If your anything like me you're tired of looking for that perfect piece of furniture to fit your style of home then after spending months searching you found it, a week later you go over to a friends house to see that they have the same piece in their house. It is frustrating when you want something unique and different but you know that every retail item is available to everyone else.

If this describes a frustration you have experienced or you are looking for something no one else has then you have come to the right place.

Another thing that bothers me is have you ever noticed how older tables just seem to last and last. In some cases tables made in the 1800s era are still in use today, but the furniture you bought at your local retailer is falling apart after just a couple of years.

These two problems are the reason we have started making this type of furniture. The furniture we make can never be duplicated because we take advantage of each piece of woods particular qualities from wood grain to the way each piece of wood was cut when it was first used. Furthermore we use no new cut wood; every piece in our tables is historical reclaimed wood. Some of the wood comes from old barns such as in the picture to the right. In other cases it comes from more difficult sources such as ancient water towers or giant pickling barrels. Thus each piece of wood is not only used in the best way possible, but each piece has a history attached to it.

Wouldn't it be great to tell your friends sitting around your beautiful dinner table the story about the great train trestle built to cross The Great Salt Lake in Utah and about the hardships to dismantle the bridge? Tell them how it spanned the lake from one side to the other including the historical landmark Promontory Point, the location where the golden spike was pounded in the first train track to ever reach from one side of the country to the other. Then point at our table and tell them how this table was made from the very wood removed from that bridge.

To address the second problem regarding the durability of the furniture, we decided to make furniture the way it used to be done. Most if not all of our designs are based from hundreds-of-years old designs. Modern furniture factories often use particle wood to create furniture because it is cheap and easy to acquire however it is not very strong by comparison to real wood furniture and requires a veneer (or just a wood-like plastic sticker) layer on top to make it look like real wood. There is neither particle wood nor any veneer in any of our products. I ask you do you want something that looks like wood but is fake and looks like every other piece or do you want something that is real wood and looks like no other piece in the world.

Thus Surewood Designs was born.

Working from an old shop in downtown Peoria Illinois we have begun making our furniture. We are a father and son partnership working together to get you the furniture you need with the look you want.

Jim Schaidle has worked with wood since 1978 at the age of 22 working for Frymuth and Son's cabinet shop (who's shop is now our next door neighbor as a bit of irony) up to owning a business in Metamora Illinois. After a few years of running that business Jim got an offer to work for a great company in Blackfoot Idaho as their production manager overseeing the lumber processing. He couldn't resist the call of the west so to speak and moved to Pocatello Idaho to work for them. A year and a half later Jim's passion (making furniture) was calling to him again and overseeing logs becoming boards was no longer fulfilling him. Furthermore his new/first granddaughter was growing by leaps and bounds and the infrequent drives back to Illinois were just not enough time with the family he so loved. So he decided it was time to move back home. After calling an old friend D. James Jumer of Jumer's Hotels and Casinos he had arranged a shop to start his dream business up making the furniture he was so passionate about.

Nick Schaidle, Jim's son, has worked with wood (with his father) to some degree his whole life however he specializes more in business management and computer applications. Thus he complements his father's position very well. Where Nick is good at office operations and computer systems Jim is good with furniture design and wood working. The pair together makes a well rounded management team. Nick first worked with wood in his dad's business in Metamora and also moved to Pocatello Idaho to work for the same company there as their office/management assistant and when needed forklift driver. However this business was too much to pass up and he moved back to Illinois as well. Currently Nick operates the business side of Surewood from management accounts to programming this website right now.

As a whole our goal is to make each customer satisfied and able to say "There is nothing that could be more perfect for me." To achieve this goal we will go to whatever lengths we are capable of. Even so much as to sometimes make custom designs for customers or make something at their own design. As our business grows so will our products that we can make, but rest assured even we can not make a perfect match of one of our pieces for they are totally one of a kind.