By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University/Image Christina and Kevin Miller
The furniture is beautiful. The construction is excellent. The design is unique – or maybe, Uneak.
That is the eye-catching and creative name for this handmade furniture store in rural Kansas.
Kevin and Christina Miller are the owners of Uneak Wood. They grew up in Kentucky where they met and were married. Kevin’s father was a respiratory therapist and a trim carpenter on the side. Kevin found he enjoyed working with wood as well. He worked with his brother who had a wood products store in Kentucky.
“One day an older man came into the store and told us he had lost the lease for his furniture showroom,” Miller said. “He talked us into letting us display his furniture and it worked out well.”
Faith brought the Millers west to Kansas.
“We are members of the Amish Mennonite Church,” Miller said. “As our churches grow, we look to plant more churches, not divide them.”
After four years in the overseas mission field, the Millers moved to Lyndon, Kansas to help start a church there in 2005.
“We build our lives around Christ’s kingdom so when we move, we take our businesses with us,” Miller said.
Miller and his sons started building gazebos as a business in Lyndon. The business was named Southwind Gazebos. Over time, they transitioned the business toward providing more retail furniture.
The retail store was named Uneak Wood. “I like unique things,” Miller said. The name refers to the unique nature of their furniture with a fun twist in the spelling.
In 2023, as their church grew, the Millers moved Uneak Wood to its current location near Wamego. The Millers built a beautiful new, two-story showroom and shop at the new location. When I say they built it, I don’t mean that they had a contractor construct it.
“One of my son-in-laws is a house builder and the other is a framer,” Miller said. Indeed, they built the building themselves.
A huge outside display area shows lots of Adirondack chairs plus patio furniture, the gazebos that the company still builds, and sheds built by other friends. Swivel gliders are especially popular. The outside furniture is made of poly plastics from recycled milk jugs.
Inside is a beautiful display of Amish-built wood furniture. “Most of the furniture is Amish-built in Ohio or Indiana,” Miller said. Miller also makes “live edge” pieces by hand, which retains the natural shape of the wood rather than sawing every side straight.
This is truly a family business. Christina Miller helps with decorations, cleaning, and arranging the furniture. Son Ronnie does deliveries and construction. Daughters Meagan and Mariah help with cleaning and keeping the books
“We enjoy working together and customers seem to appreciate it,” Miller said.
The building is designed with the shop attached so that staff can help customers and then work in the shop when not needed in the showroom.
“If it’s live edge, most of our wood is local,” Miller said. The primary woods are walnut, elm, and oak. “Often it’s from something unique our logging friends provide us, or occasionally a yard tree.”
The store emphasizes quality and variety. The furniture includes bed sets, tables, chairs, cabinets, and much more. Custom orders are also an option, sometimes involving wood from the customer.
“They love to hear where the wood came from, maybe from their family farm,” Christina said. “The customer can really see the quality.”
“This business also allows us to provide a window into our values,” Kevin Miller said. “It gives us an opportunity in the community. We enjoy getting to know our neighbors.”
Uneak Wood is located near the intersection of Highway 99 and K-18, three miles south of Wamego and three miles east of the rural community of Wabaunsee, population 104 people. Now, that’s rural.
The furniture is beautiful. The construction is excellent. The design is truly unique, as each handmade, live edge piece is literally one-of-a-kind.
We commend Kevin and Christina Miller, Ronnie, Meagan, and Mariah for making a difference with quality craftsmanship in wood. For this business, they are uniquely qualified.Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at https://www.huckboydinstitute.org/kansas-profiles. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit http://www.huckboydinstitute.org.
