Homestead Furniture September 2023

A FOUNDER’S JOURNEY

INTRODUCING THE ABNER HENRY X THE MET COLLECTION

THE MAKING

Ernest and Barbara Hershberger start Homestead Furniture in a converted chicken coop.

1999

Word spreads about Homestead’s high-quality, custom Amish-made furniture, prompting the company to open its own manufacturing facility.

A FOUNDER’S JOURNEY: COOP FROM TOMET

BY RACHEL HAGENBAUGH

Faith, family and a fondness for pioneering the future — that’s the untarnished foundation upon which Homestead Furniture was built. From its humble beginnings to the unprecedented collaboration of Homestead’s sister company, Abner Henry, with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, founder Ernest Hershberger never imagined he’d achieve this level of success.

It all started in Holmes County more than 30 years ago when Hershberger and his wife, Barbara, who were engaged to be married at the time, started Homestead Furniture in her family’s converted chicken coop. The business entailed selling quality pieces made in North and South Carolina.

A third-generation woodcraftsman with a background in highend custom kitchen cabinetry, Hershberger’s definition of service entailed giving the customer exactly what they wanted.

“We had brand-name furniture we were selling in our retail store, and customers wanted to be able to customize them,” he says. “So I drew them out and sent the purchase orders to where the furniture was made.”

2000

Homestead builds a 12,000-square-foot warehouse to accommodate its continued growth.

2001

To showcase an extraordinary range of high-end designs and capabilities, Homestead opens a 35,000-square-foot retail store.

2007

Homestead expands its manufacturing plant to 40,000 square feet to meet growing demand.

Hershberger was appalled when manufacturers gave the orders back, revealing they would only make runs of furniture if they could sell a minimum of 500.

“I told them that’s about as un-American as it gets,” he says, relating that he refused to disappoint his customers. With purchase orders and deposits in hand, he began enlisting local craftspeople to bring these designs to life.

“Word of mouth travels very quickly when you serve customers on the level they wanted to be served,” he says. “It didn’t take long for people to realize that we were building furniture to the same specs as what you’d expect from a high-end kitchen cabinet factory.”

Three decades later, Hershberger traded in the 4,000-square-foot chicken coop for a 40,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and 35,000-square-foot retail store and design center. In 2008, Hershberger broke into the high-end design community with the founding of Abner Henry, a furniture manufacturing business named after his grandfather (Abner) and dad (Henry).

“I saw a huge gap in the market of clients who wanted high-quality, American-made furniture with great style,” he says. “It’s our little niche in the marketplace that has quite humbly exceeded our expectations.”

Having garnered worldwide recognition, Abner Henry caught the attention of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was searching for a furniture company to collaborate in the creation of a one-of-akind, art-inspired collection. Hershberger got the call in 2020.

“I wondered how and why someplace as famous as The Met would come to a conservative Amish guy from Ohio to be a part of this special collection,” Hershberger remembers. The answer was the foundation upon which he built his entire legacy — a multigenerational, certified-green business producing high-end, heirloom quality furniture that’s Amish-made and immaculately designed using sustainable and solid customizable hardwood.

Ernest Hershberger founds Abner Henry, Homestead’s sister company, to serve high-end clientele within the luxury designer market.

Homestead Furniture is completely renovated and begins representing additional luxury brands in the upholstery and outdoor categories.

Homestead launches its custom designer program and brands itself as the Homestead Furniture and Design Center.

“They listed all of these things and said they’d done a global search, and we always stayed on their radar.”

After nearly three years in the making, the AH x The Met Collection, featuring stunning designs inspired from world-renowned historical paintings, is on display in the Abner Henry Showroom at Homestead Furniture & Design Center in Mt. Hope, Ohio. Reflecting a perfect biblical number, the seven pieces tap into the spiritual minds of the artists who created the works they reflect.

“The Met came to us with a clean sheet of paper and said they wanted to give us complete access to the entire museum and warehouse and whatever we needed,” says Hershberger, adding that this larger-thanlife endeavor would not have been possible without the tremendously creative and innovative efforts of an array of artisans.

“I’m still in awe that The Met gave us full flexibility of putting that together.”

The result is a remarkable limited-edition collection that exemplifies the very spirit of

the Abner Henry brand — a perfect blend of art and design rooted in the past and pioneered by the possibilities of the future.

