Portland Furniture Maker Graham Pell on Slow Joinery, Local Wood and Chairs That Outlive Us

Graham Pell builds about sixty pieces of furniture a year, and he would like you to know that he could build more if he wanted to. He just doesn’t want to. From a narrow, 1,800-square-foot workshop in Portland’s Central Eastside, the 47-year-old furniture maker and his two apprentices produce dining tables, benches, chairs and cabinets that are joined almost entirely without metal fasteners, finished with oil and wax, and built from wood that mostly grew within a hundred miles of the shop.

Interview by Iris Bell · Workshop Pell Joinery · Founded 2012 · Output about 60 pieces a year

His dining chairs, in particular, have earned a following among architects in the Pacific Northwest, several of whom specify them for houses before the floor plans are finished. A single chair costs $1,450 and has a waiting list of about seven months. We visited Pell on a rainy Thursday, when the shop smelled of cut walnut and linseed oil and a radio played quietly somewhere behind a stack of lumber. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.