This Chicago Craftsman Makes Modern Furniture Rooted In Tradition

Carpentry was love at first sight for West Chicago-based custom furniture maker Chad Musgraves, who was introduced to the craft by his college roommate’s uncle. Those weekends whittling away in a basement workshop “sparked something in me,” he recalls. “I love using my body, hands and mind to transform raw materials into something beautiful.” This clarity emboldened him to open his own workshop, Rest and Repine, in 2015, where he creates bespoke furniture featuring modern, expressive silhouettes and finishes rooted in traditional craftsmanship.

Whether collaborating with designers or fashioning his own models, inspiration often starts “with excitement over a single detail that becomes the focus,” he says. Though his work leans modern, Musgraves is “not opposed to incorporating details from different styles,” he explains, like Shaker-style joinery, Arts and Crafts spindles or charred Japanese shou sugi ban finishes. He also employs other materials like brass, powder-coated steel, stone and smoked glass, but hardwoods ground his work, from all-American walnut, maple, white oak and ash to more exotic specimens like sapele and mahogany. “I love exploring unique processes that enhance wood’s natural beauty without making it muddy or opaque,” Musgraves says. He plays with ceruse finishes to highlight undulating wood grains; oxidizing solutions that turn maple gray and walnut black; and bleaching treatments “that make American hardwoods almost bone white,” he describes. “There are so many different ways to bring out its character beyond staining or painting.”

Such experimentation requires enduring patience, and sometimes heartbreak: the price of using a material with natural idiosyncrasies. But Musgraves embraces the “repining restlessness” of his craft. “I’m comfortable with the tension, knowing that there’s sorrow, but also joy, in everything we do.”