Talented Twosome

If you can dream it, this husband-and-wife team will tweak it, build it, and lacquer it.

- NICHOLAS PHILLIPS

IN A VERY literal sense, Eric Wilken and Sucheta Bhide—owners of The Resplendent Crow—specialize in putting a fresh face onto old things. The vast majority of their business, which they transact through Etsy, involves tricking-out vintage furniture with cool amenities, custom paint jobs, and a strong lacquer. Here’s how they do it—and why people like it.

HOW DID YOU GET INTERESTED IN FURNITURE-MAKING, ERIC? EW: My family had a cabinet shop in Corvallis, Oregon. Everyone else was playing with G.I. Joes; I got a router and chisels and started helping the family make office furniture. I think that by the time I was 18, I was making libraries. I didn’t plan on continuing with it. I planned to join the military, but I’d torn my ACL and couldn’t duck-walk, so they told me I couldn’t make it through basic training. Which is funny, because now I do ultramarathons and obstacle-course racing. In any case, I then got into aviation cabinetry.