MountainMuleHardwood

Custom solid hardwood furniture handcrafted in TN.

Limestone, Tennessee On Etsy since 2011

1,184 Sales | 5 out of 5 stars

Top shop for gifts.

Buyers bought gifts from this shop and gave them 5-star reviews!

MountainMuleHardwood

Custom solid hardwood furniture handcrafted in TN.

Limestone, Tennessee | 1,184 Sales

5 out of 5 stars

Shop owner

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Announcement    We are a small family owned business made up of an artist + a carpenter, and a talented team of helpers, working in the beautiful mountains of east Tennessee. Check out our IG or FB to see more examples of our work: @mountainmulehardwoods. We make everything by hand and waste nothing- even our wood shavings get used as bedding for our animals. We only work with American hardwoods. We look forward to building something special for you!

NOTE: Current lead time has increased to 6 - 8 weeks plus shipping, due to the pandemic. We are building as fast as we can while trying to stay safe, and we appreciate your patience! Delivery dates are not guaranteed due to Covid-19 and the holidays.

Announcement

Last updated on Nov 16, 2020

We are a small family owned business made up of an artist + a carpenter, and a talented team of helpers, working in the beautiful mountains of east Tennessee. Check out our IG or FB to see more examples of our work: @mountainmulehardwoods. We make everything by hand and waste nothing- even our wood shavings get used as bedding for our animals. We only work with American hardwoods. We look forward to building something special for you!

NOTE: Current lead time has increased to 6 - 8 weeks plus shipping, due to the pandemic. We are building as fast as we can while trying to stay safe, and we appreciate your patience! Delivery dates are not guaranteed due to Covid-19 and the holidays.

Items

Request Custom Order
Contact shop owner
1184 Sales
2523 Admirers
 

All Items

Nelson Adolphson and Megan Pinch

Contact shop owner

Nelson Adolphson and Megan Pinch

Reviews

Average item review
5 out of 5 stars
(368)
See reviews that mention:
quality 121 shipping 104 customer service 114

About MountainMuleHardwood

Sales 1,184
On Etsy since 2011
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Heirloom-Quality American Hardwood Furniture & Gifts, Handcrafted in Tennessee

Our Work
Our furniture and artisan gifts are handcrafted from solid American hardwoods, including walnut, cherry, red and white oak, quarter-sawn white oak, maple, curly maple, ambrosia maple and ash. To give our pieces more dimension and contrast, we often like to mix different combinations of hardwoods. Our bed frames are made to be easily assembled with interlocking hardware. Our tables are made with removable legs for ease of shipping. All of our furniture is finely sanded and finished simply in linseed oil, to reveal the natural color and beauty of the wood grain. When you buy our pieces, you can rest assured that you're not bringing questionable wood or dangerous chemicals into your home, because our wood is solid, new, furniture grade lumber, our glue is low-VOC and our finish is 0% VOC. We build a lot of furniture for chemically sensitive people, often beds for people buying organic mattresses. With everything we build, we think about safety, usability, functionality and durability of our pieces for generations of use.

Our Story
Established in 2014, Mountain Mule Hardwoods is a collaboration between Megan Pinch and Nelson Adolphson. With over 25 years of finish carpentry experience, Nelson personally creates each piece of heirloom-quality hardwood furniture. As a former art and photography professor, Megan’s contribution is everything else: design, marketing, business, web design, photography, finishing and lots and lots of sanding!

Our Name
Located in the mountains of Limestone, Tennessee, our shop overlooks acres of woods and our mule barn and arena. Why mules, you ask? We love our surefooted gaited mules for trail-riding in mountainous terrain. Tough, durable, intelligent, and full of personality, mules are known for their look of strength without bulk. Similarly, our finished pieces are streamlined, strong and durable, with the unique characteristics of the natural hardwoods shining through the simple finish.

The Carpenter
Originally from central Pennsylvania, Nelson Adolphson has been making a living as a finish carpenter for over 25 years. He has trimmed the interior of many prestigious golf clubs and high-end homes around Virginia and Tennessee. His first piece of furniture was a hutch he made in high school, which his parents still use. Nelson thoroughly enjoys turning a rough-sawn stack of lumber into a beautiful and functional piece of furniture, and hopes that people will treat his pieces as heirlooms to be passed down from generation to generation.

The Artist
Megan Pinch grew up in Rochester, NY and holds an MFA in Visual Studies from SUNY Brockport, and a BA in Russian and Art from College of the Holy Cross. Megan moved all over the country for her 13-year long career as a college photography professor. This ended in 2014 when the college where she was poised to become department chair and receive tenure abruptly shut down. Seeing that she could use her photo and web skills to help Nelson realize his dream of building fine furniture, she started Mountain Mule Hardwoods. She enjoys working with people to design custom pieces, selecting just the right lumber for each project, and making her own schedule!

Shop members

  • Nelson Adolphson

    Owner, Maker, Carpenter

    Originally from central PA, Nelson has made a living as a finish carpenter for 25+ years. He enjoys turning rough-sawn lumber into a functional piece of furniture, and hopes people will see his pieces as heirlooms to be passed down for generations.

  • Megan Pinch

    Owner, Maker, Photographer

    Megan grew up in Rochester, NY. Her background is in higher education, as a photography and art professor for 13+ years. When her college abruptly shut down in 2014, she decided to help Nelson realize his dream and they started Mountain Mule.

Shop policies

Last updated on August 3, 2019
We are different from a lot of today's furniture builders. Maybe the best way to clarify our philosophy is by saying what we don't do...

We don't use lumber from trees we can't identify or haven't heard of. We love our standard American hardwoods.

We don't apologize for the character of the wood- the worm trails, the knots, the sapwood, the veins of brightness. We appreciate these natural details.

We don't offer staining or painting, because we want to see the beauty of the wood, and also because we don't like exposing ourselves and our customers to harsh chemicals. We offer our furniture unfinished or finished in boiled linseed oil, which is made from flaxseed. We also have a more durable plant-based oil and wax blend.

We don't just throw things together and call it rustic... We like clean lines and simple pieces that are versatile.

We don't hop on the trend bandwagon... We prefer to make things that are timeless and will be around for a long time to come.

Accepted payment methods

Paypal Mastercard Visa American Express Discover Apple Pay Klarna Giftcard
Accepts Etsy Gift Cards and Etsy Credits
Returns and exchanges
I don't accept returns, exchanges, or cancellations
But please contact me if you have any problems with your order.
Returns and exchange details
We don't offer refunds on custom furniture mostly because of the extremely high cost of shipping. We try to be very clear on details and expectations ahead of time. We try to send a picture of each finished piece to you before we ship. If you are unhappy for some reason, please communicate with us immediately and we will do whatever we can to remedy the situation.
Payment
We often buy the lumber for your piece within a day or two after you pay. Should you cancel your furniture order before we begin building, we may not be able to give you a full refund. If you were to cancel your order after we have built it, we will retain a larger part of your payment.
Shipping
Shipping furniture is pretty expensive. We want it to get to you safely in the least expensive way possible. We have worked on breaking our furniture down into parts that are more easily shipped, and easily assembled with minimal tools. We always insure it and usually use FedEx Ground.
Additional policies and FAQs
We take custom orders and can sometimes offer a discount for bulk orders.