Life & Style MAKER
By Abbie Lahmers
Organic Appeal
It can start with a windfallen tree or a barn door, maybe a magazine clipping of a vintage mid-century modern coffee table you can’t find at a store, or simply a room in need of a standout piece of furniture to pull it together. No matter the nature of your inspiration, Portsmouth-based designer and craftsman Jeff Soderbergh says, “we’re the design house that can produce it.” Reclaiming found materials and honing non-toxic furniture finishing techniques dating back to the 1800s, Soderbergh and his team of passionate designers have built a uniquely sustainable practice that’s earned him national recognition in the likes of Esquire magazine, New England Home, Architectural Digest, and more. Since getting his start 30 years ago, selftaught Soderbergh has been challenging the notion that sustainable can’t also mean luxury. Before he was a designer, Soderbergh recalls, “I was traveling quite a bit and seeing all of these buildings being demolished and all of the cool interesting elements ending up in dumpsters. These are beautiful shapes – if we take them completely out of context, cut them up and put them back together in a different way, we can make more beautiful things and give them a second life.” From there, the creative wheels started turning and through sheer will and countless hours spent in the library, Soderbergh dove into furniture making. Describing a round 12-foot dining table project – from the process of sketching it out by hand to the different curves of each leg and the four-inch center tapering into a quarter inch on the edges – Soderbergh’s reverence for the craft is palpable. He’s reluctant – unable, even – to choose a favorite style. “I love the most simple furniture to the most delicate and modern pieces. I just love design and I think there’s a right fit for every project. We don’t pigeon hole ourselves,” he shares. “Sometimes you want a very archaic, antique-looking piece, and that has a certain surface to it, and then another time you want something very clean and very contemporary, and that can’t look like a barn.” Soderbergh relocated to his current
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The Bay • June 2022
A collaboration with Hutker Architects, this patio table was inspired by an antique Parisian table and made with reclaimed late 1800s redwood from a New Hampshire navy yard
Photos by Eric Levin (R) and Nat Rea (L), courtesy of Jeff Soderbergh
Jeff Soderbergh and his full-service furniture design and build company in Island Park have a mission of sustainable excellence
