Madera Furniture

1585 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, Fairfax

(415) 516-3567 

What do they offer? 

Madera Furniture offers functional artisan furniture made out of local recycled wood. With either outdoor or indoor finishes, all of the items are created by owner Dean Stubbings in the shop behind his Fairfax showroom.

You will find a full line of outdoor garden furniture including Adirondack chairs and ottomans, side tables, and garden benches. Indoor items include farm style dining tables with benches, bar tables and bar stools, side tables, consoles, cabinets, and coffee tables.  

If you find the perfect piece, you can take it home the same day. If you are interested in a particular wood or item size or shape, you can order from a sample. Custom fabrication takes roughly a month, depending on the work load of the shop at any given time.  

All the wood is reclaimed or from fallen trees and includes douglas fir, redwood and elm for dining tables. Stubbings said that in the Bay Area many Dutch elm trees are dying, so they are best reclaimed for furniture. The store currently showcases a beautiful elm table with a natural edge which you can see in the attached photographs. 

Also in the store now are two bedside tables and an entertainment center to hold electronics. 

Because spring is just around the corner, Stubbings is starting on a collection of garden benches. He was just contracted to make nine pieces of outdoor furniture for Stanford University. This is his second project for the prestigious campus.  

The finishes used at Madera Furniture are clear and water-based or environmentally-conscious.

Who are they? 

Dean Stubbings has been in the Bay Area for eighteen years. Originally from the East Coast, he became interested in working with wood just out of high school when he started framing houses.  

After moving to Berkeley, he discovered Urban Ore, which is a yard of all reclaimed materials. First, he built furniture for his own house. When the neighbors started asking him to craft for them what he had made for himself, he realized he had a business. After furnishing friends’ homes with his designs, he began selling to Berkeley retailers and nurseries. 

How long have they been here? 

Madera Furniture opened in the Fairfax location four years ago. Prior to that Stubbings had a shop in Berkeley. 

Why are they business of the week? 

Stubbings is serious when he says he’s always a phone call away. He has a flexible schedule and realizes he needs to meet with his clients when they are available, not just when he is. He is willing to meet customers at 8 a.m. or 8 p.m.

If you drive by and see the store door closed, just knock and say hi. He may be there working in the shop just behind the retail area.   

Stubbings has donated many garden benches to the yearly Fairfax Chamber of Commerce auctions, to Marin Abused Women’s Services in San Rafael, and to various schools. 

The prices range from $85 for a side table to about $2,000. A four-foot garden bench is $375.

At $225, the cost of the Adirondack chairs competes nicely with the mass-produced types you see in other stores. “They are shipped to the United States on diesel tanks,” Stubbings said of the mass-produced kinds.

Stubbings, his wife Silvana Di Franco, who is a family portrait and wedding photographer, and five-year-old son live in San Anselmo.

“Everybody is artistic,” Stubbings said. “My son loves to come into the shop, hang around with me, and sweep. I’m teaching him to be respectful of the power tools, but to not be afraid of them. We work on little projects together.” 

In life and in work Stubbings tries to be green. When he doesn’t need his truck to pick up reclaimed wood or to deliver furniture he has made, he bikes to work. 

Stubbings said, “I never buy wood at lumber yards or hardware stores. I can go home at night realizing that I have not put a big impact on the environment. I’m doing what I love, living where I want to be, and making my customers happy.”