entrepreneurship – Dark Horse Woodworks

A year of milestones and opportunities

January 30, 2019 by darkhorse with 0 Comments

Before the first month of 2019 is gone, I wanted to post a quick thank-you to everyone who helped make 2018 a great year for Dark Horse and for me.

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We continued to stay busy creating a variety of cabinetry for modern renovations and new builds. We’re fortunate to have so many talented builders and design firms in the Atlanta area, and I’m grateful that we get to collaborate on so many innovative projects.

At home, the full kitchen reno my wife and I launched in 2017 was finally wrapped up (we just had a few minor things to check off the list). We love the new kitchen, but it was not a walk in the park to get there. I shared a couple of blog posts about what it’s like to renovate your own kitchen when you do this kind of work for a living, and I’ll be sharing the final installment and full “reveal” (to use some TV renovation show lingo) soon. Meanwhile, here’s Part 1 and Part 2 of the story.

In the throes of our kitchen reno

Continuing a great relationship

My involvement with the Cabinet Makers Association continued in 2018 and brought more great opportunities:

I had several opportunities to share my experience and work on my public speaking skills, thanks to being invited to participate in panel discussions and presentations at the CMA’s 20th Anniversary conference in Denver in March and at the International Woodworkers Fair (IWF) in Atlanta last summer.
Dark Horse was one of three stops on CMA’s Atlanta shop tours ahead of IWF. After being on the visitor side of some great CMA shop tours, it was an honor to welcome 50 fellow members from all over the country to our place and get their feedback. Hopefully, some of our visitors took away some ideas that might be helpful in their shops, too. We also threw a surprise barbecue at the end of the day that was a lot of fun.
CMA Shop Tour Day at Dark Horse

I enjoyed being on the judging end of the CMA Wood Diamond Awards for the first time; it’s always inspiring to see the quality craftsmanship and beauty of the work produced by CMA member shops in the United States and Canada. (You can take a look at the winners on the CMA Wood Diamond Awards page.)
A screenshot showing some of the 2018 Wood Diamond Award winners on the CMA site

I was elected vice president after serving as a board member for several years, and I’m looking forward to collaborating more with my friends and fellow CMA leaders this year.

Wrapping up and looking ahead

As I closed out the year, I checked a really unpleasant item off of my big-picture “to do” list: having much-needed knee-replacement surgery in early December.

Recovery hasn’t been fast and seamless, but the business has been able to continue chugging along. I’m grateful to my team, and as I wrote about on the blog earlier, I was also grateful when a CMA friend offered to get on a plane, fly across the country and come run things at the shop for a few days, post-surgery. That’s friendship! (I didn’t end up taking him up on the offer, but it meant a lot to know I have that kind of back-up through my CMA friendships.)

On a more festive note, my wife and I hosted the annual Dark Horse holiday party at our house, a tradition that was even more fun with our kitchen complete at last. For years, we had used the holiday party as both a scheduling nudge and an excuse when we talked about scheduling our reno project, and it was nice to have the few lingering to-do items in the new kitchen checked off before the party. (I’m including a few pre-party photos below; I’ll save the new kitchen photos for our final reno post.)

Finally, Dark Horse marked our 11th year in business on December 28: Here’s hoping 2019 continues to bring us many great opportunities, both in our work for clients and in our connections to others in the cabinetry/woodworking community.

Thanks for your ongoing support!

Chris Dehmer

Chris Dehmer to be featured presenter at International Woodworkers Fair

August 21, 2018 by darkhorse with 0 Comments

The International Woodworkers Fair (IWF) is being held in our back yard (well, in our city), and Chris Dehmer is putting all the travel time he’s saving into sharing his experience with fellow cabinet makers and woodworkers who are in Atlanta for the show.

In addition to Dark Horse being one of the featured stops on a pre-IWF shop tour organized by the Cabinet Makers Association (CMA), Chris is participating in four CMA panel presentations at IWF.

“I’ve always learned a lot from my fellow cabinet makers at IWF and other shows, and it’s great to be able to return the favor and share some of the lessons I’ve learned since starting Dark Horse 10 years ago,” Chris says.

