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Our Sam Rittenberg showroom is open Monday to Saturday, 10am – 6pm. Walk in, or book time with a furniture specialist.
A pair of black painted spindle-back dining chairs on a wide plank floor in low sun
Our makers · LaGrange, Indiana

FN Chairs

A shop in LaGrange County that has built almost nothing but chairs since 1995 — which is the right amount of attention to give the hardest ordinary thing in a house.

FN Chairs started building chairs in 1995, in LaGrange, Indiana, and has done almost nothing else since. That narrowness is the point. A shop that builds case goods and chairs will usually be better at the case goods, because a chair is the hardest ordinary thing in a house to get right — it has to take a person’s whole weight, at an angle, several times a day, on four legs and a few sticks.

Freeman Miller started it and the family still runs it, with a second generation now in the business. The trade association that represents the Indiana shops describes them as an innovator in hardwood chair design, which in this corner of the industry is not a phrase handed out casually.

What arrives on our floor from them is seating: dining chairs, arm chairs, bar stools, desk chairs. They come in the species and finish you choose, which is how a chair like the Concord ends up painted black in one house and left natural in oak in the next.

What they build
Hardwood seating — dining chairs, arm chairs, bar stools and desk chairs, in the species and finish you choose
We visit the shops we buy from. Come see their work in person at our West Ashley showroom.
Close-up of the turned spindles and shaped crest rail of a black painted dining chair against the oak table
Spindles and a shaped crest
Turned stock and a crest rail shaped to the back. The join where those meet is the whole job.
A long oak table top on a black double pedestal base surrounded by black spindle-back chairs
Six of them, around a table
Chairs bought as a set but built one at a time, in the finish the room asked for.
An oak-topped table on a black painted base with black spindle-back chairs in a plaster room with a beam and French doors onto olive trees
Painted black, in an oak room
The same chair goes out natural, stained or painted. Ask in store to see the finishes together.
“An innovator of hardwood chair design.”
Northern Indiana Woodcrafters Association
Since
1995
Building chairs, and very little else.
Founded by
Freeman Miller
Family owned and operated from the start.
Home
LaGrange, Indiana
In the northern Indiana Amish settlement.
Now
Second generation
The founder’s family still in the business.
Their work

Rooms featuring FN Chairs

A round table with a golden elm top on a pale maple base and four slat-back maple chairs under a brass sputnik light, a porch and live oaks through the doorDining

A Golden Top on a Pale Base

A round table with an oiled elm top over a pale maple base, four fan-backed maple chairs and a brass sputnik light, in a Sullivan's Island cottage.
A square honey maple dining table with eight chairs in black frames and honey seats, in a white paneled room with windows onto a golf green and marshDining

Honey Seats, Black Frames

A square honey maple table with eight two-tone chairs, ebony frames over honey seats, in a Daniel Island dining room looking out to the green.
A brown maple table with a Tavern top on an Onyx base, and black Quincy chairs with warm wood seats, in a Sullivan's Island cottage at golden hour.Dining

Tavern Top, Onyx Legs

A brown maple table with a Tavern top on an Onyx base, and black Quincy chairs with warm wood seats, in a Sullivan’s Island cottage at golden hour.
A rustic walnut writing table with a closed rectangular loop leg at each end and a black leather side chair, in a modernized ranch roomOffice

Two Loops and a Straight Edge

A rustic walnut writing table standing on a closed rectangular loop at each end, with the pull cut straight into the drawer front.
A rustic walnut executive desk on solid slab ends with a beaded front edge, and a scroll-arm office chair, in a Craftsman bungalow studyOffice

The Edge Is the Whole Argument

A rustic walnut executive desk standing on solid slab ends, with a rippled run of beads worked along the whole of its front edge.
A honey-tan maple writing desk with outward-raking legs and a black leather side chair, in a brick sunroom over a tidal marshOffice

A Desk That Leans Out of the Way

A honey-tan maple writing desk with its legs raking outward under a knife-thin top, in a brick sunroom looking over the marsh.
A pale plaster dining room with a stone flag floor, a plain brown maple table and crossed slat-back chairs under a timber beamDining

Everything Is Holding Something Up

A plain table and a set of slat-back chairs in a room made of plaster and old stone. There are two curves in this room and both of them are structural.
A Craftsman dining room with oak plate rail, art glass windows and a Mission trestle table in driftwood-stained quarter sawn white oakDining

Where the Joinery Shows

A Craftsman dining room where the joinery is left showing on purpose — and one curved, fluted piece quietly argues with all of it.
An oak-topped table on a black painted base with black spindle-back chairs in a plaster room with a beam and French doors onto olive treesDining

Black Spindles and an Oak Top

An oak top left to be the wood, and everything holding it up painted black so the room does not go brown on you.
A single Aruba Blue poly Adirondack chair on a mown hillside at first light, mist over the treeline
Visit

Let’s design your room together.

Sit down with one of our furniture specialists. Bring photographs, measurements, a paint chip or simply an idea, and leave with a clear plan for your room.
Book an appointment
1750 Sam Rittenberg Blvd, Charleston SC · (843) 225-2513
Ask about a piece

Tell us about the room

Nothing is priced online and nothing ships from a warehouse. Tell us what you are looking at, and someone who knows the workshop will come back to you within one business day.