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Dallas Morning News Features Recherche Furnishings Reclaimed Products
Posted by Jan Hand on 16th May 2015
Today, May 16, 2015, the Dallas Morning News featured Recherche Furnishings for their reclaimed products and their Keep Texas Beautiful Award for Business of the Year.
By NANCY BALDWIN
Special Contributor
Published:
Updated:
Cliff and Jan May Hand have made careers out of woodworking.
Owners of Recherché Furnishings, a custom furniture manufacturer in Rowlett, the two see unlimited possibilities in the natural material, much of it reclaimed.
Their creativity earned them the Ebby Halliday & Maurice Acers Business/Industry Leadership Award from Keep Texas Beautiful.
The annual distinction is presented by the statewide nonprofit to a Texas business that works to protect the environment.
“We live and breathe this,” Jan says. “Every six months we launch something new.”
It wasn’t always that way. Until 2010, the couple had careers in other professions: Jan as a health care executive and Cliff as an advertising and design professional.
A chance event turned them in another direction.
“I thought I’d make a concrete table for our dining room,” Cliff says. “I made the table from Sakrete from Home Depot. Folks would want to feel it and look at it. I started making prototypes, and we did our own marketing.”
What evolved was Recherché Furnishings and its Cliffstone tables with handcrafted aggregate tops and bases of new and reclaimed oak, alder, red cedar and juniper.
The tables were followed quickly by an assortment of home decor. A load of cast-off fence material led to the couple’s largest project. On a whim, Cliff fabricated a photo frame from the wood, adding recycled cardboard as the backing and a soda can tab for the hanger.
The frame was an instant hit, and the company’s Naturals Recycled Frames now are sold nationwide.
Also made of reclaimed materials are flags crafted of recycled solid wood, can tabs, eyelets and jute string for hanging.
“We have 52,000 pounds of fence at the front of our shop and in our yard that’ll be kept out of landfills,” Cliff says.
The couple’s eco-conscious efforts extend to a campaign to provide water for communities in Africa by building wells. Through the Turning Wood into Water effort, 10 percent of frame sales are donated toward construction through a program sponsored by Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall.
“To make a product people like, and recycle, and help people in Africa, it’s a win, win, win,” Jan says.
Recherché Furnishings can be purchased locally at Treasured Blossoms Flower Market, Rowlett; wayfair.com, amazon.com and overstock .com.
Nancy Baldwin is a Plano freelance writer.