1996 Noblesville grad opens shop after working in Fishers location

It might be a job cut that consumers will love once they discover the new Amish Furniture Gallery on the Courthouse Square at 839 Conner St. in Noblesville.

Shawn Clos of Cicero and his fiancée Tara Fork opened the store two months ago and are already seeing a positive response to the shop filled with fine Amish-made furniture.


“We’ve had customers already from as far west as Washington state and as far east as Troy, Ohio,” Clos said.

“They’re in visiting family, and they see the quality and the prices on the pieces, and they can’t pass them up.”
Clos brings his expertise to the new endeavor, having come from the Amish Furniture Mart in Fishers.
“I worked for them for about seven years and then decided to start working on getting this store in place,” he said.  “It’s taken about two years to get the network of Amish builders.”

Clos, a 1996 graduate of Noblesville High School, said he has built direct relationships with more than 40 Amish furniture makers throughout the Midwest, bypassing the middleman. The result? Lower prices on quality hardwood furnishings.

Clos said the relationships he’s made with the Amish – one builder exclusively sells his pieces only to the Amish Furniture Gallery – is built on trust and a good reputation.

“We’re face-to-face with our builder,” Clos explained. “It allows us to do more customization, and also allows us to offer a much lower price – upwards to 30 percent less.”

For example, a 42-inch round oak table with two 12-inch leaves would normally cost around $1,782, Clos said, but at Amish Furniture Gallery the price is $862.

Most customers order their own custom-made furniture based on the pieces on display in the shop. However, Clos said, display pieces may also be purchased if the customer doesn’t want to wait the six to eight weeks it takes to build new furniture.

“There’s nothing warehoused anywhere,” Clos said. “It’s built for us or for them.”

Fork said custom pieces can also be ordered.

“Mostly people that people would order is because they wanted something for them, like they wanted a different stain or they want it in a different wood or maybe if they’re ordering a chair, in a different fabric,” she said. “A lot of people actually have a preference towards cherry, so a lot of people will see this table and ask if they can get it in cherry.”

While the store does not yet have a presence on the Internet, Clos said he expects to be online in the next couple of months, expanding his customer base worldwide. Currently the store can ship furniture anywhere in the country.

“We’d eventually like to open another store or two,” Ford added. “They (their Amish suppliers) want to grow them with us.”

Clos said the store strives for personalized service, even to giving out surveys to customers after the sale so they can give feedback on their experience.

“Our main goal is to serve the customers to the best of our abilities,” he said. “We make sure that everyone is well taken care of.”
 
By Rebecca L. Sandlin
rsandlin@noblesvilledailytimes.com

Top photo by Steven Furlow / sfurlow@noblesvilledailytimes.com
Amish Furniture Gallery co-owner Shawn Clos shows off several pieces of furniture available at the store, located on the square in Noblesville.