I have experienced many infatuations over the years in our furniture collecting.  An art deco chair may turn my head; A Boulle table may set my heart racing, but Kindel furniture was probably my first love.  Each sale of Kindel furniture is still a stab to my heart, requiring consolation that it is going to a good home where it will be loved and cared for.

Kindel Furniture is still open and making furniture. 

1. Why haven’t you ever heard of them?
2. The answer is simple. They don’t make a product until you order it. It isn’t mass produced.

      Kindel Furniture Factory Origins

HQ: Grand Rapids, MI since 1904

Fun Fact: The company began as a bedding company, marketing patented sofa beds.  The patent’s primary improvement over other folding beds was that it allowed for conversion of a piece of furniture into a bed without the need to move it away from the wall.

      Kindel Furniture Manufacturers Mark

Known For:

• Extraordinary finishing. The carving is still done by hand in Michigan.  The gilding is applied to each piece individually. 
• Kindel furniture is art. Here are some photos of their craftsman from the company Instagram page. 
• Each piece is made with love. 30 step finishing process, including hand rubbing with over sixty finishes.
• It is one of the few companies who haven’t cheaped out their materials, rushed their processes, or yielded to market pressure to outsource labor to a foreign country.
• Kindel manufacturers “line for line” copies of the 18th-century American originals, made from the same woods. These authentic reproductions include  the exclusive license to reproduce furniture from the Henry Francis DuPont Winterthur Museum.
  • Reproductions from the Winterthur Museum include some of the most sophisticated Philadelphia and Newport pieces in the collection.

     Kindel Furniture: Gilding by Hand

     Kindel Furniture hand Finishing

Relatively Unknown For:

• Kindel also reproduces furniture for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Irish Georgian Society, Varney & Sons Collection which includes the Dorothy Draper Collection, and Mount Vernon. Pieces from these collections continue to be produced in low quantity production and sell for as much as $15,000 to $20,000 per piece.
  • The furniture chosen came from National Trust properties including Cliveden, Oatlands, Wilson House, Woodlawn, and Belle Grove Plantation.

 Where Kindel Furniture Resides:

• Kindel Furniture lives in some of the poshest homes in the country. It also has a surprising life in commercial settings like the Greenbriar Hotel in WV.

Why Kindel Vintage Pieces are Worth Owning

• Quality Construction: “Fluted and spiral dowel construction, spline and tenon techniques are how we assemble products and have been for 300 years of fine furniture building. That is the collective age of all our brands. Our methods are not the fastest nor the cheapest, but they are the best and define Kindel as a true, American, luxury brand.”

         Kindel Furniture Hand Carving

       Kindel Furniture Master Models are kept to ensure consistent quality and detail

Why Vintage Kindel Pieces are Expensive:

• Kindel pieces have substantially increased in value due to the fact that they were made in limited production or were later discontinued.

Caring for Vintage Kindel Furniture

• Wood is a natural product. Sun bleaching will occur when wood furniture is exposed to sunlight. This will cause darker finishes to lighten and sometimes cause lighter finishes to darken. For this reason, try to avoid placing furniture in direct sunlight and rearrange accessories from time to time to prevent spot bleaching. Some bleaching will occur under both incandescent and fluorescent lighting. Arrange your furniture so that it does not sit near heat registers, air conditioning units or radiators. Close contact with any of these will adversely affect the finish.

Show me some Kindel Pieces!