History

Erin Norton True, the owner of Urban Wood Goods, founded the company 7 years ago. Erin was a former art teacher in the Detroit area for 8 years before relocating to Illinois in 2009 and falling in love with both the look and concept of Old Growth salvaged wood on an adventure to source the perfect piece of wood for a bench she wished to make for her home.

In early 2010, Erin saw an opportunity online to market her idea for a hand-crafted line of reclaimed wood furniture through a new, up and coming marketplace called Etsy. As one of the early furniture makers to join this new platform for handcrafted goods, Erin's concept of taking beautiful, character filled, century-old salvaged lumber, resonated with the Etsy community and a growing number of architects and designers who began using the site to seek out products by new designers and makers. Erin launched the UrbanWoodGoods.com company branded site in 2012 and also began venturing into more commercial work that year. In 2013, Urban Wood Goods was awarded a Grant for woodworking equipment and a lumber kiln through the state of Illinois for a Recycling product initiative. In 2015, Urban Wood Goods received the award for Best Recycled Product (small manufacturing) through the Illinois Recycling Association. Urban Wood Goods' strives to continue to salvage as much of this precious resource as possible with the goal to salvage 500,000 board ft a year of lumber.