Hershberger's greatest piece of advice is to be a good steward of the talents God has given you. “Keep the same level of passion for every aspect of work you do. Then, go home to your family and live with that same kind of intensity, compassion and passion,” he says. “I think we should live every day to the fullest, and if you do that, honestly, you will achieve way more than you ever dreamed or anticipated.”

Abner Henry attracts the interest of The Metropolitan Museum of Art for a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration and begins to design and engineer the collection.

Homestead launches its HF Trade Program to give designers access to all that Homestead Furniture and Design Center has to offer.

Abner Henry launches the limitededition collection in collaboration with The Met, exemplifying the perfect blend of art and design.

INSPIRED

by the Ages

Three years ago, Ernest Hershberger and a team of talented Abner Henry craftspeople traveled to New York, scouring The Metropolitan Museum of Art in search of the perfect inspirations for the creation of a once-in-a-lifetime collection. After months of considering thousands of artifacts, they settled on seven masterpieces and went to work imagining the creations that would represent the powerful messages of some of the most globally recognizable paintings in existence.

The limited-edition collection, of which only 70 reproductions of each design are available, reveals the stories of everlasting spiritual journeys.

“There’s some really unique stuff that was done from an artistic standpoint in most of these pieces,” Hershberger, founder of Abner Henry, says. “There was a lot of trial and error to come up with the final designs because we were doing things that, to our knowledge, had never been done before.”

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YOU WILL NEVER GET DONE POLISHING BRASS, AND WE'LL NEVER GET DONE REFINING OURSELVES.

One such example is the 24-karat gold dust infused into the wood grain gilded legs of the Duet Nesting Tables, which was inspired by The Monet Family in Their Garden at Argenteuil, painted by Edouard Manet.

Another is the Vetana Standing Mirror, created to reflect the importance of Juan de Pareja, painted in 1650 by Diego Velázquez. The solid brass polished mirror, which stands 70 inches high and 24 inches wide, is (as far as Hershberger knows) the only design of its kind in existence, requiring collaboration with metal specialists to polish the mirror’s brass face to a reflective shine.

Complete with a solid mahogany frame, the piece represents the story of an artist who was painting his enslaved apprentice, Juan de Pareja. It’s been said that through the process of painting, Velázquez saw Pareja as an equal and released him, allowing Pareja the freedom to become a famous painter himself.

As to the highly polished nature of the mirror: “The more you polish brass, the more reflective it gets,” explains Hershberger. “You will never get done polishing brass, and we’ll never get done refining ourselves,” he says, adding that revolution is exactly the battle that everyone on Earth faces and is the reason it’s his favorite piece in the collection. “This piece represents self-reflection, peering into your own heart to see if you like what’s looking back at you.”

HFTRADE A DESIGNER’S BEST FRIEND

For a designer, nothing is more frustrating than having to compromise your client’s vision. You need to feel confident knowing you have a resource that believes in limitless possibilities. HF Trade, Homestead’s designer-friendly trade program, does just that by giving you exclusive access to all that our furniture and design center has to offer, including complementary trade pricing; white glove delivery; custom designs and sizing at your fingertips; individual attention and service; free samples of fabrics, wood and metal finishes; and full access to our 35,000-square-foot showroom.

HF Trade also gives you the opportunity to work with other prestigious furniture brands that we stand behind as much as we do our own pieces. Among these are American Leather, Lancer Inc., Norwalk Furniture, La-Z-Boy, Jensen Outdoor, Woodward, Lloyd Flanders, Jaipur Living, Uttermost, Noir, Stearns & Foster, Beautyrest, Tempur-pedic, Iconic Pineapple and Abner Henry.

HF Trade takes care of the logistics, allowing you to give your client your full attention and focus solely on designing the space of their dreams. Contact us today to get to know your HF Trade representatives and learn more about what the program has to offer.

WHAT TO EXPECT

When you or your designer book an appointment at Homestead, trust that you will be in good hands from start to finish. Whether inspiration strikes as you browse the showroom or you’re ready with a sketch, photo or description — all you need to get started is an idea. From single pieces to furnishing full rooms, every project gets the same tender care and attention to detail. At your appointment, your consultant will create a visual proposal that will bring your visions to life with sketches, dimensions and other details, and together you’ll nail down the look of each piece. Once you’re satisfied, the design will be shared with Homestead’s master craftsmen, who fashion your dream into a reality. Finally, when your new furniture is completed, we’ll white glove deliver each piece to its new place in your home — from dreams to done.