Steve McKenna

For all my working life I was in the construction trade.  I was a carpenter in Middlebury, Vermont for 10 years and a union carpenter, in the greater Boston area, for 40 years, before I “retired” in 2011 and started building furniture full time.  While in the trades, I worked for almost 60 different companies (some of them many different times) in over 200 locations. I would be on the job for the “finish” work, installing millwork or doors and hardware.  Whether it was a Niemann-Marcus or Bloomingdale store, Boston College or Harvard University, the job was working with a chop saw, a skillsaw and a drill. I did work with and learn from some incredible craftsmen in the trades and that skill has transferred to furniture making.

When I retired, I started living my dream.  Rather than installing someone else’s designs and ideas, I could start literally creating my own.  I have never had any formal training or even taken a woodworking course.  I am, through all the mistakes, flaws, and misfires,  self taught.