“People do the darndest things,” says Jonah Meyer, co-founder of furniture company Sawkille Co, based in the town of Rhinebeck in the Hudson Valley. He’s talking about his Lambda tables, carved from locally sourced walnut, maple, oak or sycamore, then embellished with personalised inlays. “They want their children’s profiles, their favourite rock band, even their sun signs,” he says. “It’s very fun.”
Meyer — whose father was a woodworker and jeweller, his mother a potter — founded the furniture company in 2003 with his wife Tara DeLisio, and came up with the idea for the patches as a way to cover “imperfections” in the wood. After years of trying to persuade clients of their beauty, he finally settled on the realisation that “people hate knots”.
Shell hummingbirds, silver-plate thunderbolts and brass hands — symbols that seem to have a talismanic or mythical aura — have featured in the ebonised, bleached, dyed or oiled woods across the furniture range, from benches to beds. It has become the company’s signature, along with its starkly elegant Shaker-influenced clean lines.
Meyer may have been saddened by this rejection of the wood’s natural formations and markings. Yet in his response, he discovered a way to produce furniture that appeals to the current call for the bespoke. “When we first started I thought they wouldn’t sell,” he says. “Now, nearly all the tables we sell have half a dozen [inlays] on them. It’s very much taken off.”
Two hours’ drive upstate from New York City, the Hudson Valley is known for its farm-to-table restaurants and creatives seeking a more balanced life. The distance from the city suits Meyer as, initially, 90 per cent of Sawkille Co.’s business came through interior designers. Now, some 20 years later, clients also come through word of mouth. Sawkille Co. employs 15 people at its workshop and showroom, and he sees every commission as a collaboration.
The collection extends to lighting, mirrors and chests — and the company ships all over the world. The most shippable Sawkille Co. design remains its three-legged stool — a piece that “defines our whole ethos”, Meyer says. That ethos is about three things: meaningful work, good craftsmanship and simplicity.
He cites Japanese-American woodworking innovator George Nakashima as a hero; his own work, he believes, is about “holding that torch”. He hopes those who invest in one of his crafted pieces will be able to pass on to future generations a modern heirloom with a stamp of distinction.
Stools from $1,250, lead time 8-10 weeks; Lambda table commissions from $21,400, lead time 12-14 weeks; brass patches $800; sawkille.com
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