If you’re going to the show, check out these descriptions of the presentations he’s participating in and stop by to hear what Chris and his fellow CMA members have to say:

Wednesday, August 22, 9:00 -11:00 am

“Working with Architects & Designers” – Chris Dehmer (Dark Horse Woodworks), James Fox (Fox Woodworking) and Joe Knobbe (Exclusive Woodworking)

Wednesday, August 22, 1:00 -3:00 pm

“Buying that Big Machine” – Leland Thomasset (Taghkanic Woodworking), Matt Krig (Northland Woodworks), Chris Dehmer (Dark Horse Woodworks) and Matt Wehner (Cabinet Concepts by Design)

Thursday, August 23, 10:30 am -12:30 pm

“Boundary-Pushing with your Nested-Based Router” – Leland Thomasset (Taghkanic Woodworking), Matt Krig (Northland Woodworks) and Chris Dehmer (Dark Horse Woodworks).

Friday, August 24, 1:00 -3:00 pm

“Acing that Modern Job” – by Chris Dehmer (Dark Horse Woodworks), Shelley Wehner (Cabinet Concepts by Design) and Joe Knobbe (Exclusive Woodworking)

For details on other CMA presentations and events during IWF, please visit www.cabinetmakers.org/IWF18.

Dark Horse to be featured on CMA shop tour during IWF 2018

July 20, 2018 by darkhorse with 0 Comments

routerphotonew The International Woodworkers Fair (IWF) is coming to Atlanta in August, and Dark Horse is pleased to be a featured stop on a pre-IWF shop tour organized by the Cabinet Makers Association (CMA).

The all-day tour on Tuesday, August 21, will include stops at several Atlanta-area shops – Atlanta Cabinet Shop and Custom Creative Furniture are participating along with Dark Horse. (CNC Factory is sponsoring the event.)

“My experience being on the CMA board inspired me to participate,” says Dark Horse owner Chris Dehmer. “It’s great to be part of a group that is so generous with its time and so willing to share its experience. I’m inviting people to come on the CMA tour and tell me what we’re doing wrong!”

Dark Horse has invested in technology to optimize its capabilities and work flow as well as the quality of its products. Tour participants will get a chance to see how a small shop makes use of innovations such as Zero Edge technology and a CNC router.

The shop tour event gets rolling early with a 7:30 am breakfast at the Embassy Suites (Centennial Olympic Park) and continues throughout the day.

Registration includes group transportation as well breakfast, lunch and an evening reception.

The shop tour cost is $55 for current CMA members and $75 for non-members. Student/Instructor members can participate at no charge, while non-member students/instructors will pay a discounted rate of $25.

You can register via the CMA website.

Chris Dehmer elected VP of Cabinet Makers Association Board

July 3, 2018 by darkhorse with 0 Comments

New CMA VP Chris Dehmer with Matt Krig, former CMA president and fellow CMA board member, at last summer’s AWFS (Association of Woodworking and Furnishing Suppliers) Fair in Las Vegas.

After serving two years as an at-large member on the Board of Directors of the Cabinet Makers Association (CMA), Dark Horse Woodworks’ Chris Dehmer has been elected vice president of the industry group for professional cabinet makers and woodworkers in the United States and Canada.

The CMA describes itself as a professional organization “where cabinetmakers and woodworkers from both the residential and commercial markets get together and share their hard earned knowledge and experience to help one another.”

Chris joins new president Leland Thomasset, treasurer James Fox and secretary Monika Soos.

“Being a board member has opened up new communication lines with other board members,” Chris says. “It really has taken my involvement to a whole new level.” He points to a visit that he and former CMA president Matt Krig made to Thomasset’s workshop in Maine when they were in the area for a regional event. Their idea was to take advantage of being nearby to have a hands-on working visit with Thomasset.

“We showed up in work clothes and were able to work on a project and see how Leland’s shop works, get ideas from him and offer ideas from our own shops,” he says.

FDMC magazine even ran a feature about the collaboration.

