VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The art of designing and making handcrafted furniture is alive and well in Hampton Roads.
“That type of wood is called old-growth lumber and it's what we specialize in,” said the owner of Benevolent Design Patrick Ryan.
The Virginia Beach native started using reclaimed wood to make furniture ten years ago.
"I drove up to New York City and worked with a salvage company. This came out of a building on the Lower East Side. The building was built in 1910 and if you count the growth rings, there are at least 200. That dates the tree it came from to probably the 1600's,"
He just acquired the wood from trees cut down recently to make way for the new wave park that’s under construction at the oceanfront.
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This wood will be made into tables and chairs for the lobby of the park when it's done.
You can find his pieces in many restaurants and businesses around town including Taste and Baker’s Crust to name a few.
After a decade of creating unique pieces, the furniture maker is taking his skill in a new direction, teaching others an age-old craft.
“We have these apprentices with us for six months. We’re teaching them how to do a skill like build furniture which is kind of a lost art,”
He’s teamed up with a Department of Defense program called SkillBridge. It connects service members with business owners who can offer work experience to help them better transition from military to civilian life.
“Not being in the military myself but living in Hampton Roads all this time, it like here’s finally a way to give back,”
“This is a table base for a really big walnut dining table for someone for a client of theirs,” said John Hamm, a Navy sailor.
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Hamm is one of the apprentices in the Department of Defense Skillbridge program.
“It's a great opportunity to learn how they do it. It's my dream to one day do this too and they’ve taught me a lot of stuff, it's been great being here,” said Hamm.
Ryan tells me he’s also starting to offer classes for wounded warriors to help with issues of PTSD.
“Working with your hands, building stuff, the noise is actually quite repetitive if you really start to listen to it. It's really very soothing,” said Ryan.
Right now he has five Skillbridge apprentices and he hopes to offer more art therapy and woodworking classes in the future.
Skill, art, and the intention to do good is what Benevolent Furniture Design is all about. That makes it and its owner Patrick Ryan, Positively Hampton Roads.
