A Truly Blessed Man

Sailing over from England in 1985 and upon landing on America’s shores, Michael Brown went about building his own timber-framed house before setting up a business making stunning bespoke hand-crafted chairs and furniture, which he continues to do to this day.

The handmade wooden chair is an item steeped in history and one which is still as popular today as it was in the 18th century. While design has inevitably moved on to embrace current trends, it is reassuring to know that there are craftsmen remaining who are still working to these age-old designs (although moving with the times) and keeping the tradition alive. One such craftsman is Michael Brown, an Englishman who made the trip over to America back in 1985. This is quite a story in itself, as he made his way over on a 42ft fiber glass sailboat, stopping in Bermuda to repair hurricane damage, and here he also met his wife-to-be. Leaving Bermuda safe and well, with his future wife in tow, Michael then spent the next seven years in New York,before the couple decided to buy some woodland on the edge of Beard Creek, North Carolina. “It wasn’t long before I started to selectively cut down trees to build our home,” Michael says. “I meticulously sawed the trees into posts and beams, following the finest practices of generations past. I raised a frame of pine, sycamore, oak, poplar and maple, connected with wooden pegs that glowed in the setting sun and cut right to my heart.” When they designed the house, which technique-wise Michael refers to as “just mortise & tenon joinery on a bigger scale,” the couple were living on their boat, so it ended up being bigger than they really needed, but as you can see from some of the photos shown here, the end result is truly amazing and includes a lot of fun details and quirky features.

A love of working wood