Hardwood Artisans

Consumer tastes have evolved over the course of Hardwood Artisans’ 50 years in the furniture business. Lately Shaker-style has been supplanted by a preference for midcentury modern. But the company’s dedication to quality endures. Its craftsmanship is ever on display at its Shirlington showroom, where buyers can peruse and customize a range of styles and finishes for tables, bedframes and case goods built by master carpenters (roughly half of whom are women) at the company’s 40,000 square-foot shop in Culpeper. Heirloom pieces with dovetail joinery are fashioned almost exclusively out of East Coast wood sourced from sustainable lumber mills, and the shop repurposes 96% of its wood waste. “We offer free shop tours during the week so people can see their pieces coming through production,” says marketing director Susan Caudle-Smay, wife of CEO Curt Smay. (The company’s petite “Susan” collection, designed for smaller spaces, is named after her.) “Seeing it as it’s made often makes them fall in love with it even more.” –Jenny Sullivan