About
Our History & Vision…
Mike Benner and Chris Benner was trained in classic, 18th & 19th century furniture reproduction by one of the foremost cabinet and furniture makers in the United States. After years of study, Mike established Benner 's Woodworking in Lebanon, Ohio, providing custom furniture utilizing techniques accumulated by designing and building thousands of museum-quality pieces of furniture and custom cabinets.
Benner craftsmen carefully build and finish fine, hand-made furniture for your home or office. Our vision is simple: The use of top quality hardwood lumber, modern tools and equipment combined with traditional joinery techniques guarantee the integrity of each piece of Benner furniture for life.
Because the home is your 'SANCTUARY'...
Placing furniture in your home (or office) to complete a decorative look or to update and freshen a tired look is not just about decorating and style. It’s your home – your sanctuary from the stresses of the world and it should be more than just beautiful to look at with the eyes! It should be felt as well – comfortable, functional and space-friendly for all family members to be able to move freely around day in and day out.
Your sacred, unique home space has a heart and furniture gives that heart its rhythm, bringing it to life! That great high back Windsor chair is where Dad loves to read the Sunday paper or mom enjoys knitting; the sturdy and homey kitchen table where you eat meals together and help your kids with their homework just feels ‘right’ to you and somehow helps the kids concentrate better!; the Acorn bed is that ideal spot for a safe place to fall where you snuggle up with your spouse under a cozy canopy to grab some ‘alone time’ after a hectic work week.
The Building Process...
SORTING THE BOARDS
Boards are sorted for color, grain and width before being cut to rough length. The best are separated out and marked for drawer fronts and table tops, side panels and other visable componets.
Skill and experience is required on the part of the craftsman to "read" the boards, and predict the picture that will be created when they are placed together in the finished piece. A good eye will lend balance to the piece, while a poor grain match will cause a distorted and potentially mis-matched look.
MILLING
Once the boards have been cut to rough length, they are brought from the lumber room to the main shop where they are milled to their final dimensions. Again, great care must be taken to maximize yield and to ensure that the components are dimensionally accurate. Any errors at this juncture would be compounded later and cause problems with fit during assembly.
JOINERY
We use traditional joints to build our furniture because they continue to provide the strongest way to hold two pieces of wood together.
The main joint employed in all our furniture is the mortise and tenon. With the aid of modern adhesives, it provides excellent strength. The main application for this joint is where two components meet at right angles, typically at the junction of a rail and a leg.
For drawer construction, we use traditional dovetails to join solid maple drawer components. Accurately cut dovetails are extremely strong, and when the drawer is opened, our owners enjoy seeing a perfect row of dovetails down the front edge.
ASSEMBLY
This is where all the effort involved in marking and tracking individual components really pays off. It is always exciting to see matched legs, panels and drawer fronts finally come together to create symmetry in the finished piece. Although many of our designs are now standardized, each piece of furniture is unique by the individual nature of the wood that it is made from.
FINISHING
Once the furniture is built, it is placed in a dust-free environment where it is finished and prepared for shipment.
Finishing provides the necessary surface protection against a lifetime of daily use. On another level, finishing allows the wood to reveal its true character.
We Guarantee Customer Satisfaction…
Many of our satisfied customers have returned as repeat customers as a result of falling in love with the wonderful and unique furniture they purchase from us. They love knowing they have solid wood they can depend upon – unlike many of the bargain-cheap faux wood that doesn’t stand the test of time well. These happy customers then pass the word on to others and we continue to be grateful for that kindness by knowing their good word keeps spreading about us!
Here at Benner’s, we know what you want and we enjoy serving your home improvement needs. We take the time to listen to your questions, ideas and requests. We too have a family and understand what that homey sanctuary needs to look and feel like! Ask us anything you wish about your home furnishing ideas or décor questions and we will be happy to help you with our knowledge, advice or just simple feedback. We love and appreciate our customers for their patronage and loyalty – past, present and future – and we look forward to helping you make your furniture selections to round out and complete your home or office sanctuary!