“Being on this board has changed me and my business forever,” Chris adds. “Being a member of the CMA was great, but being a board member forces you to be involved – and being involved is the only way to get maximum return on membership.

“Without my board experience, I probably wouldn’t have agreed to be a part of the CMA shop tours this coming August when the International Woodworking Fair comes to Atlanta,” he says. “Before, pride and ego would have gotten in the way. Now I’m inviting people to come on the CMA tour and tell me what we’re doing wrong. It’s great to be part of a group that allows me to get to know people who are so generous with their time, experience and expertise.

“My involvement with the CMA is the single best professional development opportunity I’ve ever encountered, and I’m happy to take on a new role this year.”

You really do get what you pay for

June 1, 2018 by darkhorse with 0 Comments

I recently had the eye-opening experience of seeing some high-end homes that had surprisingly low-end cabinetry. While many of the cabinets looked nice when you glanced at them with the doors shut, you only had to inspect them a bit more closely to figure out that the materials and construction were not exactly top-of-the-line.

Frankly, it was a shocker.

How did such shoddy work end up in such exclusive, expensive projects?

When you’re in a craft profession, this kind of thing can be frustrating.

We’re grateful to have gained the trust of clients who have hired us to create their dream kitchens and other projects; this is the project we call “The Walnut House.”

Knowledge matters

Coming across this less-than-impressive work in otherwise well-crafted, big-budget homes made me stop and think about how these decisions are made.

Do the homeowners just not worry about the details that make the difference between a high-quality project and a shoddy one? Or do they not know?

For those who are considering a remodel or new construction, I thought I’d pass along some insider perspective based on the Dark Horse approach to custom cabinetry.

First, it’s my experience that while clients know the big picture of what they want (style, color, etc.), they almost never tell you what they want when it comes to materials and construction.

For that reason (and many more), we have a spec sheet that we share with potential clients that outlines the type of materials we use. We’re careful to say, “This is what you’re getting.”

Our specs are identical 99 percent of the time; we never approach a potential job with the idea that we’ll customize our specs and use lower-quality, cheaper materials in order to give Dark Horse a better chance of winning a bid.

We’ve built our reputation on executing client projects the best way we know how, and in addition to the level of craftsmanship we offer, we make a point of seeking out the best products and materials available.

Here are a few examples:

Every cabinet box we build is two-sided, pre-finished and US-sourced.Why US-sourced? Once, we tried cheaper Chinese import plywood for some shop projects; when we cut the material, it smelled funny, and the sawdust from the cut was blue. Consistency in thickness is more critical than ever since we incorporated a CNC into our production – we have to tell the machine how thick the material is so that the joints come out tight. Domestic plywood tends to be much flatter – I’m not sure why this is but my guess is that it has something to do with the imported plywood sitting on a ship during transport.
To give you an idea of the difference in materials, the domestic plywood we use costs $65-70 a sheet; some companies use particleboard that costs $18 per sheet (similar to what you see in IKEA furniture).
We don’t use prefab drawers, and that makes a huge difference in both looks and function.
We also use Zero Edge banding on our cabinetry, which is more heat- and moisture-resistant than typical edge treatments. But that advantage comes at a price – 80 cents per foot instead of 2 cents per foot for traditional hot glue edge-banding.
We use soft-close doors, slides, etc. – in short, the best hardware we can buy. It costs a little more, but it’s worth it. (There’s a lot of cheap, shoddy hardware out there.)

Here’s an in-process photo showing the kind of 3/4-inch prefinished plywood cabinet box construction that goes into all of our projects; this happens to be my own kitchen, which my wife and I decided to renovate last year. (There’s no top because this is a sink cabinet.)

What’s the lesson you can take away from this insider view?

You get what you pay for.

A company with a solid reputation and happy customers obviously excels at the craft of cabinet-making, but that company also begins with high-quality materials, and those materials cost more. (I have yet to find a magical source of stellar materials at bargain basement prices, but if you have any leads, I’d love to hear about them.)

