Prairie Lane Furniture produces customized furniture, one customer at a time
By Mallory Schlabach
For one family, their business comes down to hard work, service and a knack for creating any type of furniture a customer wants. Prairie Lane Furniture is a family-owned and operated store based just outside of Nashville. The family sells hardwood bedroom and dining room furniture, specializing in furniture that customers can design themselves.
The family has been in the furniture-making business for 15 years, and began selling the furniture at their retail store in May 2002.
John Gingerich, current owner of the retail store, said he became a part of the family-owned business after his brother-in-law invited him to manage the retail part of the store.
"Our big thing here is that we are family-owned and operated," Gingerich said. "We're trying to give customers good quality at a fair price. We know they can trust us to do it right if they bring in a sketch of something they want, an idea in their head, or even a picture out of a magazine."
The store originally began on the family farm, when Gingerich's brother-in-law was looking for a job he could do at home to be with his family more as his children were growing up. Gingerich said the store was "off the beaten path" and that it just kept growing from word of mouth. Every piece of furniture is still made at the farm.
Wanting to make it easier for customers to find the store, the family opened the Prairie Lane Furniture retail shop on the east side of Nashville off State Route 39.
In the 3,000-square-foot retail store, customers can find more than 100 different wood products. They can come in and choose a piece they want built, or they can create their own from scratch, choosing the design, wood, stain or paint choice. Gingerich said it takes about eight weeks for the products to be completed once they are ordered in the store.
Prairie Lane Furniture strives to provide customers with exactly what they want. One way they do that is to specialize in customized furniture that is many times difficult to find in other stores.
Gingerich said they also carry a basketweave line, with the Longaberger basket design on the front of the furniture, something unique to the store.
One benefit of buying furniture at Prairie Lane, Gingerich said, is that the furniture can be sold at lower prices because it is all made locally.
He said another benefit is that the finish on all their hardwood products is better than anything around because they too, are done in-house.
Gingerich said future plans for the store wouldn't include an expansion any time soon because the family likes the service it can provide.
"With our entire family involved in the store, we can give better service by focusing on the individual and staying on our family farm to build everything," Gingerich said. "We're happy with staying small so we can offer fair prices."
The store doesn't have a Web site to advertise on, and instead receives most of its customers via word of mouth.
"About 50 percent of our customers come from out of state, hearing about our store from others who have been here before. The other 50 percent are locals who are looking for something nice for their homes," Gingerich said.
He said people come from big cities nearby such as Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Pa., and Detroit, Mich., to buy furniture.
"We hear all the time that we have high quality products," Gingerich said. "Just come and see for yourself how good our products are. We have the highest quality of products anywhere."
