Level Green furniture builder wins customer service award

Penn Rustics, a Level Green company that offers hand-built furniture made from solid wood, has been awarded a “Best of Customer Service” badge from Houzz, an online forum for architecture, interior design and decorating, landscape design and home improvement.

The custom rustic furniture company was chosen by the more than 40 million monthly unique users that comprise the Houzz community from among more than 2.1 million active home building, remodeling and design industry professionals, Houzz says.

“Hope and I have worked really hard and are honored to be recognized in this way for the fifth year in a row. We are thankful for each and every one of our clients and supporters,” says Paul Stambaugh, co-owner of Penn Rustics with his wife Hope. “Starting out, we honestly only thought we’d sell a few things and never imagined surpassing 1,600 sales on ETSY, let alone our own website, Penn Rustics.”

In addition to offering custom rustic furniture for home, retail, office, restaurant and commercial spaces, the company also sells rustic home goods and wedding accessories and rents out benches for wedding seating.

The Stambaughs created the company in 2014 to supplement Paul Stambaugh’s work in computer drafting. While Hope handles the business end of things, Paul says he does the building at night after his regular workday is finished.

“We have four kids to take care of,” he says.

He works primarily in pine, but will work with other woods on customer request.

“(Pine) keeps the cost down and it has a beautiful grain,” he says.

Annual honor

The Best of Houzz badge is awarded annually in customer service, design and photography categories. Customer service honors are based on several factors, including a pro’s overall rating on Houzz and client reviews submitted in 2018.

Design awards honor professionals whose work was the most popular among the Houzz community.

Architecture and interior design photographers whose images were most popular are recognized with the Photography award.

A “Best of Houzz 2019” badge will appear on winners’ Houzz profiles. The badges help homeowners identify popular and top-rated home professionals in every metro area featured on Houzz.

“Our success has come from creating quality pieces of furniture and home goods that are affordable and beautiful to look at. We’ve built our business literally one piece at a time,” Paul Stambaugh says.

“Best of Houzz is a true badge of honor as it is awarded by our community of homeowners, those who are hiring design, remodeling and other home improvement professionals for their projects,” says Liza Hausman, vice president of Industry Marketing for Houzz.

Via its website and app, Houzz provides a platform for users to find inspiration, get advice, buy products and hire professionals for projects from room decorating to building custom homes. Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., Houzz has offices in London, Berlin, Sydney, Moscow, Tel Aviv and Tokyo.

Details: pennrustics.com or houzz.com

Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Shirley at 724-836-5750, smcmarlin@tribweb.com or via Twitter @shirley_trib.