11: Heading to the Birmingham Bridge in Pittsburgh

Mile 11: Heading to the Birmingham Bridge in Pittsburgh

John Loftis, Jonathan Powell, and Angela

Mile 25, heading towards the finish line