Just before spring break, I took a quick trip to North Carolina to visit a furniture manufacturer, Leathercraft Furniture. They are the good ole folks who are creating a private label for my new line of chairs coming soon. (Don’t tell anyone yet!) I wanted to see first hand what a furniture manufacturing warehouse looked like, so off I went early one Thursday morning. Never mind airport security with these jeans—I unintentionally lit up that machine!

What I found—there was not just one large warehouse, there were two along with a lumber area. It makes sense that North Carolina is a major hub for American made furniture with all the readily available lumber nearby.  These beautiful pieces of lumber were here just waiting for their new life in some sort of furniture piece. 

One of the warehouses is for the actual woodworking. They store the parts that form each furniture piece in cubbies that are carefully labeled. When an order gets placed, the woodworkers go to that specific cubby, take out the parts, and build it. There were rows and rows of these cubbies. 



You know those cool industrial carts that we often see used as coffee tables? Well, here’s where they originated and are still used to haul around lumber. 

The machinery was a sight to be seen—I was surrounded by huge machines for woodworking. 

The finishing touches go on the furniture over in the other warehouse. I was amazed to see how many patterns they had for cutting foam for each upholstered furniture piece. And, they were carefully labeled. If only my patterns were so organized!

Seamstresses were hard at work while others nearby cut hides of leather with some pretty cool electronic scissors. 

Of course, furniture abounded everywhere waiting for the finish before going to the upholstery. There were pieces marked for spring market in High Point, which just wrapped up this week. 


Around me, pattern makers and chair designers were hard at work planning for an upcoming new chair. The picture at the very top of this post is one created by my good friend and mentor, Chase, pictured on the right below. 

The trip was quick, but super informative. An industrial engineer somewhere carefully planned these two very large warehouses to get work done efficiently. And I can’t wait to go back to see my stuff in production! Stay tuned…