About
Family Owned
The Boulder Moulder Company began in a garage in Boulder, Colorado. They had just moved to a tiny industrial space when, in 1980, Jack, Betty, and Mark Thorpe bought it and gave it a new name: Picture Woods, Ltd. All these years later, the family lineage continues: Mark’s son James currently manages the production and business operations with some of the same folks who have been here since before he was in preschool.
The business feels like a family in more ways than one. We strive to create an environment where people feel at home and happy and inspired to come to work each day. And it must be working: the average tenure of our employees is 16 years. That means that everything you buy from us is made by skilled craftspeople who bring their years of experience and dedication to this Picture Woods family every single day.
Highest Quality
When we first started, we were making custom mouldings one frame at a time on a small table saw and shaper. We augmented that with moulding that was milled for us by an outside supplier, which we would sort in-house, hand sand, and hand finish. We discovered very quickly that the only way we could make the best hardwood moulding was to control the quality of each step. By the end of our first year, we had brought all aspects of crafting into our shop, including selecting each board of lumber, grinding our own moulder knives, milling, sanding, hand finishing, mitering, and wrapping.
Throughout the years, we have built our reputation by crafting hardwood moulding that combines superb finishes, precise dimensions, nearly warp-free lengths, and impeccably mitered chops. All of these factors have made Picture Woods elegant mouldings a staple of walls all over the country, as well as an excellent value.
The Environment
Our commitment to quality is equaled by our commitment to the environment and sustainable industry. We use only renewable North American hardwoods such as hard maple, cherry, walnut, white oak, and ash. Our hand-crafted, natural and semi-translucent finishes showcase the natural beauty of these fine woods. Our line also includes finishes that reflect the beauty of exotic woods such as padauk, purpleheart, and ebony without the environmental consequences of using trees from endangered forests.
Because of the responsible harvesting practices used for extracting North American hardwoods, the amount of trees and forests is actually increasing over time, even as demand for these products increases. That means that by buying responsibly-sourced hardwoods instead of imported ones (or dare we talk about plastic products), you’re actually helping grow the biomass that helps our planet breathe.
Our concern for the environment has manifested as a decades-long commitment to action. In addition to using only sustainable North American hardwoods, we contribute a portion of our profits to organizations that protect endangered forests and natural habitat for all kinds of plant and animal species throughout the world. We also directly contributed to a hardwood forest replanting program that helped restore land damaged by logging, mining, and other misuse. Our sponsorship caused thousands of seedlings to be planted and will hopefully ensure that in 80-100 years there will continue to be healthy and sustainable hardwood forests in North America.
Product Lines
We craft over 1800 mouldings, offered in a wide variety of shapes, woods, and finishes. Our Principal Line consists of more than 700 stocked, finished mouldings, selected to save customers time and money. Our Finish-to-Order line is stocked raw, then finished when ordered. We also custom mill mouldings and modify existing mouldings so that you can create the perfect frame for your project.
Ultra Massives
Ultra Massive Mouldings are uniquely designed to join multiple pieces of the same variety hardwood into virtually seamless, large mouldings. This has been a significant evolution in our artistic and technical abilities. Without these design innovations, producing very large mouldings that are long, straight, and nearly defect-free would be effectively impossible in domestic hardwoods. This important evolution has also allowed more efficient use of lumber and, therefore, a more responsible use of that natural resource.
Recycling
We have joined forces with our regional recycler and our local municipality to compost all of our raw wood waste, which has currently made us the largest compost contributor in Boulder County. This, combined with our paper, cardboard, plastic, and glass recycling, means we recycle over 85% of our discard.
Continuing the Commitment
Picture Woods is still a small family-owned business, and all of us, the owners and employees, remain dedicated to provide the highest quality hardwood mouldings and exceptional one-to-one customer service. We feel this goes hand in hand with our ongoing commitment to actively seek and implement ecologically sound improvements whenever possible.