Dogberry Collections

Dogberry Collections started in a little red shed with dirt floors and, by the company's own account, "some questionable electrical work." The first machine in it was an old Shopsmith. The company now runs from Richfield, Utah. The company says it really began to grow with fireplace mantels.

One brother had the woodworking background and the other had a mind for business. Their father brought years of experience in finance. The first pieces were rustic modern tables, and after about a year of prototyping the family took them to a furniture show in Las Vegas, where one table made the cover of the show's magazine.

Tables did not make the business, though. Growth came when the same look moved to fireplace mantels and sliding barn doors, and later to shutters and wall panels. The Farmhouse mantel is solid American West poplar with no MDF or veneer. On the Hewn kitchen shelf, the company says, a worker runs an adze across the face to carve the texture by hand.

Shoppers should know that most of the listings on Dogberry's site now come from other makers, including shower systems and wallpaper. The wood mantels and cedar shutters are the ones to look at for the family's own designs. The Classic mantel uses paulownia, a fast-growing hardwood the company says is lighter than oak or poplar.

The company says it wants to keep building in Richfield for many years and keep the jobs there. For a business that began with a Shopsmith in a shed, that is the whole plan.