With a durable product and green materials, J.L. Miller Company Cabinets is here to stay for generations.

J.L. Miller Company Cabinets started in 2004 when Joshua Miller came back from a trip to Wyoming and decided to set aside his architecture degree and build furniture. “I’ve always been concerned with the environment and the outdoors,” Miller says. “Furniture was a natural extension of that world.”

In Waukon, Iowa, this small company started with Miller and a few friends building each piece of furniture by hand. Three different collections give buyers more choices, including the FieldWorxs collection inspired by the curved blades of the Wyoming prairie grass. Within the collections, the company offers products from dog beds to dressers to cabinets. For the regular furniture pieces, one craftsman builds the work from start to finish in a few weeks, and the company does all of its own shipping across the country.

When Miller started few sustainable materials existed even so he had to do a lot of leg work to find the materials he uses today. The bulk of the products are created using North American hardwoods, which means the lumber travels from the Midwest and upper East Coast and is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified. He was concerned about using chemicals and found PureBond, formaldehyde-free plywood, and low to no volatile organic compound (VOC) finishes. Miller says these materials do costs more, but the costs have started to come down in the last six years.

Today, the company has expanded to serving commercial building such as universities, but each piece of furniture is still handmade.

For more information, visit www.jlmillercompany.com.