Our Golden Rule

Some companies have the advantage of a showroom where clients can see examples of their work; that would be a great way to show our clients what quality materials and craftsmanship look like, but a showroom is not an option for Dark Horse.

So instead, we just try to emphasize to clients what we choose to use in our work and why we choose it.

And the “why” is simple – it’s the way I would want it done in my house. If I wouldn’t put it in mine, I won’t put it in yours.

~ Chris Dehmer

Celebrating 10 years of Dark Horse Woodworks

January 11, 2018 by darkhorse with 0 Comments

I was tempted to keep this photo to myself, but decided I may as well put it out there, especially since fellow small business owners will relate: That first check was cause for celebration!

In the middle of the holidays, I realized that another important occasion had crept up on me: the 10th anniversary of Dark Horse Woodworks. Our first day of business was December 28, 2007, and like many of my fellow cabinet makers, our first place of business was my garage.

When you go out on an entrepreneurial limb, it’s both exciting and terrifying. Taking my sideline full-time was a risk and a leap of faith, and back then, I wouldn’t have dared think ahead to whether the company would still be around a decade later.

I’m very happy to be one of the people whose leap of faith paid off; big anniversaries like this one are nice because they make you stop long enough to look back and take stock.

A character-building experience

There’s no question that running your own business brings plenty of headaches, trial-and-error learning and moments of sheer panic. Even when your venture becomes a success, you go through times when you feel nostalgia for the days when your business was smaller and you had less on your plate.

Some days, success means keeping your sense of humor and perspective intact long enough to avoid crossing that dreaded boundary where the thing you love becomes the thing you dread.

Thankfully, along with all of the challenging times and learning curves, Dark Horse has also seen more than our fair share of high points – positive changes in the business itself, exciting honors and gratifying feedback for our work, and great relationships with peers in the industry.

Bigger space, bigger ideas and a bigger universe

Dark Horse Woodworks’ growing physical footprint may be the most obvious change we’ve seen in the past 10 years. Looking back, the thing that astounds me most is the fact that I built a few kitchens for people in my 400-square-foot garage. Now that I have 6,000 square feet (and wish I had even more), it just seems impossible.

Early garage shop days…

A tight squeeze.

Using every bit of space – vertically and horizontally.

Along with the increase in square footage, we’ve also expanded the technology we have on board, which has enabled us to expand the services and types of cabinetry we can offer. (We’ve written on the blog about our Zero-Edge technology and about the CNC router that we added just this past year.)

We also joined the Cabinet Makers Association (CMA), the association for professional cabinet makers and woodworkers in the United States and Canada. This turned out to be a huge decision for us; after all, at 10 years old, Dark Horse is still a newcomer compared to many CMA member shops that have been around for several decades. I always learn a lot thanks to the generosity of more experienced CMA members.

On top of the relationships and resources, we’ve also been recognized with multiple CMA “Wood Diamond” awards every year since we joined; being recognized this way by our peers is important validation that our work is hitting the highest marks.

Accepting one of our 1st-place Wood Diamond awards from CMA president Matt Krig in July 2017

A couple of years ago, I was honored to be elected to the board of the CMA, and I always enjoy being part of the regional events, shop tours and trade show activities. In March, I’ll be doing a presentation at the CMA’s 20th Anniversary conference in Denver, and this summer, I’ll be a CMA speaker at the International Woodworking Fair in Atlanta. It’s a good feeling to have gone from being a novice in the cabinetry/small business world to having learned enough to be able to share some often hard-won lessons with others; starting and building Dark Horse has been a little like getting a 10-year business and entrepreneurship degree.

Teamwork

We would never have made it this far without clients, architects, designers and homebuilders who trusted us to team up with them on their projects.

I have some really great clients who have become great friends since we did their projects, and I’m especially appreciative of the folks who hired Dark Horse back in the early days before we had a track record.

And of course, I could never have made the business a success without the people who have worked for me over the course of our first 10 years; thank you for helping Dark Horse deliver quality and workmanship to each of our clients.

Icing on the cake

We would be bad marketers if we didn’t share the good news when our work gets coverage in the media, so if you follow our blog, you may have already read about some of these things.

