COPYWRITER | PHOTOGRAPHER | PR SPECIALIST
JAKE SMITH
WHITE'S MODERN INDUSTRIAL
Local father-and-son furniture business salvages industrial waste.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE COEUR D'ALENE PRESS
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There are barrels of imported olive oil that find their way to the Tri-Cities in Washington.
Not long thereafter, Tom and John White get ahold of their leftover 55-gallon steel barrels and turn them into furniture through their Coeur d'Alene business, White's Modern Industrial, which sells household goods made from salvaged metal and wood.
Since starting in 2013, the father-and-son business partners have increased their product offerings to over 30 items, including chairs, bar stools, metal planters, fire pits, clocks and lamps.
Though the two participate in local maker markets and shows, Tom said the bulk of their business is online.
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They've recently completed an order for a Washington D.C. restaurant and supplied Sony Pictures TV Studio with furniture for the pilot episode of "Making Friends" to be seen on Amazon.
They said they source material anywhere they can find it.
"Well, we both love going to yard sales," Tom said.
"Flea markets, that type of thing," John added.
John said they then split the work between both of their shops, Tom providing the bulk of the metalworking and John supplying the woodworking among other things.
They now have piles of old scrap material they can dig through for their next repurposed products, but Tom said they've also moved toward repeatable
product lines since 2015 when they invested in CNC machinery that they run out John's backyard workshop.
Though Tom said they're natural makers and skill collectors, they didn't set out initially to start a business like this.
Tom spent four years in the Marine Corps, and intended to go to school for industrial design, having had an interest in art.
"That never really happened, and I kind of fumbled my way through my early 20s and then around 26, I was like I got this GI Bill, I've got to go to school," he said.
So, he said he took courses in automotive collision repair and took to airbrushing.
That led to a proclivity for metalworking, particularly with raw steel in White's Modern Industrial, which is a side business for him when he isn't working full-time or taking care of his daughter as a single father.
His father, John, spent nearly 40 years in the timber industry, retiring only when his mill was closing down, and made the Coeur d'Alene workshop that houses their CNC machinery in his backyard.
John said his time woodworking was just a hobby that gave him a creative outlet that let him work with his hands — and build the furniture his wife asked him for.
He said he personally built a good deal of what's in his home, and now he gets to make items others use and rely on every day.
"That's the rewarding part about it," John said.
Tom said the household goods they design and build were just a way for them to solve a problem or a need.
"A lot of it's just out of necessity, really. The first 55-gallon drum chair I built — just went through a divorce and I needed furniture," he said. "We're both kind of skill collectors. If we don't know how to do something, we either learn how to do it or figure it out."
The next task he intends to figure out is developing a business, and establishing a physical retail location within the next six months in Midtown for their industrial furniture and other makers' items from around the area.
John said they strive to contribute to the local economy, a sentiment Tom agrees with.
"Support the local community. Support the people making things. A community needs people like us, I think," Tom said. "A lot of people just rely on outside corporations and everything for their products, for their employment. If you support local, the money stays there and it's better for the community."
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