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Rustic Hearth Timber Furniture

Twenty-four years at the same bench

Rustic Hearth Sourdough LLC is a small furniture workshop in the Arkansas Ozarks. We build slowly, by hand, from timber that has already had one life.

The Rustic Hearth workshop bench

Our story

It started with a barn nobody wanted

In 2001 a farmer offered us a collapsing tobacco barn for the price of hauling it away. We took every beam.

Those first boards became a dining table for a neighbour, then three more, and by 2004 the barn was gone and the workshop was not. What we learned in that timber still guides everything: old wood is denser, calmer and more beautiful than anything you can buy new, and it deserves joinery that will not insult it.

We are still deliberately small. Six makers, one shift, no production line. A commission takes six to ten weeks because that is how long it takes to do it properly — and because we would rather turn work away than hurry a joint.

2001 First bench built
6 Makers in the shop
1,900+ Pieces delivered
0 Sheets of particle board

What we believe

Four rules we do not bend

Wood that already lived once

Barn frames, fence posts and mill offcuts from within 200 miles. Reclaiming timber uses a fraction of the energy of new stock and gives every board a history you can read in the grain.

Joints, not fasteners

Mortise-and-tenon, dovetail and wedged through-tenon. A well-cut joint outlives the screws that hold most furniture together — and it can be tightened a century from now.

Finishes you can live beside

Plant-based hardwax oil and beeswax. No lacquers, no formaldehyde, nothing that needs a respirator in your dining room.

Signed and repairable

Every piece carries the maker's signature and the date. Bring it back in twenty years and we will repair it — that is the whole point of building this way.

How we build

From derelict beam to dining table

Every commission follows the same unhurried path. Nothing is outsourced, and nothing is finished in a spray booth.

  1. 1. Reclaim & millBeams are de-nailed, sawn and air-dried to 8% moisture
  2. 2. DesignDrawings and a timber sample posted to you
  3. 3. Joint & assembleHand-cut joinery, dry-fitted, then glued and wedged
  4. 4. FinishThree coats of hardwax oil, hand-rubbed between each
  5. 5. Sign & deliverSigned underneath, blanket-wrapped, placed in your room
Hand-cut mortise and tenon joint
Hand plane on reclaimed oak

The people

Six makers, one bench each

You will deal with the person who makes your furniture — not a call centre.

Elias Hartwell

Founder & lead maker

Trained as a joiner in the Cotswolds, Elias bought a derelict barn frame in 2001 and never looked back.

Naomi Whitlock

Workshop manager

Keeps six benches, forty commissions and one very old bandsaw running on time.

Tomás Iglesias

Finishing & restoration

Hand-rubs every surface and runs our ten-year oiling service for past clients.

Ruth Okafor

Design & drafting

Turns a photograph and a room measurement into working drawings the same week.

Materials

What your furniture is made of

We buy nothing from a catalogue. Every material below is either salvaged, storm-felled or made within a day's drive.

Reclaimed white oak

Barn beams, 80–120 years old. Dense, honey-toned, near-indestructible.

Black walnut

Milled from storm-felled Ozark trees. Chocolate depth with a lively figure.

Ash & hickory

Shock-resistant and pale — our choice for seating and children's pieces.

Forged & cast hardware

Hand-forged pulls and cast brass hinges from a foundry two towns over.

“They build furniture the way it was built before anyone thought to make it cheaper. Our table will outlive us, and I find that enormously comforting.”

Margaret Ellison — Bentonville, Arkansas

Come and see the timber before you choose

Workshop visits are welcome Tuesday to Saturday. You will leave with a handful of samples and a much clearer idea of what your room needs.