Family-owned

The Boulder Moulder Company started 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 renamed in Picture Woods, Ltd.

Highest Quality

When we first started, we were making custom mouldings one frame as 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 an excellent value.

The Environment

Originally, Picture Woods sold such exotic woods as bubinga, teak, zebra wood, wenge, mahogany, East Indian rosewood, padauk, purpleheart and koa. We also sold domestic woods such as maple, oak, ash, cherry, and walnut.

In 1988, we made the difficult decision to discontinue all exotic woods, which accounted for about 40% of our sales. This decision was based on our desire to take a stand against the deforestation of the tropical rain forests. We then concentrated our efforts on formulating new finishes that would be viable alternatives to exotic woods.

Our "Walnut Exotics" were born in 1990. After much R & D, we developed the purpleheart, padauk, and ebony finishes for walnut. Not only were they good alternatives to rain forest woods, but were beautiful in their own right. These finishes, along with our other natural and hued finishes, gave our line tremendous variety in the realm of natural hardwoods.

Principal Line

We introduced our Principal Moulding Line in 1991 with twelve pre-finished mouldings designed to save customers time and money. Previously, all of our mouldings had been finished to order. In 1995, we moved to a new facility with significantly more room than our old shop. The move allowed us to eventually boost our Principal Moulding Line to more than 300 stocked, finished mouldings.

Ultra Massives

Recent changes include the introduction of our Ultra Massive Mouldings, 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.