Our mission is to cultivate and inspire a reverence for a worldwide chair caning legacy.
Our vision is to promote an enthusiasm for the craft through education, published work, restoration, innovation, and travel.
Watch our evolution from professional crafters to shameless chair nerds.
Silver River Chairs is the nation’s only chair caning school and museum
We started out as a couple of chair nerds on a mission to dispel the myth that chair caning is a dying art. We now realize how quickly traditional craft can die out after almost losing our business twice in 4 years – to a global pandemic and a 1000 year flood. We want to empower everyone to learn to restore their own chairs and to inspire the next generation.
When we realized we could do more, we expanded our chair caning restoration business into Silver River Center for Chair Caning, to teach the craft and to educate visitors through our FREE museum! Our museum took a hit after Hurricane Helene devastated our River Arts District location. We are now invested in curating an online catalog of the chairs that we saved from the flood waters, and sending the chairs on tour to small museums and historic homes around the country.
We are proud to honor a family tradition, the craft, and all chair nerds (past, present, and future).
“Chairs are documents, and caners are historians who preserve centuries of designs and techniques.”
Benno M. Forman, author of American Seating Furniture 1630-1730
Off-Site Demos
Off-site demos include: Folk Art Center, Grovewood Gallery, The American Craft Council Show, the Island Farm c1847, Moses Cone Manor, and a variety of schools, historic houses, festivals.
Memberships
The SeatWeavers’ Guild, Inc, the Southern Highland Craft Guild, the Furniture Society, American Craft Council, and River Arts District Artists.
Collaborative Works
Ordinary Furniture, Furniture Repair Works, McCall Restoration Services, Custom Woodworks, Brian Brace Fine Furniture, Woody’s Chair Shop, Brian Boggs Chairmakers
Want us to come to your town for a demonstration or lecture? We speak at woodworker associations, schools, museums, scout meetings, camps, and historic houses. We will tailor our presentation to suit your interests.
