Portfolio

A custom children's dining set, with the chairs stacked erratically, as if children did the stacking. They are positioned in front of the table which is turned up on its side, showing the bottom.

A walnut record cabinet, filled with records and stereo equipment, next to a leather couch.

The foot of a custom walnut bed frame, showing a fancy detail where the leg joins the frame, and the oversized finger joints on the corner of the frame itself.

history lesson:

Biglow Woodcraft was founded in 2015 as a custom furniture maker. For 7 years it was just Brent, building bespoke furniture.

Nearly every project was a step forward in some way. Design, material knowledge, fine joinery skills and more were pushed forward with every piece. The natural progression is to develop a product line and accompanying processes to teach to a growing production team and serve fine woodworking to a much larger customer base.

Custom furniture will always be a part of Biglow Woodcraft, and Brent wrote a digital book about how to do it best. But for now it's mostly in the rearview as we focus on developing new products, and ironing out all the challenges that scale and teamwork bring.

The future of Biglow Woodcraft is a nationally recognized supplier of fine homewares and furniture, made ethically in Winnipeg, MB.

The past is below:

A detail shot of a custom walnut record cabinet, with a headphone rack poking out holding a pair of headphones. Scotch in 3 rocks glasses sit on the top, in front of a Doors record.

This Walnut Record Cabinet went viral in 2022 for all its hidden features; vibration damping turntable block, bar storage, turntable accessory storage, headphone rack, lighting, and the groove at the back to hold your on-deck records in view but out of the way.

It's one of Brent's proudest accomplishments, but projects like this are extremely difficult to produce within time and budget constraints. There's simply no guide to follow that combines so many elements, and creating one yourself isn't worthwhile as the product is so niche. Read more about this conflict in The Biglow Method.

The lower half of a custom walnut record cabinet, showing a drawer being opened and sorted through. The drawer is full of records with custom genre dividers in between.

A detail shot of a custom record cabinet, showing 2 of it's drawers partially open. Once containing record maintenance tools, and the other holding whiskey glasses and various alcohol bottles.

There was actually a product line before the product line.

In 2017, Brent developed a few small products with the same aspirations as today, but nearly zero resources. This experiment highlighted the limits of one person's capacity. The pivot to a product business would take careful planning and ultimately more people.

It wouldn't be until 2022 that Brent could hire Will and train him to help with custom furniture builds and the manufacturing of a re-launched product line.

Will is now Production Manager and leads the team of 4 production staff.

The 2017 product line featured an older version of the Gravity Bar. Brent made about 30 of these and sold them all at a financial loss, but they were a big step forward in understanding what a product business would take.

Today's Gravity Bar is our bread and butter, bringing in 65% of our revenue. It serves as an aspirational watermark for future product designs, process developments, and marketing efforts.