Ep. 10 | Charlie Mancini - C. Grain Furniture

Charlie Mancini specializes in custom in-home furniture and built-in cabinets. He builds TV and media consoles, record player consoles, bedside and entryway tables, bookshelves, and kitchen islands. He works in mid-century modern styles but can match inspiration photos or your existing decor. He does not do kitchen cabinets yet, but handles most other wood furniture and cabinetry.

“We specialize in custom in-home furniture and custom built-ins. Not anything to do with kitchen cabinets yet, but if you're into mid-century modern style wood furniture or anything to do with wood cabinets then we pretty much do it all.”Charlie Mancini

Charlie Mancini offers free in-home consultations where he measures your space, looks at your existing furniture, and designs pieces to fit perfectly. He says it is hard to find the right size or the right number of doors and drawers online because all homes and rooms are different, and what you can buy is preset sizes. He creates designs based on your style and the specific dimensions of the room.

“All of our homes are different, all of our rooms are different. What you can buy online is just a preset size with preset amount of doors or drawers. I can come in, measure your space, and just make it fit your home perfectly.”Charlie Mancini

Charlie Mancini explains that solid hardwood does not ding or scratch as easily as composite materials. Composite is compressed sawdust and glue, and if the paint scratches and it gets wet, it swells and cannot be repaired. His cabinets use real hardwood that is glued and joined properly, not just screws and dowels. The furniture is built to last for generations.

“The material that IKEA uses is essentially compressed sawdust that's glued together. If that paint scratches and it gets wet, that sawdust and glue will swell and it's pretty much trash. It's not repairable at that point.”Charlie Mancini

Charlie Mancini says wood grain is the rings you see when you cut a tree. When wood is planed into boards, those rings become linear lines running through the plank. Every type of wood has different grain patterns. He works with real hardwood that shows natural grain, which adds character and shows the piece was made by a human, not a machine.

“Those rings, when you plane a board or have a plank of wood, are now linear lines throughout the piece of wood. That's the grain.”Charlie Mancini

Charlie Mancini offers free in-home consultations. You contact him through his website form or email at c.grainstudio at gmail.com. He comes to your home, looks at the space and your existing furniture to understand your style, then creates a few design options. From there, you choose a design and he builds the piece. He answers emails quickly.

“I do free in-home consultations where we can come into your home, look at the rest of your furniture. If you have a space that you want something built but you don't know where to start, I can look at your style, see what the vibe is, and create you a few designs.”Charlie Mancini

Charlie Mancini lives in Decatur and services Decatur, Clarkston, Tucker, and other areas fairly close to Decatur. He works throughout in-town Atlanta and the eastern suburbs.

“I personally live in Decatur but I'll service anybody in and around Decatur, in Atlanta, in Clarkston or Tucker, anywhere that's fairly close to Decatur.”Charlie Mancini

Charlie Mancini grew up making things with his dad, building skateboard ramps and signs. He got serious about furniture when he started making pieces as acts of love for his girlfriend, now wife, including a bar cart and a dining table they still use. Friends and family saw his work and asked for pieces, and he eventually built up the courage to start selling. He went official in October last year and went full-time a month ago.

“The furniture making really picked up when I met my girlfriend at the time, but my wife now. It was kind of my act of love, spending the time creating a piece for her like a bar cart or a dining room table that we still sit at today.”Charlie Mancini

Charlie Mancini says about 90 percent of his customers come through the Southern Shmooze. He joined at the end of January and started getting customers right away. He tried Facebook posts, Facebook Marketplace, and Google ads before, but the Shmooze brought work immediately and consistently.

“I would say 90 percent of my customers come through the Shmooze. As soon as I joined the Shmooze it was customers right off the bat.”Charlie Mancini

Charlie Mancini says he has been lucky so far, with the biggest injury being a smashed fingernail from a clamp. He uses jigs and systems that keep hands away from saw blades. He also uses rubber blocks and plastic handles with rubber bottoms to push wood through the table saw, so his hands are never directly on the piece. There are saws like SawStop that detect moisture or anything conductive and drop the blade instantly if you touch it.

“Any time I'm cutting something on the table saw, my hands aren't actually on the piece of wood. I'm using rubber blocks or plastic handles that have rubber on the bottom. If my hand slips or it gets kicked back, my hands can just be free.”Charlie Mancini

Charlie Mancini says a kitchen island takes about a week to a week and a half, depending on whether the stain is correct. Large arched built-in bookshelves with cabinets take about a week and a half to build, plus a couple of days for painting, so around two and a half weeks total. He is currently booked about five months out.

“We're booked five months out. A kitchen island, around a week to a week and a half depending on if I get the stain correct. Arched bookshelves built-in with cabinets, build process is about a week and a half and then painting is definitely a couple of days, so around two and a half weeks total.”Charlie Mancini

Charlie Mancini says the hardest piece was a TV console with fluted doors. Flutes are concave half circles running vertically up and down. Most fluted furniture online is carved by machine, but he hand-carved about 60 flutes to keep personality in the piece. It took a long time but turned out beautiful. The console also had a built-in electric fireplace in the middle.

“A lot of people, if you search up a fluted dresser online, 99 percent of the time a machine robot will carve those flutes in. I did them by hand, about 60 flutes going up and down. It took a long time. It was really fun to do.”Charlie Mancini