Meet thomas harvey: Owner, Earthwood Design. Creator of beautiful wood objects

We had the good fortune of connecting with thomas harvey and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi thomas, how do you think about risk?
I’ve never considered risk as an independent factor or issue. Risk taking in and of itself is not important. What matters is purpose and priority, what is the thing that you want to accomplish, and more importantly-why? Risk is just a simple assessment on the path to success or failure, its just part of life. I have taken many risks, and failed often. But more importantly, I knew what my purpose was and kept working at it. Success is just getting up one more time than you get knocked down. 

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
My Business, Earthwood Design, focuses on creating delightful objects from beautiful pieces of wood. Our process and product are really an extension of our love of the material, and desire to serve our clients with high quality design and construction. We focus on a few different product areas, furniture, custom doors, and small timberframe work, the defining factor isn’t so much what we a re making, but the character or the work. We strive for a sense of quiet self assured power that displays a timeless beauty. Our pieces are built to last for generations, and hopefully designed so that people will want to keep them for generations. It has been a long process getting to where we are now. I am a natural artist, designer, and craftsman, but not a natural at business. At this point we have a team of 4 stakeholders at Earthwood, that are truly amazing. We are growing, and I hope to add at least one more person by the end of 2021. Part of our core is taking good care of the people that we work with, providing a place where my stakeholders love to come to work, and fortunately that has been the case so far. 2020 was a challenging year for us, like many others, but it also provided the context to move forward and become stronger as a business than we would have without the challenges. A huge part of our survival and success is because of the business training and community that I have at 3to5 Club. The principles and processes they teach have really formed the practical side of running a productive business for me, and the community of other business owners has been amazing. I highly recommend it to any small business owner. The biggest lesson that I have learned is to make it my business to improve other peoples lives. This involves concepts of service, love, and true empathy, always a challenge to my selfishness, but always rewarding and generative. Of course, the way that we can truly offer value is by working in our strengths according to their needs. Moving forward, we will continue to offer the same excellent custom work that we have been doing, and adding several suites of semi custom designs to our offerings. We are really excited for the potential to offer an excellent product with the same level of quality, but at a lower price point and simpler process than our bespoke work. We are hoping to launch these pieces officially around March of 2020.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Where to start! we live in such an amazing place! Coffee from Sweet Bloom Coffee Roasters. World class coffee and also our shop neighbor (its way to delicious to work next to). Sushi and Shabu-Shabu at Kobe-an Lohi. They are doing amazing carry out sukiyaki kits right now with indoor dining closed. Also a great selection of Japanese Whiskeys. My wife, Jenny, and our four daughters love practicing hospitality, so alot of time spent at our house on an incredible 5 acres in Conifer, hiking, sledding, whatever. And lots of food. Denver Botanical Gardens is also great, both locations. I love the Japanese garden.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
During the last recession, I went to work with a man named Chris Hollis. He recently passed away. He not only made it possible to stay in business, but taught me a great deal about how to go about working with others. He was a consummate craftsman, and I learned something new every time I was with him, but more importantly he was a man of tremendous integrity. He was a true friend, and was genuinely interested in the people around him.

Website: www.earthwood.design
Instagram: @earthwooddenver
Linkedin: Thomas Harvey

Image Credits
image one, working in shop- Micheal Smith Image 3, cabinet with baby- Stephanie Wetherby All others- Thomas Harvey