Copeland Furniture — A Brief History
With a vision to create a family owned and operated enterprise, we set out in the early 1970s to make wood products from natural hardwoods. Initially, we made cider presses for home and small-scale orchard use. From there our designs evolved into butcher-block kitchen furniture and Adirondack-style porch furniture, items that were functional and affordable for baby-boomers as they furnished their first homes.
During our many periods of growth, we have changed from a one-man operation in an old garage in East Corinth, Vermont, to a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility located on the banks of the Connecticut River in Bradford, Vermont. Using a combination of leading-edge computer technology and traditional craftsman technique, we have created an enterprise that is embedded in our local community, a place that provides a fulfilling work environment for the men and women who come to work here every day.
Design Aesthetic
The continued evolution of our furniture designs has coincided with a resurgence of appreciation for designs from the Arts & Crafts, Mission, Shaker, and Scandinavian movements. Today, our aesthetic continues to be strongly influenced by these creative movements, as well as the surroundings here in Vermont.
Vermont’s culture has historically placed a high value on preservation as witnessed in the many small villages dotted with architectural gems in the form of houses, libraries, and churches. These understated, well-designed structures inform our creative sensibilities each and every day. Our furniture is best characterized as transitional, neither strictly contemporary nor traditional but rather a combination of elements that incorporate classic proportion with modern simplicity.
The Past is Prologue
For 32 years, Copeland Furniture has sought to stay loyal to its mission to produce furniture for discerning consumers who have an appreciation for good design, quality, and value. We have also worked hard to stay loyal to the New England tradition of quality craftsmanship. Our work ethic embraces the belief that continuous improvement is ultimately what best serves the customer. We strive to meet your expectations and make the best furniture we possibly can.
Copeland Furniture is Green Furniture
Preservation and stewardship are values that run deep in Vermont. We take pride in the quality of the environment and the natural beauty that surrounds us. We also interact with the natural environment in a more intimate way than our friends in more developed areas. Many of us make our living working with the land and the forests and even more of us hike, canoe, fish, and hunt. Taking care of that which surrounds us and feeds, clothes, and shelters us is an ethic that spans generations and is held by Vermonters in all walks of life.
Here are some of the ways that our environmental values are reflected in each piece of furniture that we make:
We use sustainably harvested hardwoods from the American Northern Forest
The Northern Forest is among the healthiest in the world and is actually growing in terms of standing biomass. The capacity of the Northern Forest to absorb carbon dioxide is growing each year. The forests of Vermont are no exception, now covering over 85% of the landscape. The lumber we use comes from within 500 miles of our factory. Living and working in and near the regions that supply our raw materials means that far less fossil fuel is consumed and less carbon dioxide emitted through transportation.
We are Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified
We work with the SmartWood program of the Rainforest Alliance. Their program requires us to work with suppliers who can certify that the wood we purchase from them comes from forests that:
- are not threatened
- do not have high conservation significance
- do not contain genetically modified trees.
SmartWood audits our purchase records annually. Whenever feasible, we purchase wood that is harvested from FSC-certified woodlots and processed by FSC-certified sawmills.
