Fine Tables, Cabinetry, and Architectural Elements
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Introduction
Based in the beautiful Tennessee Valley town of Knoxville, Tennessee, the Hand Made Table sends exceptional pieces of furniture all over the world. Everything made in our shop is a handmade, one of kind piece and all are made from an antique material of some description or another, usually from the early to mid-1700s to about 1820 time period. We do not use stains. Everything is natural patina. Our pieces are made with wood pegs and mortise and tenon joinery and are as historically correct as we can make them.
History
In an interview with David in 2015 he told the story of the beginning of the company as follows:
“This whole furniture thing started with a project at Half Mile Farm in the mountains of western North Carolina. Details of that project can be found in my portfolio at davidgranthoward.com.
In that project, I dismantled, moved, and reassembled eight historic buildings and combined them into the three homes you see in the portfolio and the photos below. When it came time to address the cabinetry for those homes I found there was absolutely nothing on the market anywhere that would work for the vision I had for the interiors. Somewhat in desperation, I hired two delightful older gentlemen (my father always said old is 10 years older than you are) who seemed to know what I was talking about and what I needed for my project. I told them we were going to build “what was on your grandmother's back porch”. We set up a cabinet shop in my warehouse and the very first piece we made was extraordinary. It was a copy of a Pennsylvania hanging corner cupboard we found in an antiques book at the library.
After the Half Mile project was done I had no plans to continue with furniture making but didn’t want to let go of something that was producing such excellent results. As a way to keep what we had created going, we decided to start making tables and see what happened. Ten years and one depression in the building industry later we are still going with the tables and making better pieces than we have ever made. Being the smart, but sometimes slow thinker I am, I made a decision in the fall of 2013 to move in the table direction and go after it full-time so we opened a shop with full furniture-making capabilities. Ten years and many twists and turns later, here we are.”
David Grant Howard
About David Grant Howard
David during the re-assemblage of the historic circa 1792 Babb Log home in a park in his home town of Greeneville, Tennessee.
The location of The Handmade Table's shop is Knoxville, Tennessee, where the mountains meet a local buzz of urban life.
The creator and founder of The Handmade Table, David Grant Howard, was raised in the historic circa 1783 town of Greeneville, Tennessee, located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains on one of the early roads into Kentucky and the interior of the continent.
As a child, he was immersed in the history of the region, with names like Nathaniel Greene, Crockett, Boone, Andrew Jackson, Sam Houston, Andrew Johnson, and Confederate General John Hunt Morgan everywhere. He once responded to a question about where his interest in history and things of the past arose, whereupon he answered, "I don’t really know". A close childhood friend with him at the time laughed and said, "David, look around you." He spent many hours after his grammar school classes with the granddaughter of President Andrew Johnson, who hosted tours of the former president's home in Greeneville. She greatly influenced his interest in history, as did his high school and college history professors.
David attended Greeneville High School, where he was a student-athlete and letterman in football, track, and basketball. He was the captain of his football team. He attended the University of Tennessee, where he received a degree in accounting and finance. After graduation, he moved to Dallas, Texas, where he spent several years in international banking. While there, he earned certification as a CPA. He left banking and went to work for the consulting firm Ernst & Young, living in Washington, DC, Chicago, and Calgary before returning to Dallas. While in Washington, D.C., he worked in the Reagan White House during part of his tenure there. It was after he had returned to Dallas that his youngest sibling purchased and dismantled a historic log house. This first introduced him to the world of moving historic structures and, later, antique building materials. The experience led to a major shift in direction away from the corporate world and into a career in preservation, historic buildings, and building materials. He later started and operated one of the country’s largest warehouse operations, dealing in historic materials.
While he was engaged in the historic building materials business, he saw a need for truly fine furniture and cabinetry for his and his customers' projects. "For whatever reason, I was always able to see things others could not see, and using historic materials to make cabinetry for our projects was one of them. It just made sense for our customers". This led to an interest in and the creation of a small enterprise around the making of excellent reproduction farm and harvest tables and other historic cabinetry. The results of that interest are what you see on this website. David personally chooses almost all the materials that go into his furniture. His customers are continually amused at how someone with a background in accounting and finance could also be so creative.
In a talk that David was giving to a group of engineers recently. He was asked how someone like him ended up in the creative field like furniture and design, and he responded, "The better question is how did someone like me end up being a CBA".