I am so excited to announce that July’s Business Spotlight is shining bright on Kennesaw Mountain Chair Company. It is an honor to recognize a Veteran Owned Business.
As a passionate woodworker nearly all of his life, Michael Lipper has always had a desire to build better furniture than what can be purchased, so it was a natural fit for him to combine his passions and launch Kennesaw Mountain Chair Company.
Kennesaw Mountain Chair Company strives to make the best heirloom quality furniture you can buy. This is what Michael loves to do – build handmade furniture that can be handed down as family heirlooms for generations to come. He believes more than anything, furniture has to be functional and comfortable, and easy to use. Michael builds Windsor chairs the same way they were in the 1780’s – with a draw knife, spokeshave and steamed wood bent by hand. He builds 5 different styles of Adirondack chairs that focus on style and comfort.
Michael also designs and builds cutting boards, serving trays and charcuterie boards.
Michael’s parents gave him a hand saw for his 11th birthday and he still has a small red block plane from Sears that he got for Christmas that year. His sister still displays the first piece of furniture he built – a small display shelf with two small drawers made from pine boards. This was a monumental task for a 14-year-old with a shop that consisted of an old Craftsman table saw, a small block plane, a belt sander, and a router.
Michael’s college advisor taught him that “Hand tools do not have power cords on one end, they have hand grips”. He taught him how to sharpen hand planes and make them cut paper thin, transparent wood shavings that were the length of the board. So, began his love affair with true craftsmanship and woodworking.
He was an Industrial Arts Teacher after college, but as the world changed, he converted from ‘Shop class’ to teaching Technology. He gave up a shop full of woodworking machines for a lab full of computers. But still loved the hand skills of building individual crafted furniture. With a small bench, a vice, a few draw knives and some tools from garage sales, Michael began a quest to build Windsor and Adirondack style chairs. With a lot of sweat and creativity, lots of trial and error, logs and boards began to turn into beautiful furniture that he is very proud of.
For years, he has been tinkering around in his shop, making chairs and other furniture for family and friends. LTC Lipper retired from the GA National Guard in 2019 and shifted from hobbyist to fulltime Chairmaker. It has been a lifelong dream to start his own business. So he and his wife decided to launch Kennesaw Mountain Chair Company, building one-of-a-kind, hand crafted heirloom furniture. Since shifting from a hobby to an actual business, He is currently on chair #115 and cutting board #176. He says “Life couldn’t get any better!”
Michael believes the best part of furniture design and building, is when getting the chance to take a tree from a client’s yard, slab it into boards, dry it in his kiln, then turn it into furniture for the original owner. He believes seeing the tree transition from a large log into an actual product, and seeing the processes and individual steps of the production in between, is pretty amazing and very satisfying.
The below is a charcuterie board that we purchased as a wedding gift for a client! Michael is truly talented and our clients were thrilled with their personalized gift.
Kennesaw Mountain Chair Company’s designs are perfect for wedding, housewarming, birthday and client gifts.
Be sure to check out his website to view all his amazing creations!
Website: www.kmtnchairco.com
Contact Information:
Email: kmtnchairco@gmail.com
Phone: 478-508-7663
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