1 of 3
Bohnhoff giving a steambending demonstration at Collegiate School (Photo courtesy Collegiate School)
2 of 3
The Art Fields Award-winning “Draketail” chair, cypress, oak and colored canvas, 32 by 24 by 30 inches (Photo by Robert Hambrick)
3 of 3
"Rassawek" steambent side table, 2015, ash, cherry, walnut, and copper rivets (Photo by Robert Hambrick)
Name: David Bohnhoff
What he makes: Custom furniture
Fun fact: Bohnhoff started out building boats, after attending the Landing School of Boat Building and Design.
Original inspiration: Growing up in coastal Tidewater, with parents who renovated houses and built things (like a canoe) for fun, David Bohnhoff developed a love of boats and a passion for handicraft. He left public school for Quaker school ceramics during his “rebellious” teenage years and, later, moved to Maine for a boat-building program. “My parents wanted me to be a professional, an architect or something of that nature, but making things with my hands is a skill no one can ever take from me,” he says. Bohnhoff redeemed himself with mom and dad when he transferred to the furniture program at VCU Arts.
Noteworthy piece: “Draketail,” a chair Bohnhoff crafted for a Virginia Tech exhibit, mimics the sleek hull of the Hooper Island Draketail, the first boat Bohnhoff ever worked on building. It won best piece from Virginia in 2019 at Art Fields, a competition celebrating artists from the Southeast.
Happy clients: “Much of my work has a story behind it because of the uniqueness of each piece,” Bohnhoff says. Recent commissions include a desk built to sit atop a 19th-century steamer trunk brought from Ireland by the client’s ancestors, and a cabinet featuring octagons, a reference to the client’s love of Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest and its octagonal villa.
Where you can find his work: In addition to custom creations in private homes, Bohnhoff’s pieces are on display at the Virginia Department of Forestry in Charlottesville and SUNY Brockport, New York, where his horseshoe-shaped bench pays tribute to the horses and mules that helped build early American towns.
