About Us
ART DOESN’T JUST HANG ON THE WALL
MEET OUR FOUNDERS
Melanie and Brian Boggs work together to build world-class handmade furniture that inspires their craftsmen, customers, and the industry to live intentionally.
BRIAN BOGGS: Manifest designs
Brian Boggs manifests furniture designs that honor the soul of the tree while integrating the human experience. Each piece embodies technical mastery, pushing his talented craftsmen to create works of art that transform his clients’ lives in their homes and businesses. Brian Boggs’ designs include the Grand Lily Arm Chair (2016), Sculpted Fanback Arm Chair (2017), and Cio Side Chair (2019), all winners of the GOOD DESIGN™ Award, and the Sunniva Outdoor Swing (2016), winner of the International A’ Design Award.
MELANIE BOGGS: key to business
Melanie Boggs, a former organizational development consultant, is key to the Brian Boggs Company’s business and life approaches. Her global perspective and business acumen combined with a desire to build an organization formed with everyone aligned to the values of excellence, innovation, integrity and social and environmental responsibility. Working to transform mature organizations for so many years left Melanie with the desire to build a values-driven organization from its inception.
HOW THEIR DREAMS COMBINED
Melanie believed wholeheartedly that culture impacts engagement and engagement impacts financial performance, so starting from the beginning made sense. In 2009, Melanie worked with Brian as a consultant for his growing company, realizing what Brian was trying to do went far beyond making and selling his chairs. He had a vision but needed a strategic plan to move forward. Melanie saw how their two dreams could combine, and they worked together to create a new version of his old company.
Together, Brian and Melanie have built a company that is focused on the support of fine craftsmanship and education, giving back to the world, forest management and materials sustainability, and the pursuit of absolute quality.
PASSION FOR THE CRAFT
As Brian’s mastery of the craft progressed, so did his intent to teach the next generation of craftsmen. His tutorial articles for magazines such as Fine Woodworking and Popular Woodworking have inspired thousands of woodworkers to explore and expand their skills. His passion for spreading the word of woodworking also led him to expand his reach through speaking at conferences and even appearing on the screen in shows like The Woodwright’s Shop and the Disney documentary, America’s Heart & Soul.
Currently, Brian imparts woodworking nuggets of wisdom at BoggsBench.com in his free video series. Through that forum, he supports fine woodworkers all over the world. In the 1990s, Brian joined Curtis Buchanan and Scott Landis to found Greenwood, a nonprofit organization that works alongside residents of remote forest communities to help them economically by managing their forests and creating valuable wood products. Through his work with this organization, Brian has trained artisans in both Honduras and Peru.
OUR HANDMADE FURNITURE
Visitors to our shop experience our purpose as they respond to our handmade furniture. Surprised by what can be done with wood and amazed by how comfortable a wooden chair can be, they are inspired to see what a group of craftsmen passionate about their work can achieve. The energetic shift we see in their faces and the testimonials we get from those who have received their long-awaited furniture tells us that this is working. Not only are our customers happy with what we built for them, they find inspiration every day they live with pieces we make.
At every stage of development of my career, my perspective evolved from wanting to learn how to make furniture to wanting to make beautiful things for others to stretching my artistry and craft and pushing the limits of the materials and technology we work with.
We put our best into building handmade furniture that lasts for generations. What makes this obsession worthwhile is knowing that, for generations to come, people who encounter our work will find inspiration in every detail they choose to explore, every surface they caress, and in the lines their eyes travel across as they experience our furniture.
OUR APPROACH
We typically use maple, cherry, walnut, oak, ash, along with other figured wood species such as curly maple, curly cherry, and ambrosia maple. If you are selecting a table, decide how many people you’ll be seating and the shape of the tabletop. This information will help us define the dimensions of your piece.
SUSTAINABILITY: Through education
As his mastery of the craft progressed, so did Brian’s intent to teach the next generation of craftsmen. By writing tutorial articles for magazines such as Fine Woodworking and Popular Woodworking, he inspired thousands of woodworkers to explore and expand their skills.
His passion for spreading the word of woodworking also led this quiet fellow to expand his reach through speaking at conferences and even appearing on the screen in shows like “The Woodwright’s Shop” and the Disney documentary, “America’s Heart & Soul.” You can find past episodes of Brian’s podcast, “The Ask Brian Boggs Show,” on YouTube, where he answers the questions of woodworkers from around the country. Through that forum and his continuing outreach on BoggsBench.com, he supports fine woodworkers all over the world. Continuing in his mission, Brian became a founding member of Greenwood, a nonprofit organization that works alongside residents of remote forest communities to help them economically by managing their forests and creating valuable wood products.
Through his work with this organization, Brian trained artisans in Honduras and Peru. These days, Brian Boggs Chairmakers is housed in a 10,000 square foot facility on the edge of the River Arts District in Asheville, North Carolina, where we employ local craftsmen dedicated to keeping the craft alive. Brian uses this opportunity to train these skilled workers in his techniques while maintaining transparency which allows them to learn the business as well.
Through sustainably harvested materials
Brian Boggs Chairmakers uses premium domestic hardwoods sustainably harvested in Western North Carolina and surrounding areas, choosing each specimen by the slab rather than ordering commercial lumber. We work with local businesses that provide this quality hardwood, as well as reclaiming urban debris.
For projects and applications outside of the scope of domestic hardwoods, we import exotic species under exacting standards, most notably our Honduran mahogany supplied through a partnership with Greenwood.
Through timeless design
Brian Boggs Chairmakers creates handmade furniture which transcends mere functionality to become treasured heirlooms. Built-in days rather than hours, these meticulously constructed custom works are produced to last lifetimes. These pieces of furniture become celebrated members of your family, works of art passed along to your descendants and theirs.
DESIGN
Brian Boggs wants to connect you to the trees. Walking around his workshop, you feel the inspiration surrounding him: full logs are broken into thick slabs, long blocks of mahogany stacked on sturdy shelves. His unique perspective evolved through reading James Krenov’s “The Fine Art of Cabinet Making” and progressed within “Make a Chair from a Tree” by John Alexander. Combining Alexander’s sensitivity to his materials with the mastery of the tools of Krenov, Brian communes with the wood while adding an organic understanding of his clients’ needs.
Brian wants you to sit on his chairs, lean on his tables, work at his desks. For him, your use is intrinsic to the design.
While Brian’s designs expanded through the years to include tables and other custom furniture, chairs remain his primary canvas. During his career, he designed and built chairs for highly regarded furniture experts such as Sam Maloof, winner of the MacArthur Genius Grant for his furniture design and woodworking, and Frank Pollaro, CEO of Pollaro Fine Furniture.
Handmade in the USA since 1982
