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ARTISANS OF WOOD continued from page 43
furniture making, a subject that intrigued me.” In some ways, the technique is similar to
the simpler post-and-beam construction. “While it’s used in timber framing, we scale it down to furniture-size levels,” Fulmer says. “It has superior strength and is built to last
a lifetime.”
Like many furniture makers, Fulmer and his assistant do commissioned work and produce some pieces for online sale. Recent items include a modern Japanese desk for $8,970, a daybed with shoji (sliding panel) for $12,750 and a live-edge dining table for $14,500. While Fulmer uses native American wood for most of his furniture, he uses
softer options like cedar and cypress for his Japanese work.
“People come to us with pages out
of books and magazines, or they sketch something out,” says Fulmer. “But we never want to just copy what someone else has done. We draw inspiration, then come back with our own design.”
Doug Mooberry fell in love with furniture in shop class at his alma mater, Unionville High School. Upon graduation from Gettysburg College in 1982, he’d expected to go into the business world. “But there were absolutely no jobs,” recalls Mooberry over a cup of coffee at Farmer & Co., the coffee shop and market opened in 2021 by his daughter, Jessie, and her husband right next door to his studio.
After a summer working in extensive furniture collection at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library and a brief internship with a local cabinetmaker, Mooberry set out on his own. His first two studios in Unionville and Avondale proved to be less than ideal,
so he moved to his present site in 1987.
Now into his 60s, Mooberry has cultivated a multigenerational client base. “I just took an order from a third generation [client] for a fourth generation,” he says.
Mooberry estimates that about 95% of his work is done on commission, which makes
good business sense. “You can’t always anticipate what people want,” he says. “Having pieces sitting in your showroom hurts cash flow.”
Furniture styles have changed over the years. Mooberry is now selling a lot of large tables outfitted with benches. “Benches are less-expensive than buying eight chairs,” he notes. “Since there’s no back on them, people can get out easily.”
Although there’s still a small market for furniture in the 18th-century style, Mooberry and others in the industry have seen declining enthusiasm for buying antiques and/or restoring them. “There’s a lot more interest
in contemporary designs,” he says. “The guys in the shop all have great design sense. We bounce ideas back and forth. I might start with a sketch and say, ‘Here’s what I think. This is the budget. Can we do it, and how can we make it interesting?’”
Mooberry loves exotic wood and has squirreled away loads of it in his barn on a nearby property—and he isn’t thinking
50 THE HUNT MAGAZINE summer 2024