Our Process

From handpicked wood to artisanal techniques to a natural aged finish, we hold every piece of furniture to the highest standard of perfection.

Our Wood

Every desk or end table was once an old cherry tree standing tall in the Allegheny Plateau in Pennsylvania, where the finest cherry grows.

After shading the forest for at least a century, foresters harvested it, keeping in mind the long-term health of the forest. The beautiful old tree they milled into wide, thick boards, patterned with their own unique grain from every wet and dry season their tree had experienced.

These planks don't have to travel far before arriving at our woodshop in the Delaware Water Gap in Eastern Pennsylvania. We handpick them carefully to re-match boards from the same tree back together, achieving a consistent grain and coloring within each piece of furniture.

We only use these solid cherry boards - never any plywood or particle board for any part of our furniture. For some pieces, we compliment the cherry with other solid woods, like the traditional poplar for the inside of drawers, the aromatic cedar for the interior of our Charlotte Hope Chest, and the Spanish cedar for the interior of our Lord Emsworth Humidor. (Our Ingalls Bucket is made with local eastern white pine.)

Our Designs

Even before saw meets wood, the piece of furniture has already come into being in imagination.

We carefully think through all the things it must become, giving it form on a pencilled piece of paper with our handdrawn shapes and calculations.

Every piece of furniture must not only be functional and durable but also beautiful; it must fit within the rest of the collection while also standing alone. We design it along classic lines, adding our signature curves and panelling while retaining the bold simplicity of the modern look. Every coffee bar, shelf or nightstand is designed both as an accent piece - a thing of beauty in itself - and as a versatile addition to the many different styles of the contemporary home.

Our Techniques

With the first rough cut, this pencilled idea begins to take shape.

The woodworker measures his chosen boards, saws them to exact length, joints them, planes their rough edges, and routes them with beautiful edges, panels and curved patterns.

Wherever possible, we use single, wide boards to highlight the beauty of the natural cherry grain. For larger pieces of furniture with greater widths, we bookmatch boards from the same tree to achieve a mirrored, perfect color and grain match. We extensively dovetail the joints throughout the piece to create the strongest bonds possible and for the beauty of their elegant triangular patterns.

We choose to employ the best methods in the field to achieve the highest quality possible in each piece of furniture.

Our Signature Finishing Process

We've fine-tuned an aging process to darken the wood to its natural, mature tone.

After our completed piece of furniture is sanded as smooth as marble, we finish it with a simple, un-tinted oil that protects it from heat, water and even alcohol. The oil is not film-forming and impervious to the white moisture rings that can form under glasses and ruin other furniture finishes. And because the oil isn't artificially colored, an accidental scratch wouldn't reveal a different color underneath; instead, with time the scratch would darken to match the rest of the piece.

Newly-hewn cherry starts out almost white, and even after being oiled, it remains a light golden color. Left to itself, over the course of years it will darken to the rich, gorgeous hue we associate with cherry; but since most manufacturers can't afford to give it that time, they compensate by staining it with semi-transparent, tinted stains that try to mimic that natural hue.

We believe that each species of wood has its own unique and beautiful tone, and the best furniture allows the wood to develop this natural color. So instead of using an artifical stain, we've fine-tuned an aging process that speeds up the cherry's gradual darkening process.*

After darkening in our aging chamber, the piece of furniture returns with the rich, mature tone it would have taken years to achieve on its own. This color will continue to ripen naturally in your home, so expect a slight deepening of your furniture's hue, especially in areas that receive more sunlight.

*True for all cherry furniture except the current Jefferson Candle Sconces in stock

Our Customer Experience

We are committed to providing a customer experience that is just as exceptional as our furniture.

We offer FREE SHIPPING for smaller pieces and ship them via UPS.

For heavier pieces, we use a white glove handling service that delivers, installs and unpacks the piece where you want it in your home. (An additional shipping fee may apply depending on your location.)