Woodstock Furniture and a Chair That Dared

Chas Joy was presented with a challenge by his girlfriend, Krissy, back in 1988 when she told him what she wanted for her birthday.

“She said, ‘You know, I want one of those chairs with the really wide arms and the back like a picket fence’,” said Joy; founder of Woodstock Furniture. “Dad had a shop and some tools that I used with a pile of some crooked lumber and I made the first Adirondack chair.”

Joy's modesty aside, the chair had to be pretty good, after all, his then girlfriend became his wife and business partner a short time later. He got an opening order from Slumberland for 250 chairs, a follow-up for 4,500 more and Woodstock furniture was off and running—with the help of friends , family and a "can-do" approach.

The product line today has broadened to include a number of chair styles along with rustic wood tables, loungers, rockers, gliders and unique, custom-built woodwork.

“We still have a few wholesale accounts and we do a lot more now,” Joy said, noting that his business’s sales are mainly generated online through their website, along with catalog orders.

“Somebody came to us a few years ago and wanted a kit to be able to build a casket for their 105 year old, Orthodox Jewish mother. She had 64 grandkids and her son wanted them to all participate in building this casket," Joy explained. "We’ve made quite a few simple and traditional, light-weight wood caskets since then.”

With their attitude and philosophy, why not?

Joy jokingly shares his alternative business name: “The Last Stop Wood Shop.” It’s another example of the down to earth way he thinks and Woodstock works.

Approaching the shop, the sound of the wood saw is quickly followed by the near-intoxicating aroma of fresh-cut cypress. There is a hint of honey in the air that Joy says makes it one of his favorite woods to cut.

“We typically make use of four types of wood I get directly from the mill: pine, cedar, cypress and mahogany,” Joy said. “The mahogany I have now comes from Africa and most of the cypress I use is ‘blow-down’ from Katrina.”

Fittingly, his chairs and other wood furniture have found there way to all parts of the country over the past 20 years. Even the Allegheny Hotel in upstate New York, not far from where the patented chair style originated in 1903, has Adirondack chairs from Stillwater’s very own Woodstock Furniture.

Joy pulls out a burlap bag with the Big Red Chair logo printed boldly onto it and points out there’s 23 pieces inside and you can buy the kit otherwise known as the original ‘Adi-Sack’.

“The first one you put together may take about 30 minutes,” he says. “After you do one, you can put the rest together in about 15 minutes.”

A cordless screwdriver and some wood glue are all you need. Among the assembly instructions: “Ignore the advice of on-lookers.”

Classic … just like the style.

Ali Selim is a successful writer, film director (Sweet Land) and discerning customer that has an eye for detail. He recounts how “… I went down to the loading dock with the two Adirondack chairs and asked Charlie (Chas) if he could do it (referring to a special home-interior project). He had never done a kitchen but said, "Sure, no problem." 

“He was able to create a custom kitchen that took into account who we were, what we wanted to touch and look at and made it fit into the space, improving on the designer's original plans," Selim said. “The kitchen became the show piece of the neighborhood.  Anyone who came over ended up ordering something from Charlie.

"If I could afford to fly Charlie out here (Los Angeles) along with his table saw to outfit my new home, I would," he said. "But that's a few films from now.”

With the kind of talent, attitude and creative philosophy residing just up the driveway from the Big Red Chair, there’s no limit to where the Joys may take their business in their third decade.