Cosmetic Standards

At Siroh & Ivy, we take great pride in every unique piece of furniture we sell. Each product is handcrafted and professionally finished by our team using quality products like solid wood and steel.

Given the handmade nature of our products, variations and imperfections are expected and worthy of celebration. Just as every tree is unique, so is every piece of furniture that is created and hand-finished just for you.

With that in mind, please read through our cosmetic standards BEFORE purchasing from us. By placing an order, you agree that you understand and accept the conditions outlined below:

Final product dimensions

We will use all reasonable professional means to produce your finished furniture at the original dimensions outlined in your invoice. However, there are times when, due to things like avoiding imperfections in the wood or needing to remove a bit more material to achieve flatness, we must slightly alter the agreed upon dimensions. For this reason, the standard you can expect from Siroh & Ivy is that we will end up within one inch of the original agreed upon dimensions. Such variation will not impact the form, function, or durability of your furniture. By ordering a piece of furniture from us, you agree that variation within one inch is acceptable.

Wood legs

Some of our tables and benches utilize legs that we have sourced from a trusted vendor right here in the USA. If a table uses these manufactured legs, it will be noted in the product description. Though we do not create these legs, we select them for both their beauty and their quality.

Since this is a different wood species from the table top, we will try to stain the chair to match your table top as closely as possible, though we cannot guarantee a perfect match.

Finally, the only modification we offer for such legs is the finish. We cannot customize the size, profile, or wood species of any legs that we source.

Steel legs

Though we do not create our steel legs in our woodshop, we source them from a trusted vendor from right here in the USA. They are selected for both their beauty and their quality. If a table or bench utilizes these manufactured legs, it will be noted in the product description.

If you order a piece of furniture with unfinished steel legs, you can expect to see a few imperfections. Variations in color are inherent to the metal, small scrapes around curved angles are due to bending the metal, welding marks are visible at joints, and small amounts of rust may have remained on the metal surface after cleaning. All of these traits give unfinished steel legs their unique industrial look.

When it comes to painted or powder coated steel legs, the color should be more uniform and any bending marks and rust should be covered. However, welding marks will still be visible at joints.

Chairs

Though we assemble and finish all of the chairs featured on our website, we do not manufacture these chairs in our woodshop. Rather, each chair is masterfully created by a trusted vendor we source from due to their beauty and quality standards.

You can expect these legs to include variations in color and grain pattern. This is natural due to the fact that the legs are made from solid parawood hardwood. Since this is a different wood species from the table top, we will try to stain the chair to match your table top as closely as possible, though we cannot guarantee a perfect match.

Finally, the only modification we offer for chairs is the finish. We cannot customize the size, profile, or wood species of our chairs.

Wood & stain variations

Every piece of furniture has a unique grain pattern and slight color variation. Furthermore, every species and piece of wood accepts stains and paints differently. This is due to natural variations in the wood and not to any aspect of our building process.

As such, we cannot guarantee exact grain pattern or stain matches to tables we've done in the past. While we will use the correct stain or paint color as requested in your order, there will always be a chance that the color will vary slightly from the table or picture you referenced when you ordered. This is normal.

Furthermore, we often use one species of wood for the top of the table and a completely different species for the bottom of the table, unless you request otherwise. This saves you money and reduces the overall weight of your furniture. However, as mentioned above, different wood species not only have different grain patterns but they also accept stains differently. While we will do our best to closely match the stain of the top and the bottom, we do not guarantee they will be perfect matches.

You may ask, "Well, the furniture I see on Wayfair and in Costco has 100% consistency in color. Also, the top and base perfectly match. Why can't you guys do that?" The answer would be that most big box stores are machine manufacturing mass-produced furniture using subpar wood coated with laminate or veneer. These very thin top coats are made to be perfectly consistent, so they aren't subject to much variation in the finish.

While there are definitely objective aspects that make a good finish job, perfectly matching colors is a subjective goal that's even affected by things out of our control like the lighting in your home. What may look grey under cool light may look greyish-brown under warm light. Ultimately, we cannot rework the finish on your table to achieve what you may deem a perfect match.

Matching stain colors

We do not match stain colors based on photos. To have us do any custom staining, you must deliver the stain to us yourself and tell us which type of wood to use. We'll then do what you've asked.

However, we cannot guarantee the stain will match what you had in mind, nor can we rework staining until it matches what you had in mind. Why? Every piece of wood has a unique grain pattern, and all wood types receive stains differently, which means there will always be slight color variations.

Sanding, distressing, & stain colors

The finer the finish you request for your table, the lighter your stain will be. The more distressed your table is, the darker your stain will be.

This is all due to the fact that wood is porous. The more the surface is sanded, the more the pores close up. This allows less stain to enter the wood and results in a lighter color. The more distressed a table is, the more the pores stay open, allowing it to accept the stain and become darker.

What does all of this mean? If you are ordering a finely finished table based on a photo of a heavily distressed table, please know that the stain is going to look much lighter on your finely finished, non-distressed table.

Wood movement

Solid wood expands and contracts due to changes in temperature and humidity. This is normal and expected. Such movement may cause the gaps between the boards of a seamed tabletop to widen over time. This natural movement does not affect the structural integrity and is not considered defective. It truly enhances the one-of-a-kind beauty and character of handcrafted solid-wood furniture.

Still, if you prefer to never have gaps between your tabletop boards, we recommend choosing our seamless top option. This eliminates spaces between the boards in the table tops. Seamless tops expand and contract as a whole.

General variations in furniture

Other characteristics of handcrafted, solid wood furniture include open knots, visible brush strokes, micro-imperfections, and textural variations in the finishes, distress marks, exposed screws, wood filler marks, joint lines, and distinctive nicks, splits, cracks, and other imperfections. Because of this, we allow up to approximately 1" of variation across all measurements due to the custom nature of the handcrafted furniture we build.

If you don't enjoy these variations and imperfections, you may be happier looking at machine-produced products rather than handcrafted furniture.

Lead times

At the time of your order, you will receive a lead time. With multiple orders in our queue at any given time, lead times are PURELY ESTIMATES. We cannon guarantee a specific delivery date. While we try to get orders completed and delivered ahead of schedule, there may be random issues in production that delay orders.

The lead time is simply our best guess of when you will get your furniture. We care about meeting lead times, but we care about the quality of your furniture more. It's better to get your piece a few weeks late and have it meet quality standards than it is to get it on time and have it be substandard.

Lastly, if you're placing an order in the hopes of getting it in time for a special occasion (holiday, birthday, house warming, etc.) we will do our best to accommodate that, but we cannot guarantee delivery by that date.

Care & maintenance

Depending on the type of finish we apply to your furniture, there may be specific methods you need to follow in order to protect, clean, and maintain the finish. This is normal with any type of furniture. No matter the type of finish, surfaces get scuffed, scratched, and dirty. Wood can also dry out.

When you receive your furniture, we'll provide you with resources that explain how to care for your new piece. Please adhere to those recommendations. If you do not provide the proper care or you clean the furniture with improper cleaning materials, you may experience faster wear and tear. We cannot be held responsible for damages due to improper maintenance.

Still have questions?

That was a lot of information to take in. Thanks for reading over it and accepting our cosmetic standards before ordering. We celebrate the true uniqueness of solid wood furniture. We hope you will as well.

If you have any questions about our cosmetic standards, please send us a message through our contact page.