Michael Cullen

Michael Cullen builds custom furniture in a one-man shop in Petaluma, California, 40 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Cullen grew up in California and studied engineering and sculpture there in the early 1980s. Shortly after landing his first job as an engineer, he quit to follow an urge to work with his hands. He moved to Massachusetts and studied traditional European craftsmanship under English furniture maker David Powell at Leeds Design Workshops.Cullen's range as a designer is extremely broad. His work ranges from exquisitely detailed and elegantly veneered formal furniture to monolithic pieces hewn from giant hunks of wood. In between are many pieces patterned with distinctive surface carvings and colored with milk paint. Cullen also builds what he calls fantasy pieces, which can range from whimsical furniture to pure sculpture. Whichever mode he happens to be working in, Cullen produces pieces displaying sound proportions, intriguing textures, and superb craftsmanship.