Our Story

Eighty-six years of craftsmanship, beginning with one man and one dog

Eighty-six years ago, in 1940, our grandfather, Charles Walter, started with a belief that has never left our family:

A home deserves furniture that is made with pride.

Not because furniture is the most important thing in a home.But because life happens around it.

It is where families gather after long days. Where conversations last late into the evening. Where milestones are celebrated, memories are created, and ordinary moments become meaningful over time.

Our grandfather understood that. But before he understood it as a business, he lived it. In a small hut at the edge of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, with nothing but a hand saw, a love for wood, and a dog by his side.

That dog’s name was Furnati.

Charles Walter and Furnati, Tongass National Forest — c. 1940s

Every morning, Charles walked into the forest to handpick timber for furniture, and Furnati walked beside him. Through fog, frost, and long stretches of silence, the dog stayed close. He was alert to danger, steady in companionship, the one constant in days that were often hard and often lonely. Furnati protected him out there. And in the quiet hours back at the hut, he was simply family.

Hauling timber out of the forest, the way it was done in those early years

It’s no exaggeration to say the business started with both of them. One man shaping wood with his hands, and one dog making sure he never did it alone.

Eighty-six years, four generations

For 86 years now, our standards have remained remarkably unchanged. The business has passed through the hands of our family, now in its third and fourth generation, and since 2010, Harrison Rode has carried that legacy forward, leading Furnati with the same care it was built on.

We still believe that quality is found in the details. In thoughtful design. In materials chosen carefully. In the patience required to create something that feels right not only today, but years from now.

Because truly exceptional furniture does something rare.It becomes part of a home’s story.

Long after trends have faded and styles have changed, the right piece remains. Familiar. Trusted. Appreciated.

That is what we strive to create.Not furniture for a season.Not furniture for a catalog.Furniture for the moments that matter.

86 years after our grandfather first picked up a saw in that small Alaskan hut, we continue to uphold the same standard that built our name in the first place. A standard born from a man, his dog, and a forest in Tongass:

If it is not worthy of the home it enters, it is not worthy of the Furnati name.

And that standard will never change.

We've come a long way since that hut in the Tongass. Today, Furnati operates from Manhattan, New York. But the standard Charles set has never moved an inch. 

The hut at the edge of the Tongass, where it all began, 1940

That is why our grandfather never focused on simply making furniture.He focused on making pieces people would be proud to welcome into their homes.Pieces built with care. Designed with intention. Made to be lived with, not lived around.

Inside that small hut, Charles built furniture by hand for the families of the local village. Each piece was carried out on his back, each one made to last. His wife, Shenna, kept the hut and the books, and together they turned a one-man trade into something a community came to depend on.

Charles and Shenna, early years of the workshop

His work earned something more valuable than sales.It earned trust.

One family told another. Customers returned years later. Generations continued choosing the same craftsmanship they had come to rely on.