After years of woodworking training in Seattle, Joe Ferrara built a high-end furniture business that’s deeply rooted in a sense of place, an ode to his lifelong home — the North Shore of Long Island.
Ferrara openedSound Designsin Glen Cove five years ago as a part-time passion project, where he rescued fallen trees across the Gold Coast and turned them into tables, cabinets, and charcuterie boards. In 2023, Ferrara quit his job in healthcare sales and turned his full attention to the business.
Ferrara said he had been interested in high-end furniture since he was a kid. His uncle owned a furniture business, and his grandparents’ house was full of his pieces.
“There were all these redwood coffee tables and side tables, and I was always fascinated by them,” he said.
Ferrara would go on to study woodworking and welding at the Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle, but he did not turn his passion into a profession until he was inspired by a particularly severe storm that toppled many large trees in his neighborhood.
“I just started contacting the local parks and nature preserves,” the owner recounted. He asked them if he could take some of the trees for woodworking projects, and they agreed.
“[The trees] are essentially a waste product, but it’s a really valuable waste product,” he said.
Now, Ferrara always has his eyes out for fallen trees as he drives through Long Island.
Once he has his logs, Ferrara air-dries them for an average of one to two years and up to five years for thicker logs. Then he puts the log in a kiln to dry it further and kill any bugs or mold inside. From there, he can start his project.
Ferrara works with a range of locally sourced American hardwoods, but he has increasingly been using ash trees for sustainable reasons that are core to the business’s founding. The spread of the invasive emerald ash borer beetle has led to mass felling, but the wood can still serve a purpose.
Source: LI Press
