We had the good fortune of connecting with Mariah Wren and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mariah, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I started Wren & