Contemplations: The Art of Slow Design

Why good things should take time

Though we live with it everyday, we rarely think about where our furniture comes from and how it was made. The products we buy are increasingly produced by machines, but some things are best done by humans—highly skilled craftspeople whose hands possess the muscle memory of decades of experience. While machines still play a large part in what we do, it’s the hands that touch each piece that are most crucial to our process.

Working like artists, our craftspeople make decisions critical to each piece’s aesthetic and structural integrity. Each plank of wood selected is chosen with great care and intention. Characteristics such as color, grain structure, and unique character are taken into consideration and used to determine where each particular plank will be used. Some are chosen for structural parts and others for more prominent parts based on the beauty of the wood grain. These choices are not random, but rather informed by an expertise in solid wood furniture craft, traditional joinery, noble materials, and advanced furniture technology. To carve our hardware from solid blocks of brass, our machinists must have a comprehensive knowledge of precision tools and the working properties of metals. Metal heats and expands when it’s worked which fundamentally changes how tools cut, requiring quick adjustments based on sound, temperature, experience, and skill. The craftsperson’s job isn’t to simply build the piece — it’s to realize each design to the highest standard.

We are proud to work with some of the country’s finest wood furniture makers. They bring with them a tradition of craftsmanship that is over 200 years old. From the sourcing of the lumber to the hand-finishing, each step is done with pride and with great love and respect for our natural resources. Each piece is built to be loved.