But marketing aside, seeing your work in a publication or recognized in the community is pretty thrilling on a personal level, so I wanted to mention those kinds of high points in this anniversary post, too:

The Friar Tuck project was featured in a New York Times real estate story.
The Oakview home was featured in Dwell magazine magazine.
I was glancing at Dwell’s website one day and found more of our work in several of their online features.
Curbed Atlanta featured a home with a Dark Horse kitchen (created with Zero-Edge technology) in July.
Dark Horse was the cover story in the Winter 2017 issue of PROfiles, the CMA magazine.
The CMA invited us to participate in a video series in 2017 and gave me a chance to talk about how we got started, why I love what I do and some of the technology that is taking Dark Horse into the future. Feel free to check out the interview (it’s a bit over two minutes long).
Our work has also been included on the highly respected (and popular) Modern Atlanta home tour three times.

Thanks to everyone for your support and cheerleading; I’m looking forward to seeing what our next decade brings.

~ Chris Dehmer

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Christmas in March

June 16, 2017 by darkhorse with 0 Comments

routerphotonew At Dark Horse, we’ve always had an Old-World emphasis on craftsmanship, quality and attention to detail.

But we don’t believe that having Old-World values means you can’t embrace ways of working that are very much New-World. In our 10 years in business, Dark Horse has experienced first-hand the benefits that great technology and an open mind can bring to our process and to the final product we deliver to clients.

Awhile back, we shared photos of Wildwood, our first big high-gloss kitchen cabinetry project that was made possible by the Zero Edge technology we invested in last year.

In March, we had another red-letter day on the technology front: Our very own, shiny new CNC router was delivered.

For those who aren’t in our line of work, it may be pretty challenging to convey just how exciting this was, but we’ll give it a try.

So what is a CNC router?

Let’s start with CNC.

We found a pretty straightforward definition online at technologystudent.com:

CNC [stands for] Computer Numerical Control. This means a computer converts the design produced by Computer Aided Design software (CAD), into numbers. The numbers can be considered to be the coordinates of a graph, and they control the movement of the cutter. In this way, the computer controls the cutting and shaping of the material.

Dark Horse will now be using a method sometimes called “screen to machine” to cut the parts for our custom cabinets in-house.

We draw the components on a computer screen with design software, which then sends code to the CNC router. The machine takes that data and cuts all of our cabinet parts so that they come off the machine ready to go — all holes for hardware are drilled, etc.

Thanks to the interaction of the software and the machine, the router grabs the right tool for the task at hand, then changes to another tool automatically when needed.

With screen-to-machine production, the possibility of injury is greatly reduced (fingers are on a keyboard, not next to spinning blades), and the accuracy is ridiculously good (1/1000 inch).

To see the router in action, check out this time-lapse video of our new machine cutting trolley signs to be sold by South Atlantans for Neighborhood Development (SAND).

A logistics win

There are many intricacies that this process makes possible – including generating a single file with a unique name for each sheet of material that is going to be cut and a label for each piece.

Basically, once the design is approved, files are sent to our network that tell the machine every operation that is required for the parts on each sheet; in addition, a printout is made for each sheet that has a barcode at the bottom corresponding to the file name of the sheet to be cut.

The operator scans the barcode at the bottom of the page, the machine loads the correct file, and then it begins the process of cutting.

After the cutting is finished, the Dark Horse team can take each piece off of the machine, apply its unique label, and sort the pieces according to the type of edgeband they are going to receive. We can start the edgebanding of those pieces while the next sheet is being cut.

Another member of the team can then begin to put the boxes together as soon as all of the parts for that assembly are made.

Flipping the process

My interest in programming and software has led me to approach decisions about technology investments in an unusual way. Many businesses invest in expensive machinery and then learn how to use the software that makes it run.

At Dark Horse, we’ve always gone in the opposite direction; to me, it doesn’t make much sense to have an expensive machine sitting idle in my shop while my team and I spend time wrapping our heads around how the software works.

So we buy the software first and learn it inside and out through tutorials or videos.

