Jonah Meyer is the designer behind Sawkille Co., the Hudson Valley furniture brand known for bringing contemporary flair to traditional American craftsmanship. Ten years after opening his Rhinebeck, New York showroom, Meyer talks to Luxe about the success of his company. sawkille.com
How do you approach designing? People are very familiar with Shaker-style furniture, but I study their entire lives—their lifestyle and ability to do things well. And I’m from Pennsylvania so I studied George Nakashima and Wharton Esherick. These guys are dead, the Shakers are done, but they all left an open-ended catalog of American furniture to improve upon.
Where do you find inspiration? Everywhere—my family, artists, art history, even the sky. I live atop this incredible ledge in Woodstock with storms passing through. Our furniture has a lot of inlays with rain, clouds and lightning bolts.
What’s next? There’s an entire new line developing, which is very exciting. The furniture is more sculpted—the chairs have thick legs without stretchers between them. They have a different language to them entirely, but if you put them next to our previous pieces it all makes sense.
