The Furniture Makers Keeping a Carolina Tradition Alive
In a state once synonymous with furniture, a community of studio makers is preserving the craft at the highest level, one commissioned piece at a time.
North Carolina made America's furniture for a century. Most of that industry is gone, but its finest thread survives.
The craft endures
A community of studio furniture makers continues the tradition at its highest level — designing and building heirloom pieces by hand, often on commission. Their work descends from the region's deep woodworking heritage but answers to contemporary taste.
Each piece is made to last generations, joined and finished with a care mass production abandoned long ago.
Heirlooms, made to order
Clients commission these makers for the same reasons collectors buy art: quality, provenance and the pleasure of the singular.
In preserving the craft, the makers preserve something of the state's identity. The furniture may no longer roll off Carolina assembly lines, but at the workbench, the tradition remains very much alive.
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