Inside Biz: Custom Made Furniture in Unexpected Places

Larry Mescha decided to go into business for himself out of necessity.

"I was working in the trades, as the economy slowed down, the hardwood flooring company went out of business," he said. "It was pretty much out of necessity; I had been putting out resumes to other companies.

"I still had bills to pay and obligations to meet."

Today, five years later, Mescha's company, LDM Wood Concepts, is so successful that he has nearly outgrown his home workshop.

"I will probably have to actually look for a shop just because I have outgrown the space," he said. "Probably in the next year that will happen."

Mescha began LDM Wood Concepts with only custom made furniture.

"Back then, it was purely custom, whatever somebody wanted," he said.

But that changed as more people started to see his pieces.

 "A lot of people liked some of the pieces I had done for myself or for others," he said.

So he started his standard line. Those were the two possibilities until he was approached about a project for a new kind of table.

"There was a lady who owned an artist studio and she had a contact with the Plainfield Fire (Protection District) and she said, can you build a really big table?" Mescha said. "Since then, we’ve done one other table for Plainfield and (tables for) Troy Fire Protection District."

The tables are large construction pieces that are stained, the local fire department's logo sticker is applied to the table and then the top of the table is sealed.

In addition to adding a standard line and fire conference tables to his inventory list, Mescha has also designed furniture completely from reclaimed wood.

"I do it with the idea that you don’t know that it’s reclaimed," he said.

His first job in this medium was unexpected - he created tables and chairs from wood that had belonged to a floor in a Chicago school. But the wood from which that floor was created is highly sought after now. The wood is birdseye maple.

"I even asked my wood supplier could you get some of this and he said no, you won’t find that," Mescha said.

So when Mescha finds reclaimed wood that is usable, he uses it, even though it is often more work.

"I do it with the idea that you don’t know that it’s reclaimed," he said. "It’s done on a basis of people that want it.

"For me the reclaimed is (often) more work; for me it is worth it for certain pieces."

For more information on LDM Wood Concepts, visit them on Facebook.