How a Simple Trash Can Inspired a Thriving Furniture Shop

GARDNER — Necessity is the mother of invention and it’s particularly apt when describing how Justin Robichaud got into the woodworking trade and what inspired him to launch his custom-made furniture business: Wood You Build It.

It all began with a simple wooden kitchen island/trash bin, home-made to meet a basic household need.

“It was all by accident,” Robichaud said in a recent interview. You might say it’s a “rags to riches” story, he said.

When Justin Robichaud and his wife, Kate, were living in small, rented quarters, twelve years ago, there was no convenient place for a waste basket in the kitchen, so they hung a trash bag on a doorknob. But with a baby on the way, his wife said that set-up had to go. “Can you make something?” she asked him.

Using salvaged attic floorboards and with ingenuity born of necessity and a tight budget, he built a small, wooden kitchen island with storage and a built-in trash bin. It solved the problem and cost him nearly nothing to make. His only expense was “five or six dollars for hardware,” Robichaud said.

The stroke of serendipity that set Robichaud’s success story in motion came two months later, when he heard of a web-based marketplace called Etsy.  “I saw the CEO interviewed on Oprah,” he said.

Here was an opportunity to turn his invention into much-needed cash. “It was geared to handiwork,” he said of the website. The first unit he advertised sold quickly and his new career developed from there.

Robichaud started his business in 2012. He set up shop in Gardner, which has a “rich history” in furniture making, he said. Dubbed “the chair city,” it was once a hub for the trade. Today, the iconic giant chair symbolizing the city’s proud past still stands at the outskirts. But most of the woodworking shops and furniture factories the city was famous far are long gone.

Wood You Build It is an exception and the business is still growing Robichaud hired his first employee seven years after starting out. By then, he’d switched from his rustic prototype to classier, free-standing kitchen islands, which he said are “made from scratch” and made to order.

Topped with finished butcher block that can be sized and configured to fit customers’ specifications, the islands range from basic styles to almost any design. With or without seating space. Drawers, shelves, pull out trash bins, spice racks. Types of wood, colors and finishes, etc. Details determine the price tag, which  can be as high as $4,000. Buyer’s choice. “We make it as you want it…exactly,” he said.

Asked about his business plan, he said the idea was to keep it simple: buy materials as needed, figure his labor into unit pricing, plow profits back into the business. “It works,” he said. And he did it all without needing to take out any loads, he said. Harking back to his “rags to riches” theme, he said his story could inspire others.

As for inventory, there’s not much, just “a couple of models” customers can choose from if they don’t have a made-to-order design of their own, which “99 percent” of them do,” he said.

The 25,000-square-foot workshop does not have a showroom. Pieces usually go out when completed, delivered to the customer’s door. Asked about equipment, he said that’s pretty basic, too. All the right stuff but nothing too high tech.

“Because it’s handcrafted, we use everyday power tools,” he said.

Kitchen islands make up 85% of his business, Robichaud said, adding that it may be the largest furniture account on the Etsy website.

“We stick with what works…it’s our bread and butter,” he said.

Recently featured in two Channel 5 TV segments, “Chronicle,” and “Made in Massachusetts,” his firm’s signature product is sold to customers across the country. “We deliver,” he said, a service he considers a double-sided perk. For his part, he gets to travel to cities and towns all over the United States. He recently returned from a trip to Wyoming, he said.

“We’re like the milkman,” Robichaud said.

Robichaud said his passion for the work he makes a living at evolved over time. Born and raised in Fitchburg, Robichaud said he had no aspirations to get into woodworking, although there’s a family history of it that dates back to his French Canadian ancestors.

“My dad says its in my blood,” he said.

Asked about other paths he might have taken, other interests, Robichaud named a couple of places he worked and said he’d played baseball in college, but apparently with no clear career he was aiming for.

“Then life happened,” he said.

Asked if he considers the enterprise a family business, Robichaud said his wife Kate isn’t involved, directly, although she deserves credit for its inspiration. As for his kids, 12-year-old Lexie and 10-year-old Bryson, he said their levels of interest wax and wane. Given their ages, it doesn’t disappoint him. He loves the work he does now and his business is thriving.

“I’ve never hated going to work,” he said.

“My crew is just as passionate as I am, and their efforts certainly show,” Robichaud said.

Asked about customer feedback, he said one delivery – to a couple in Brooklyn – stands out. When he arrived, they asked him to wait before removing the protective blanket from the piece. “The wife yelled upstairs” to their six kids and all eight of them “lined up for the big reveal,” Robichaud said. “It was a major purchase for them, and it meant more than just a couple of pieces of wood,” he said. “For some reason, I always remembered that delivery.”