Chad Metcalf is a furniture maker, filmmaker, and former Navy SEAL. The work is the same discipline applied to different materials.
Chad Metcalf builds heirloom furniture in Austin, Texas. Tables, dressers, humidors, the occasional bench. One piece at a time, by commission, for the room it's going into. He films the builds and posts them to YouTube — the victories and the failures both.
Before this, it was the Navy SEAL Teams. The discipline is the same: patient work, attention to detail, the willingness to start over when something isn't right. What changed was the material.
The work draws on the lineage of Sam Maloof and the modern studio furniture tradition — simple forms, hand-shaped joinery, wood chosen for how it'll age into a piece you keep. Pieces designed to last for generations, not seasons.
The films are the other half. They document the actual making — the broken jig, the wood that didn't behave, the moment a joint finally fits. Mastery isn't a destination; it's built one project at a time, with the camera running.
Hand-cut joinery, hand-shaped curves, modern tools where they earn their place. Pieces built to outlast the people who commissioned them.
The films are the other half of the work. The shop, the wood, the decisions, the mistakes — recorded so the piece carries its own history.
Not a destination. A practice. One project at a time, taking what worked, throwing out what didn't, and starting the next one a little sharper.
If the work resonates, the next conversation is yours. A handful of commissions each year — by design.