Century Furniture's Designers: Thomas O'Brien, Carrier and Company and More

Century Furniture partners with a focused group of designers whose collections run through the full Sutter & Vale Century catalog: Thomas O'Brien, Carrier and Company, Windsor Smith, Tara Shaw and Kim Scodro, among others. Each brings a distinct point of view. Century's Hickory, North Carolina finish program and construction standards hold the house together across all of them.

Which Designer Collections Does Century Furniture Offer?

Century names five active designer lines alongside its in-house collections. The table below gives a quick orientation.

What Does the Thomas O'Brien Collection Cover?

Thomas O'Brien's line is the largest designer collection Century produces, at 184 pieces, and it moves between formal and relaxed without losing its structural logic. Proportion is the consistent argument: chairs read as chairs, tables read as tables, and nothing overreaches. At 184 SKUs, the collection covers seating, casegoods and occasional pieces, which means a designer can furnish a complete room within a single vocabulary. It is the collection to reach for when a client wants American classical references and wants them to hold up across a large project.

What Is the Carrier and Company Collection Known For?

Carrier and Company brings a layered residential sensibility that sits closer to the European antique tradition than to contemporary minimalism. The collection runs to 102 pieces and favors rooms that look assembled rather than matched. Finishes and materials carry most of the weight; the forms themselves stay composed. Paired with Century's finish program, which runs from Group A through Group D and includes hand waxing with a beeswax-and-carnauba formula as an embellishment option, the line rewards careful specification. The Marbella Amador Dining Table shows how that finish depth reads in a dining context.

What Do the Smaller Designer Lines Bring?

Windsor Smith, Tara Shaw and Kim Scodro each address a narrower territory, which makes them useful when a project has a specific reference point.

• Windsor Smith, 42 pieces, California in its ease, pattern-forward and comfortable with color.
• Tara Shaw, 41 pieces, rooted in the French and Belgian residential tradition. Forms here carry the kind of wear and age that Century's distressing grades, ranging from Very Light through Heavy, can render in production.
• Kim Scodro, 25 pieces, a Chicago-based practice that favors clean transitional lines. The Mesa Pacific 84" Dining Table in Napa Cerused shares the measured quality that runs through this end of the Century program.

How Does Century's Finish Program Connect the Designer Collections?

Century's finish program is the same engine behind every designer line, and it is specific enough to be useful at the specification stage. Each casegood carries a published distressing grade, from N/A through Very Light, Light, Medium and Heavy, so you know the surface character before production begins. Sheen is numbered: Low at 5 or 10, Medium at 20 or 30, High at 50 or 70. Named finishes in current use include Napa, Gustavian White, Gustavian Black, Brownstone and Oxford White. Hand techniques, leafing, dry brushing and hand waxing, are available as finish embellishments across most lines, and Century describes its full finishing sequence as roughly 25 steps.

The Maison '47 Double Dresser in Blonde Cerused is a useful reference for how the cerused finish reads across a broad case front, a question that comes up often when specifying bedroom furniture within any of the designer lines.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use Century's COM and custom fabric options within the designer collections?

Yes. Century's upholstery program, which covers fabric grades 1 through 92 and leather grades L1 through L13, runs through the designer lines as it does through the in-house collections. Options for contrast welt, cord and nailtrim are available on a per-piece basis.

Are the designer collections produced under the same construction standards as the rest of the Century line?

The vast majority of Century furniture is manufactured in Hickory from predominantly domestic materials, and that applies to the designer collections as to the house's own lines. Construction standards, including solid hardwood frames and dovetailed drawer boxes where applicable, carry through the full range.

How do I choose between Thomas O'Brien and Carrier and Company for a dining room?

Thomas O'Brien tends toward clearer American classical references and works well when a room calls for structural confidence without decorative complexity. Carrier and Company layers more reference and suits rooms where the furniture is meant to look collected over time. Finish selection, particularly distressing level and sheen number, will do much of the work of reconciling either collection to a specific space.

The Sutter & Vale Team