Nolan Hall, maker and owner

I’ve always been a builder, but it took me a while to realize what I wanted to build.

From as early as I can remember, I’ve been using wood to build. My grandfather, a woodworker in Chicago, taught me how to use a scroll saw when I was a young kid to make pieces for the clocks that he built. When I was in high school in Atlanta, I started working on construction sites, using wood to frame houses, deck roofs, and shelter people. In college, I started a home remodeling company with my carpentry mentor where we repaired and renovated existing homes to make them safer, more efficient, and more functional. It wasn’t until I moved into my first empty apartment after college that I realized I needed to start building furniture. Using some 1970s tools that my grandfather had passed down to me, I started building the furniture that I would use in my home. I realized then that furniture making has no definitive template, plans, or rules. It is as much of an art as it is anything else; and that started an obsession which led me to create Maker and the Moose.

My work is a reflection on the struggle of having an engineer’s mind in the role of an artist. I studied mechanical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, but I’ve always been drawn to architecture and the expression of art through structures. Furniture making gives me the outlet to explore building art with the approach of an engineer.

I’m currently working alongside my wife Mika, who is an oil painter, to develop unique furniture lines that convey this balance between art and science. In the meantime, I am working on commissions from designers, architects, and individuals who wish to see their own ideas come to life.

FAQ

  • Once your tree has been inspected by an arborist and you receive a permit to have it felled, please tell your arborist to contact us so we can discuss a plan for salvaging the usable lumber. Once the trunk is down and cut into manageable lengths, we will come to your property and mill the logs into slabs or cookies. We can then kiln dry the slabs and build you furniture from them to give the tree a second life and keep it in your family for generations.

  • Most of our pieces are finished with a durable hardwax finish which is very easy to repair! Just let us know if you need us to refinish part or all of your piece and we will add it to our schedule. This will come at an additional charge depending on the scope of the work. If you wish to refinish the piece yourself, please talk to us first! We will have some tips and recommendations on products and methods.

  • Hopefully soon! Right now, we work out of a small shop in San Mateo, but we hope to expand one day into a larger space where we can include showroom pieces. To schedule a shop visit, please contact us via email. We always encourage clients to visit the shop at least once during the construction of their piece to see how the process works.

  • Unfortunately we are too busy to take on repair or refinishing jobs on pieces that we didn’t make, but we are happy to refer you to other businesses that specialize in these services.

  • Everything we make is unique, so it’s difficult to give estimates without having a design in mind, but as a general starting point:

    coffee tables start at 3k

    dining tables start at 6k

    beds start at 5k

    desks start at 5k