About
Boundary Fog Furniture is a small furniture studio based in Carmichael, California (a suburb of Sacramento). Hi! I’m Joe, and I’m a one-man operation focusing on made-to-order furniture, designed-from-scratch custom pieces, and custom grain-matched vanities. I also produce woodworking content, and digital products and plans (coming soon!). You can find me on Instagram (@joe_thiele), YouTube (@joethiele), and TikTok (@joe_thiele).
All items are made-to-order unless otherwise noted, and this allows for some customization. If you would like a custom piece based on an item in my shop--or an original piece--send me a message and I will respond promptly.
A Brief History
I started Boundary Fog Furniture in 2014 in a Portland, Oregon garage. Woodworking was a hobby I picked up while being a full-time stay-at-home dad. As he started school, I had more time for building larger furniture pieces for friends and relatives. I designed a few small pieces—a set of walnut lamps, a wall shelf, and a magazine rack—that I felt confident enough to list on Etsy for sale. At that same time, I was also in the middle of the most ambitious piece I’d built to that point—my son’s first “big boy bed.” I built it nicer than any 3-year-old could dream, with a live-edge headboard and solid Oregon black walnut frame. That piece, named the August platform bed and photographed in our cleared-out living room, jump-started my business with several orders the first week I listed it as a made-to-order piece.
For the first five years of BFF, I was figuring things out on the fly. I didn’t have a proper wood shop when orders started rolling in, so for the first few years I would rent time at a shared work shop called ADX. Many of the early additions to my shop’s line were custom pieces requested by clients to match the August bed.
In 2019 I expanded out of the garage and into a commercial workshop shared with another business, where I kept busy and hired my first part-time employees. In 2021, I expanded again into a larger shop, this time on our own, and at the same time hired on a full-time shop assistant. We were busier than ever, built a lot of beautiful furniture—and I burned myself out. The stress of the extra overhead, managing other people, and juggling customer service was too much—I realized I missed the craft. At the same time I found my first success on social media, so I made the strategic decision to go back to the smaller, one-man studio model.
After downsizing in 2023 and having more flexibility in the projects I could take on, our family made the decided to seek the sun and warmth of the Sacramento area in the summer of 2024. We’re fully settled into our new home, and I continue to take on commissions full time, as well as produce woodworking content around each project.