By the time a new machine is delivered, we’re ready to roll. This doesn’t mean we never have questions once we start using it; that’s a given. But those questions are easier to resolve quickly if you have a solid understanding of your software and machinery.

I believe this philosophy has been a major factor in our success. With this machine implementation, we were up and running at full speed as soon as the machine was integrated into our software, which was only one day after the machine installation was complete.

Two months in, we are completing projects that fully utilize our new technology in about one-third of the time we were spending before bringing the CNC on board.

~ Chris Dehmer

Join an industry group for an instant network and plenty of great ideas

April 5, 2017 by darkhorse with 0 Comments

One of the shop tours organized by the Cabinet Makers Association

If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you know that Dark Horse is a big fan of the Cabinet Makers Association (so much so that I became a board member last year).

The best part of being in this group is the ability to draw on the knowledge of other members; in the grand scheme of things, Dark Horse is a “newcomer” compared to some shops that have been around for several decades, and I always learn a lot thanks to the generosity of others.

And it’s always a great moment when we find that we can offer some wisdom to other shops.

On-call help

The idea for this blog came up when we were putting together a post (we’ll publish it soon) about our new CNC router, a game-changing technology/machinery addition at Dark Horse.

We chose to invest in the software that partners with the router first, and learn our way around that piece of the process before buying the router.

Now that we have the router, and we’re gearing up to put it all together and start cutting our custom cabinetry pieces in the Dark Horse workshop, I have no worries about any questions that are sure to come up in real time and need quick resolution.

Why? Because I know that I can always pick up the phone and call one of my CMA friends who already have a lot of hands-on experience with CNC routers.

As with many situations, your personal network of friends and industry colleagues can often deliver the answers you need even more quickly and effectively than a manufacturer’s customer service “hotline.”

And this advice isn’t just for building industry types …

When you start a business, it’s tempting to want to go it alone and look at the others in your line of work as competition – even if they aren’t literally vying for the same customers, you may see them as competing against you for awards or respect or reputation.

You’ll miss a lot of opportunities to learn if you think this way.

I highly recommend that you find the equivalent of the Cabinet Makers Association for your industry and join up and be active; with groups like this, you get out what you put in.

I’m looking forward to my next chance to pick up some new ideas in a couple of weeks: Just before one of our big industry events in Chicago, the CMA is sponsoring one of its shop tours so we can check out nearby cabinetry companies.

I’ll be there, looking for ways that Dark Horse can up our game.

From a dream to ‘Dwell’ – and a new home for Dark Horse

October 31, 2014 by darkhorse with 0 Comments

I started out like most people – getting a “regular” job that was fine and paid the bills.

I didn’t get very excited about going to work, but I guess I figured that was the way jobs were supposed to be – a means to an end.
our new home

For years, I worked in construction management, overseeing the installation of Hudson News stores and other kinds of projects.

Finally, it hit me one day that I wanted to build things, but not with sheetrock. Someone I knew wanted a kitchen, and I said I would do it. I probably ending up shelling out money on that project, but it was a beginning.

I launched Dark Horse in my 220-square-foot home garage in 2007. Soon I needed more room, and my first rented space was a whopping 975 square feet. I remember thinking when I moved in that it was a lot of space, but I outgrew it within a year.

Our next growth spurt took us to 3,700 square feet, and now, seven years in, we’ve moved to a new, 6,000-square-foot home, something that seemed unimaginable back in those early garage days.

Top this growth off with having our work featured in Dwell magazine recently, and I can truly say – without a bit of schmaltz or exaggeration – that dreams really can come true.

It just takes a healthy distaste for a blah 9-5 existence, a leap of faith and a lot of long hours. But all hours aren’t created equal. When you pour hours into work you care about, and you know you will be proud of the final product, those are hours well spent. And shouldn’t we want to spend our time on what satisfies us?

If you’ve been scheming and dreaming of doing something else for years but were afraid to go for it, you can consider me the Poster Boy for leaps of faith with successful landings.

To borrow from Nike: Just do it.

~ Chris Dehmer

Tagged: entrepreneurship