Showcasing Furniture
Furniture shows are a mixed bag — and the Internet offers other venues for showing off your work. March 16, 2015
Question
I'm considering doing a few furniture shows to see if I can sell my furniture. Is there a website or other media that I could find a listing of shows? I've done a search but did not find any.
Forum Responses
(Furniture Making Forum)
From Contributor V:
Video channels are always a good place to start, such as YouTube and Vimeo.
From Contributor O:
I bet you are referring to craft shows or fine furnishings shows. There are large furniture shows in High Point, NC and such for the international manufacturers, but these are not practical for the small makers. Attend a few small shows before you rent a booth so you know what to expect. Understand that with most craft shows there is really nothing there for you. The better ones are in the Northeast. The juried shows have better returns, and it takes a few years to build up sales. Some shops will pick up over half their annual volume at such shows. Woodshop News has good reviews of the shows and is a good resource for that info.
From contributor C:
There’s not much sense in travelling across the country to wet your feet. In New England , there was a good juried show. I tended to see the custom one-off guys getting lots of wows but the guy doing simple cherry shaker like Moser was selling out and taking orders. I tend to like very high end, juried, smaller shows in really nice areas. I've always lived somewhere touristy. Try local wood worker guilds and such. They usually do an annual show. I like to try to get into shows where I feel like I need to step it up to fit with the other guys. These type of shows get nice work and visitors with deep pockets.
From Contributor S:
I agree with Contributor V’s post. For those who are starting to sell their furniture online, video channels are good places to start introducing your products to the public. Aside from YouTube and Vimeo, there's Justin.tv, Videobash, Veoh, Metacafe, Dailymotion and Netflix. You can also start selling your furniture at some mall trade shows.
