By Esther Leggett
For the past nine years, Fannie and Jonas Schlabach have operated their family-owned business amid the beautiful farmland of central Wayne County. Both grew up there, so it was only natural for them to locate their furniture business close to home and away from the busy tourist areas.
"Jonas started out as a timber cutter, but it kept him away from home a lot," Fannie recalled. "He wanted to be with his family more, so we went into business keeping chickens. After a while, a friend of his reminded Jonas he'd always liked working with wood, so why not try his hand in the furniture business?"
The rest is history, as they say. The Schlabachs remodeled the chicken coop, Jonas went from cutting wood to selling it, and now, together with other family members, they offer consumers some of the best quality handcrafted furniture around.
"We find the quality of locally made items to be much better," Fannie said. "We don't make the furniture in-house, but we do a lot of finish work here. We get unfinished products and are able to apply the stain and finish to please the customer."
Schlabach's also is able to "stain-match," allowing a new piece of furniture to match something the customer may already own.
"For example," Fannie explained, "someone may already have an existing bed and a dresser, but then decide they want a chest or a night stand. If they bring in a drawer from the dresser, we can match that finish and apply it to the new chest of night stand. Then it will all look the same."
When you visit Schlabach's, you're met with a friendly smile and more furniture than you can imagine! The building, void of electricity and a phone, of course, houses mostly solid oak and cherry furniture and accessories, although there are maple and walnut selections as well.
"Quarter-sawn oak has really become a popular choice, too," said Fannie and Jonas' son Daniel. "Another is the combination of stained wood and paint, usually black. We also get asked for the distressed look; we do a lot of that."
"People today want quality, and that's what we offer," Fannie continued. "Our furniture will serve the needs of today's consumer, but also be around for generations to come. And it's affordable quality ... because our family runs the business and overhead is low (no electric or phone bills, remember), we can sell for much less."
What's available at Schlabach's? The list goes on and on, but here we go: furniture for the bedroom and dining room, hutches, entertainment centers (for all the new sizes of TVs), computer centers, roll-top desks, children's furniture (including several styles of cradles), end tables and coffee tables in "all sorts and all styles," gun cabinets, bar stools, wash stands, knee-hole desks, pie safes, curio cabinets, deacon's benches, rockers (in hickory as well as the traditional and glider styles), cedar chests, hall/clothes trees, dry sinks, Hoosier-style cabinets, outdoor furniture (including the new maintenance-free poly style with stainless steel parts) and many smaller items. They also handle a small line of sofas and recliners.
If customers don't see exactly what they want, Schlabach's has the ability to have pieces custom made.
"So often," Fannie said, "what we display doesn't quite fill the bill. Customers want something "just these measurements,' and we do our best to make that happen.
"For instance, a lady came in with a drawing of a particular style cradle she was looking for, and we were able to have it created for her. Another customer needed a computer table, but the ones we stocked weren't quite right for him. He drew up what he wanted, our local craftsmen made it, and it was perfect. In fact, those craftsmen now use that pattern as their standard model because it works so well."
A few things that caught my eye as I perused showroom were: wooden clocks in the shape of Ohio and the United States, with individual counties and states, respectively, inlaid using different types of wood; a magazine rack for the bathroom with space for the toilet paper; footstools; children's furniture; doll furniture; and lazy Susans.
Fannie told me many stories of customers coming from Michigan, West Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Arkansas, California and even Alaska to shop at their store.
"A newly married couple from West Virginia came and bought furniture for their whole house," she said. "And another couple bought a night stand and took it home in the back of their pick-up truck. We stretch-wrapped it, they put a tarp over it and away they went, all the way back to Arkansas!
"A lady from New York came in and purchased quite a lot of our furniture. She wrote back to say how much she liked it, and she's been keeping in touch with us ever since."
If you're in the market for some new furniture or simply want to browse around to see what's available should you need some in the near future, be sure to visit Schlabach Furniture. You won't be disappointed, as the Schlabach family will attend to your every need.
And remember, they're open late on Friday evenings when most other such establishments have closed. It's just a suggestion, but why not find a nice Amish-style restaurant and enjoy a delicious local-flavor dinner before driving out to Schlabach's Furniture, where friendly service and quality products go hand in hand.
Schlabach Furniture -- 11463 H7arrison Rd., Apple Creek, OH 44606; hours: Mon.-Sat., 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; open until 8 p.m. on Fri.; closed Sun.
Location -- west of Mt. Eaton, east of Wooster on Harrison Road (Wayne County Road 2), 1-1/2 miles west of Kidron Road (Wayne County Road 52), south of US 250.