our roots

Although Charles Black officially started C. E. Black Custom Furniture in 2018, he has been making furniture for family and friends for decades and, really, preparing to start a company that produced quality wooden furniture throughout his life.

The fascination with wood - the smell, the feel, the ability to produce such beautiful materials from it - has been present in Charles since childhood, when he discovered that he could create things from it that were both useful and pleasing. Because his father was a carpenter, he was able to acquire woodworking skills from his teaching at an early age. Over the years, these skills have been perfected through countless hours of study and crafting various pieces of furniture for gifts or commissions from family, friends and acquaintances.

Charles works solely with solid wood and high quality fittings, not veneers, particle board or MDF. Time-tested joinery methods (like hand-cut dovetails and mortise and tennons) are used to produce quality pieces one at a time, paying the utmost attention to detail. Pieces crafted by CE Black Custom Furniture are not mass produced or even considered economical or expedient. But the end result of a carefully crafted piece of furniture is something truly special that will withstand the test of time.

There is great personal satisfaction from creating high-end furniture from wood for Charles. Not only is it useful and functional, but it has beauty, grace and character. Each piece develops personality and soul over time and will be something for future generations to cherish.

You can find Charles in his shop (a traditional two-story barn that he built, of course) in North Alabama that’s a stone’s throw away from the Tennessee River, speakers (that he also built… just for fun) playing Allman Brothers or The Black Keys, working to meticulously craft the pieces of furniture he has been commissioned to make.