We have many design heroes that inspire us. But today I want to highlight another behind-the-scenes hero that makes great design possible. Last time, I introduced you to my incredible installer, and now I want you to meet the dynamic and enormously gifted brother and sister team that run my favorite upholstery workroom, Danny and Shannon. If that sounds familiar, you might recall this picture of Danny from the spring One Room Challenge - he is the genius that made our upholstered headboard for the Vintage Diva Glamour Den project.

Danny is the third generation in a family dedicated to the art of upholstery. And it IS an art! Construction techniques and materials vary depending on the type of piece, the frame style, and the fabric application. A good upholsterer has to figure out the HOW of a design….how will the pieces be cut and arranged to match the pattern across the seams and cushions from top to bottom, does the piece require finished edges with welting, or gimp or nailheads? Will it be skirted? With what type of skirt? Waterfall, seamed, pleated gathered - some combination of those? What kind of cushion fill will be used? What is the support structure and cushion fill? If it is a custom built piece, what will be the best way to construct the frame for both comfort and function? Danny is a wealth of knowledge and creativity, knowing what can be done and figuring out a way to do it! His sister, Shannon, runs the back end of the business with her incredible blend of people skills and organizational, administrative, and marketing genius. She keeps all the plates spinning! They do reupholstery, custom built pieces, custom pillows, and custom slipcovers and are my secret weapon for getting the design exactly right. It is a rare combination to find people with this incredible talent and workmanship alongside really nice, flexibly creative, helpful and responsive personalities! And what is perhaps most striking, is the genuine appreciation and respect they each have for what the other brings to the success of the business.

Not only do they do Ah-MAY-zing work that always makes us look good, they are the nicest family you will ever meet! Brimming with enthusiasm for what they do and an abundance of positive energy, it is always a delight to visit the workroom. When their family grew to add children, they created a separate playroom area in the workroom for the kids to stay safe and in sight…hopefully they are inspiring the next generation of upholstery talent!

Danny and Shannon have been surrounded by upholsterers since they were children, and it is in their blood. Their grandparents were gifted upholsterers in the 1940’s always working under another company because they were both hearing impaired and communicated with sign language, and then their mom, Camille, began her career working at a custom upholstery house in Boston before going out on her own to run the very successful Ciocco Upholstery - first out of her basement. She served up impeccable upholstered pieces for the top designers in Boston, and she hired Danny for his first upholstery job at age 12 stripping furniture that came in down to the guts to prepare it for reupholstery. Camille eventually moved the business out of the basement and into its own space in Chelsea.

Danny and Shannon realized their dream of owning their own business when they opened Boston Furniture Design in 2012, renting space in Peabody and sharing the space with Ciocco Upholstery, cheered on and championed by their mom, Camille. Boston Furniture Design was originally formed primarily targeting commercial work, and then advertised to add some residential work, and as fate would have it, I happened to be their very first residential designer client! They were SO wonderful to work with and did such high quality work, I’ve never looked back!

They have also done many prestigious commercial jobs in the Boston area - all the furniture for the historic Wauwinet Hotel on Nantucket, hospitals, restaurants, the bar at Rowes Wharf, the Tea Room at the Boston Public Library, and the Science Library at Harvard University…I watched as Danny figured out a solution to upholster the huge organic shaped “clouds” the architect had designed to be suspended from the ceiling.

Recently they have combined the Ciocco Upholstery and Boston Furniture Design companies into one entity under the Boston Furniture Design name and business is booming. They have 6 employees now and continue to turn out amazing work for commercial projects and residential designers alike! They are talented, meticulous, and genuinely kind and I sincerely hope there will be a fourth generation of upholstery artisans from this incredible family someday.

During the pandemic shutdown this spring, Danny and his family turned their attention to producing masks. The photo caption read “slipcovering faces since 2020” #lovethyneighbor which perfectly sums up the character of this wonderful family.

THANK YOU, Danny, Shannon, and Camille for being the wonderful people and supremely talented family that you are!