Vault Furniture in Caldwell creates custom pieces from reclaimed wood

She’s got a keen eye for design; he possesses a variety of trade talents.

As husband and wife, and business partners, Vault Furniture owners Andy and Brandi Gooding are as solid together as the furniture they market and sell, heirloom-quality pieces built to last a lifetime.

And business is booming for the born-and-raised Michiganders, who traded in hawking furniture at tradeshows for what has now become a permanent shop in Caldwell.

With a sharp focus on utilizing mostly reclaimed wood, their mission is to craft furniture that stands in “direct contrast” to what they see as the “disposable furniture” flooding today’s market.

“The raw solid structures of reclaimed materials is what we want to incorporate into our furniture,” he said. “There is nothing like it.”

Without missing a beat, Brandi supplied the finishing touch on their collective creativity.

“We didn’t start with the intent to just use these materials, but we realized how much people love it,” she said. “And the more we used them, the more we loved it.”

But it didn’t start out so smoothly for the two Midwesterners. Each endured some nicks and scratches along their initial career paths when the big recession hit around 2008.

After attending the Michigan Institute of Aviation and Technology (MIAT), Andy took on a contract position working on wind turbines in the dead of winter in North Dakota, even spending one week living out of a tent.

Brandi, a graduate of Michigan State University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in commercial interior design, found herself employed alongside her mother, who sold cabinetry.

“Yep, I went to work with my mom living my best life as a ‘20-year-old 50-year-old’ for about three years, going to Florida, getting our nails done, that sort of thing, she said smiling. “My mom loved it!”

Following his stint in the bitter cold of North Dakota, and uncertain of his next gig, Andy returned home to Michigan unaware of how his personal and professional paths were about to converge.

The two met through a friend of Brandi’s who told her they’d be good together simply because “you’re both tall and your names rhyme.”

It turns out they fit together like a couple of well-crafted furniture pieces that help tie a room together.

“I always say he would have said yes to anything at that point,” she said, laughing hysterically.

A month into their budding relationship, she caught wind of people selling furniture at the famed Rose Bowl Swap Meet in Pasadena, California.

“I told him we’re in the wrong business and we should be doing this,” she said. “He then told me about his family barn and the tools he had there.”

But the site was in disarray. Undeterred, they set out to clean it out and to create what would be the foundation of Vault Furniture.

“I have always liked creating things, and I found I could put an artistic value into making furniture by using all my skills,” Andy said. “That was really exciting for me.”

His diverse background blends an array of trade experiences dating back to his childhood. Building furniture was a no-brainer for the multi-talented tradesman.

“Every single skill I had kind of rolled over into building furniture,” he said. “With all the angles, the math, the welding, the woodwork, it wasn’t like I had to learn a whole new skill.”

For Brandi, working alongside her mom turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

“The cabinetry work and experience helped me learn a lot for what I do now in running a small business,” she said. “I did renderings, ordering, learned how things were made, learned about customer service, going above and beyond.”

For this new entrepreneurial couple though, it was now a matter of developing a path forward and finding a place to build that path.

That family barn started out promising. But it didn’t last.

Next, it was off to Chicago, hitting up farmer’s markets and art shows. But the custom work Andy was producing was not picking up quite as much as they had hoped it would in the Windy City.

Tradeshows followed, a “whole new experience” as Brandi recalled. “Wow, people are brutally honest. They will walk by and say, ‘man that is some ugly furniture.’ You immediately find out what’s working and what is not without having to do any marketing.”

What they did discover that worked was the reclaimed wood used in the flower stands they were making from it. Selling like crazy, but the wood supply was inconsistent.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Dumpster diving throughout Chicago helped, as did Brandi’s relentless search of public records to locate properties being renovated. Plus, sharing some Jameson Whiskey with demo crews for the chance to grab some wood from a renovation project proved a handy tradeoff.

Trekking to tradeshows eventually paid off when they met a woman who told them her brother in St. Louis, Missouri, had the type of wood they desperately needed.

Indeed, he did, cutting them a great deal. They had finally nailed down their wood issue.

“He eventually contacted us and it turns out he had barns full of wood,” she said. “All stacked, de-nailed, meticulously organized.”

And it was good wood. Most of it yellow and white pine, all from the turn of the century during the era of de-forestation.

“All this wood that was used to build houses, what is left of it is now protected,” Andy said. It’s what you call ‘old growth wood’ and you can’t log it.

“It was grown in these old growth forests, and the trees were tightly compacted, more dense. It’s harder and a better high-quality wood.”

Their St. Louis supplier remains their strongest source. “It’s not easy sourcing quantities of reclaimed materials consistently,” he said.

Despite some of the difficulties that come with working with reclaimed elements, Brandi would not have it any other way.

“When you bring reclaimed wood into your house, it just changes the vibe,” she said. “You just can’t replicate it.”

In 2018, the pair ventured into e-commerce, Etsy initially, and quickly sold a bench for $500. The Vault was on its way to being fully opened.

But with their newfound success, they also knew they wanted to get away from the cold of the Midwest to build their lives and furniture somewhere warmer.

Following their only visit to the Gem State for a family wedding, and after doing some rafting on the Payette River, they were hooked. In 2020 they arrived in the midst of the COVID pandemic.

“I don’t know if Idaho would have really crossed our minds,” Andy said, smiling. “We had only been here once before.”

However, the timing was built for success.

“During the pandemic, our online sales really started increasing, and it was driving more traffic to our website,” he said. “So, we took that opportunity to expand and double our shop size.”

“When we initially started, the goal was to have a store somewhere,” Brandi said. “But now I would never want to have a store.

“We’ve gotten so good at doing the online thing, we haven’t even yet tapped into the local market. And I think a lot of people would love our stuff.”

Plus, she quickly admits she’s not exactly cut out for corporate America. “I wouldn’t have been so good in the corporate world, so I would have likely started my own ‘something’ regardless.”

And in this historic year of celebrating America 250, Vault Furniture stands as a throwback to American ingenuity, encompassing pure sweat, determination, effort and resilience.

“Everything is made from the ground up,” Andy said. “We just figure out what works, much of it made-to-order.”

“I’d say we are about 75% custom, and our shelves and the brackets our are top seller,” Brandi said. “We can make them as big or as small as someone needs.”

Both understand client needs, and have a shared love of quality and customer service.

“We’re building furniture to last a lifetime,” Andy said. “I’ve learned that if you put your mind to it, you can do anything. And never give up. You just have to tell yourself you can always figure it out.”

Last month alone Vault brought in more than $90,000 in sales.

“Without question, the biggest thing for us has always been providing the best customer service and producing a high-quality product that will last,” Brandi said. “I think the reason people like us, and we are doing well, is they realize they get the personalized experience with us. We like to go above and beyond.”

And, according to Andy, they’re doing it in tried-and-true American fashion.

“We truly care about the design, the quality and that our products are handmade here in Idaho,” he said. “We have no desire to outsource. We want it to be made in America.”