Hickory Chair: How a North Carolina Workroom Has Made Furniture Since 1911
Hickory Chair, founded in 1911 in Hickory, North Carolina, is one of the few remaining American furniture houses that frames, finishes, upholsters, and ships every piece under a single roof. Sutter & Vale carries the full line, and that vertical integration is the reason an order placed with us can arrive in as little as three to four weeks, made by hand, in a quantity of one.
What Makes Hickory Chair Different From Most American Upholstery Makers?
Most upholstery manufacturers split production across suppliers: one facility builds the frame, another finishes it, a third cuts and applies the fabric. Hickory Chair does all four stages in one building on 9th Street in Hickory, North Carolina. Fewer handoffs means tighter quality control at every stage, and a shorter path from specification to delivery.
The stages, in order, are:
- Machine milling of the frame stock
- Hand staining and finishing of the bare frame
- Fabric cutting from a paper pattern
- Hand upholstery with a mallet over batting
- Nailhead trim set one nail at a time
- Hand wrapping for shipment
Each piece follows a single order number through every stage. The process is the same whether the piece is a compact accent chair or a full sofa.
What Does "Bench-Made" Mean at the Hickory Chair Workroom?
Bench-made means a craftsperson, or a small dedicated team, takes responsibility for one piece from start to finish rather than moving it along an anonymous line. At Hickory Chair, workers in leather aprons follow a real order through the plant. The nailhead trim is a useful example: each nail is driven individually, not applied as a strip. On complex forms, the upholstery alone can take many hours of rework before it meets the required standard. That labor shows in the finish and in how long the piece holds its shape.
What Are the Made For You and Made to Measure Programs?
These programs give you genuine control over scale, silhouette, and finish, without moving to a full custom commission.
| Program | What You Control |
|---|---|
| Made For You | Fabric, leather, finish, leg option |
| Made to Measure (M2M) | All of the above, plus width in set increments |
The 9th Street M2M Sofa is a clear example: it scales from 32 inches wide to 120 inches wide, so it can read as a loveseat in a smaller room or anchor a generous living space. The form is drawn from a vintage Hickory Chair sofa of the 1960s, with a crisp, architectural profile that works as well in a contemporary interior as in a traditional one.
The 5th Avenue Sofa takes a different approach: a 7-inch arm and a low-profile block leg give it a modern, casual line that sits comfortably alongside more traditional pieces in the same room.
Which Pieces Show the Range of the Workroom?
The Hickory Chair collection at Sutter & Vale runs from upholstered seating to refined casegoods, and the range of techniques involved is wider than most buyers expect.
A few pieces that illustrate the span:
- The Grand Trine cocktail tables use straw marquetry applied over a radial veneer, a surface technique that requires precise, flat preparatory work before the decorative layer begins.
- The Tangier etagere combines brass, wood, and glass in one structure, drawing on the casegoods side of the workroom.
- The Eldorado, part of the David Phoenix collection, involved nine hours of labor on a single arm before the form was resolved to the standard required. It represents a silhouette that, in the workroom's own assessment, does not exist elsewhere in the current market.
The consistency across categories, upholstery and casegoods produced in the same facility to the same standard, is what makes Hickory Chair a practical choice when a project calls for pieces from more than one category to hold together visually.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long has Hickory Chair been making furniture in North Carolina?
Hickory Chair was founded in 1911 in Hickory, North Carolina, placing it at 114 years in operation as of early 2025. The workroom has remained in Hickory throughout that time, and production has stayed in the United States.
Can I specify my own fabric on a Hickory Chair piece?
Yes. The Made For You program accepts your choice of fabric, leather, or finish from Hickory Chair's own materials program, which includes performance fabrics, leathers, and specialty options. Your Sutter & Vale account holder can walk through the full specification sheet before an order is placed.
What sizes does the 9th Street Sofa come in?
The standard 9th Street Sofa is 88 inches wide and 39 inches deep. If that width does not suit your floor plan, the 9th Street M2M Sofa scales from 32 to 120 inches wide at the same depth and height, with width set in increments at the time of order.
The Sutter & Vale Team
