Long before I went to graduate school to get my master’s in nonfiction writing, I got a degree in interior design from a school in Boston’s Back Bay. I loved working in the design field — creating residential and commercial spaces, and models for developers to show off their condos or senior housing. I even created a fun disco space where an antique MG graced the middle island of the bar. My love of writing eventually grew louder, and that’s when I went back to school to hone my writing skills. So now I write about beautiful spaces, art museums and fascinating artists.
My love and appreciation for furniture with beautiful details and design — be they Danish modern or traditional Queen Anne or whatever — stays with me to this day. And yes, my home is decorated eclectically. I have a mahogany Queen Anne-Chippendale dining room set, abstract art, an Eames Chair and a minimalist sectional sofa.
All that to say that I appreciate it all. As long as it’s well designed, carefully executed and ultimately classic. Enter the three furniture makers featured in this article. All of them are new members of New Hampshire Furniture Masters, an organization formed in 1993 to build public awareness of New Hampshire’s fine furniture makers.
But don’t let your eyes glaze over — within the context of “fine furniture makers” there’s also the fun, whimsical even eccentric designers like Jon Brooks who create sculptures with complex joinery and colorful paint. His pieces grace the permanent collection at such venues as the Currier Museum (Manchester, New Hampshire), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Granted these three men, Dan Faia, Mike Korsak, and Philip Morley, wear the labels “furnituremaker, chairmaker, woodcarver,” but within that framework, they are as unique as you can imagine.