Bench Dog Woodworking / Carlos Taylor-Swanson

Salt Lake City, UT

"#creatingartforliving - each piece we create is designed and crafted to exceed our client's expectations."

Coming from a family of educators, artists, and amateur woodworkers, our founder, Carlos Taylor-Swanson has a professional woodworking background that stretches back over 40 years to a Chicago area picture framing shop and follows a circuitous route through the art world, rough and finish carpentry and luxury yacht interiors. Yet the influences and inspirations stretch back even further. Taylor-Swanson has always been a maker. He recalls as a 12-year-old, building a clubhouse in his parents’ back yard that grew big enough to attract the attention of the city’s planning department. The unfortunate result became his first lesson in “best practices” for building and design.

Without a doubt, the most valuable lessons and experiences critical to Taylor-Swanson’s early professional woodworking career came during the 10 years he spent building yacht interiors. The first two years were spent in an Anacortes, WA boatyard where yachts up to 82’ yachts were fabricated from start to finish. Later he moved to Tacoma, WA to hone his craft with a company that built luxury yacht interiors for vessels up to 280’. It was during this decade that Taylor-Swanson found himself surrounded with nothing but the highest expectations for quality and craftsmanship. The values that prevailed throughout this period – strict attention to all details without compromise – eventually became the foundation of Madera’s business ethos.

In 2006 Taylor-Swanson finally gave in to his inner urges to run his own show. He had seen a gap in what was available to the region in terms of custom woodworking. Cabinet shops abounded and name brand furniture stores brought in mass-produced furniture lines, but there appeared to be a lack of professionally minded artisans ready to take on custom, design-build furniture projects. This was exactly the niche Taylor-Swanson was compelled to fill and Madera was born.

Today Madera Furniture Company is known throughout the region as a consistent source of superior crafted woodworking. Taylor-Swanson and his talented team are able and willing to take on any custom project from single stand-alone furniture pieces to complete interior packages. It’s their integrity and commitment to quality craftsmanship that guarantees their clients exceptional, long-lasting value.

Taylor-Swanson recently sold Madera and though still involved with design and engineering, he has shifted his focus to crafting unique, hand-made furniture pieces.