Glover Custom Woodwork creates custom-made furniture

Ocoee resident Bryan Glover’s successful woodworking business, Glover Custom Woodwork, started out of an idea to create a custom cornhole set.

By Jennifer Nesslar
| 8:20 p.m. February 17, 2016

West Orange Times & Observer
Business

Three years ago, Bryan and Cortni Glover were at a gathering, when Bryan noticed a custom-made cornhole set.

Bryan, who runs heavy equipment as his full-time job, decided he wanted to make a cornhole set for himself. When he wasn’t working, he would go into the garage of his Ocoee home and start working.

He nearly completed the set when Cortni suggested he sell it. It was a hit, so Bryan began building tables.

When the Glovers posted photos of Bryan’s work on Facebook, the response was overwhelming.

“It blew up,” said Cortni, who manages the orders side of Glover Custom Woodwork — what the Glovers named their budding business.

Referrals have kept the business going strong, through both word of mouth and social media.

Now, when Bryan comes home for work, he heads to the garage to work on his orders, resulting in many late nights. He calls himself a perfectionist, as he continues to examine each piece and make sure it is perfect up until the moment of delivery. He hopes that one day he can move the operation out of his garage and into a shop of his own.

“Honestly, I didn’t think it was going to pick up like it has in the past year,” Bryan said.

He mostly gets requests for tables, but he is able to build all sorts of things. He currently is building a frame for a customer’s television. He often builds shelves on which his customers can organize their belongings. Customers also have asked him to build an entertainment center.

Once, a customer had an autographed AC/DC guitar, and he wanted Bryan to create a shadowbox coffee table to display it. The photograph of the completed project got more than 700 views on Facebook.

Recently, Bryan created a dining table that had a medieval look to it. But most people order pieces that have a “rustic, country look.”

“The look is in right now,” Cortni said. “Even people that aren’t necessarily ‘country.’ I mean, if you walk in Old Time Pottery or Hobby Lobby, everything is the western, rustic chic look.”

Everything Bryan creates starts from a full sheet of plywood, so he is able to customize each order based on the customer’s desires, which he believes sets him apart from box stores.

Customers can customize the dimensions of pieces, as well as the finishes.

“Ours are made out of heavy-duty material versus particle board,” Bryan said. “Anything you’re going to buy at a box store, you’re going to have to put it together first, and if it gets wet, it’s pretty much ruined.”

As for the cornhole set — Bryan still doesn’t have one of his own. Business has been too strong.

Contact Jennifer Nesslar at [email protected].

PRICING

Furniture starts at a base price, and the price increases based on customizations. However, there is no minimum price, so if a piece is customized to be smaller, it could cost less than this.

Dining table (seating four to six): Starts at $350

Sofa table (4.5 to 5 feet): Starts at $185

Floating shelf: Starts at $70 each

Coffee table: Starts at $160

FROM CONCEPT TO CREATION

The Glovers work on a minimum of two pieces each week. Because it is not Bryan’s full-time work, he requests a 10- to 14-day minimum for each piece, depending on what it is. Sometimes, smaller pieces will take less time.

Pieces Bryan has created:

AC/DC autographed guitar shadowbox

Sofa table

Entertainment center

Box

Wall pallet