Musical Furnishings is in the business of bringing music into the home. By combining musical instruments and fine adult & children's furniture, we strive to provide a unique and surprising alternative to tradition furniture. Our initial product line involves the merging of wooden xylophones into popular household children's furnishings. Each piece has hand tuned keys, mounted firm and level, allowing the playing surface to double as a table top, bench seat, or even a toy box lid. Mallets and songbook are included with every sale. Our musical children's furniture helps children incorporate live music into their living quarters with instruments that serve a second function as fine household furniture. We combine music and necessity to create an entirely new category of household goods.

Olympia Children's Furniture Makers Start With A Sound Idea

(a few paragraphs) from Seattle Home Design

By Mary Boone

"After years of experimentation, Clausen has learned that inserting rubber tubing under the furniture keys allows for both vibrations (essential for producing music) and solid construction (crucial for childrens furniture you're going to sit on). He's also proud of a gizmo he developed: an automatic mallet that repeatedly hits a key while he sands the bottom to achieve the proper tone.

Musical Furnishings no longer relies on Dumpster-diving for wood, but Clausen continues to use recycled lumber when he can. Indoor pieces are made of red alder, that is painted or finished. Outdoor cedar benches can be finished or left to weather naturally. The pieces are sold at art fairs, by custom order and through the Childrens Furniture Catalog Museum Tour. "

 

Musical Furnishings offers high end, handmade children's furniture with a twist - each have a hidden instrument eloquently embedded, allowing unprecedented ease of access to the playing surface. In the niche of musical children's furniture, however, we stand alone. Prior to our offerings, a person would have to purchase two separate items at a substantially higher cost and still not achieve the space conservation, ease of access, and novelty that of our products offer. The umbrella of Musical Furniture is much larger than our current product line makes use. Whole sections of instrument classifications are waiting to be explored and incorporated into the home setting. The interest of most of our customers revolves around music. Of these, the vast majority are only mildy skilled in the art of playing music - desiring simply to be in its presence. Our musical children's furniture focuses on providing unique hybrid furniture designs that allow people to get more out of the ordinary mundane function of children's furniture. Many of our customers are musicians, parents of up and coming musicians or people seeking something that will spark conversation.

Sound Children's Furniture Idea a Hit at Crafts Fair.

~ a few paragraphs from The Seattle PI

By Jon Hahn

" The first children's furniture models were screwed and glued together. Since then, all the musical furniture pieces are doweled and glued. The outdoor musical garden benches also are lag-bolted. "Due to the physics of the resonating bars, rain will shift the key pitch (an often interesting effect), soon to return with the arrival of blue skies," their promotional brochure reads. It also notes that mallets and included with each playable piece. Two sets of mallets come with the Duet Table, whose top comprises of opposing ranks of resonating bars arranged in ascending chromatic scales. Each children's furniture bar is stamped with its musical notation.

Tor and Melissa also have developed a special children's size, playable chair that goes with the low-set table. Natural finish and/or not-toxic stains and sealers are used on all their children's furniture. "We find at least 80 percent of our wood in refuse containers or on constructions site piles," he said. "Or, we might actually have to buy some at salvage yards."

The savings and ecological value of using recycled wood is offset, Tor said, by having to find ways to dry the wood before construction. "I've been borrowing space up to now," he said. "But now that we've got some new, actual children's furniture production space, I'll be building drying and storage shelves right here." All this in Olympia Washington.