Good wood makes for good business

Colourful stalls, a warm social atmosphere and quick banter – the St. Albert Farmers' Market isn't just a place to pick up a slab of organic bison or bag of crunchy vegetables. It's a cultural event unto itself.

It's no surprise to vendor Wayne Hryniw that the farmers' market is flourishing. For the past 16 years his business – Wayne's Cedarworks handcrafted outdoor furniture – has been a market staple.

Most Saturdays, passers-by will see him seated on the furniture, patiently answering questions with a big grin on his face. There's no pressure tactics. Just an invitation to sit down and rest a spell.

Located at a primo spot in front of St. Albert Place, Hryniw is humble about his craftsmanship.

"It's not that I came up with a unique design. It's what people wanted," he says.

He constructs patio and lawn furniture with a Cape Cod vibe. The various pieces include reclining Adirondack chairs, swings, gliders, a love seat, interchangeable chairs and tables. This year he's added a cedar stand for a swinging hammock.

Hryniw builds the country cottage style furniture primarily from western red cedar. As a wood, cedar contains natural oils that preserve the fibre while resisting insect attacks and decay.

Strength and durability are important features of his furniture and each piece is sturdily built.

"There are no nails and staples. The joints are just bolted, screwed and glued," is his mantra.

James Mramor of Morinville plans to build a fireplace in his backyard and is seriously scouting Hryniw's furniture as a potential surrounding element.

"It's real. You don't often find quality like this. The stuff in big-box stores is garbage. If you want something similar, you pay the same price. But this is ingenuity at its finest," said Mramor.

St. Albert's Conrad Yarenchuk has stopped by to add a piece or two to the pieces he purchased 10 years ago.

"We get lots of compliments. We like the look and we like the idea of having an attached table beside a chair where we can set a drink down," Yarenchuk said.

Falling into business

Hryniw gets plenty of accolades from satisfied customers, but it was a business he unexpectedly fell into. Originally from the village of Myrnam just northeast of Two Hills, he grew up on a farm and learned basic carpentry from his father.

But like any young man with big dreams, after graduation he hightailed it to Edmonton, enrolling in NAIT's architectural technology program.

During the province's booming economy, Bechtel Corporation – headquartered in San Francisco – quickly snapped up his services, and Hryniw spent many years working as a project manager across Canada and overseas.

By 1996, his five children needed him at home. Having always worked with his hands, adapting the long-ago learned woodworking skills seemed a natural fit.

"I liked making outdoor furniture and, in this day and age, it's like another room in the house," Hryniw said.

He equipped his garage in a Rio Terrace single-family home with several different saws, a router, drills and sanders. Through trial and error, he came up with several designs, adding additional comfort and convenience.

For instance, the Adirondack chair, while looking like the store-bought ones, has a few additional tweaks, including two inches of additional height.

"They're not too deep or too high where your feet are dangling and the back isn't too steeply angled. You can just spring right up," he says.

One of his most popular sellers is the loveseat glider.

"I've made them for solariums and rumpus rooms."

Another big seller is the double angled tête-à-tête designed to stimulate conversation. A tête-à-tête is a complete furniture set of two to four Adirondack or Muskoka chairs joined together using small tables instead of arm rests.

Most tête-à-têtes are built in a horizontal pattern with rectangular drink tables between them. But Hryniw's tête-à-tête is built with chairs angled towards each other creating a semi-circle.

"People can face each other without getting a sore neck. It's much nicer for visiting."

Hryniw also sells at Callingwood Market, however his enduring love continues to be St. Albert.

"I love to deal with the public. I love the vibrancy and the atmosphere here. It draws people from outlying areas. It's a destination market and that's what I love."