From custom to consumer: Martin Goebel's new furniture brand

Known for his bespoke furniture, private residential commissions and high-end hospitality and corporate interiors for such notable brands and figures as High Chieftainess Melambeka, Tribal Queen of Zambia, Philippe Starck Hotels and Nike, American furniture designer Martin Goebel has spent the past decade designing and developing innovative, new manufacturing processes to craft artisan furniture at scale for the consumer home furniture market. Read an interview with Martin Goebel.

Now Goebel is achieving his aim to bring his furniture to a wider audience with the arrival of his first consumer market furniture and home goods brand. Made from the finest American hardwoods, metals, ceramics and textiles, Kindred Heirloom Collection merges old-world craftsmanship, advanced automated manufacturing and design-forward modern aesthetics to bring attainably priced heirloom furniture and home goods to the contemporary high-end furniture market.

Located in Saint Louis, Missouri on the banks of the Mississippi River, Goebel transformed the hundred-year-old former Traffic Motor Truck Corporation building into a modern design studio and high-tech manufacturing facility.

“We are reimagining American manufacturing theory by merging old-world craftsmanship with modern technology to bring heirloom furniture to everyone. Artisan craft is about creating special objects with a tangible connection to the materials and maker. We want to make that heightened experience and special feeling a part of every home through lasting furniture that is made to be shared by this generation and handed down to the next,” said Goebel.

Kindred will unveil their full product line for the first time this spring in High Point, North Carolina, April, 22-26, 2023 at the International Spring Furniture Market. Kindred is included in the juried first floor of IMC InterHall—the coveted ground-zero for brands that are leading the style conversation and setting trends in the North American furniture market.

The operation is a vertically-integrated product development and manufacturing facility that leverages digital design and advanced automated manufacturing. “Controlling all aspects of the manufacturing process allows us to maximize efficiencies and offer artisan-quality hardwood furniture at price points that fit solidly in the mainstream consumer furniture market comparable to Restoration Hardware, West Elm & Pottery Barn,” said Goebel.

In May 2022, Goebel made a capital investment of nearly $500K to modernize the Withers Avenue facility bringing all design, handcraft and advanced automation operations under their own roof. The custom-produced 5-axis milling centre was delivered to the facility on January 20, 2023.

Housed in a renovated 2,200 sq. ft. area of the 15,000 sq. ft. facility, Goebel’s investment brings a first-of-its-kind manufacturing operation to Missouri. Tailor-made to Martin’s specifications based on years of experimentation and development, Italian machine manufacturer, Biesse, coordinated with American firm Dylan Bayliss to build the custom 5-axis automated milling centre.

See Martin Goebel’s entry for 2023 Maker of the Year, presented by Carbitool here.

Learn more about Martin Goebel at www.goebelfurniture.com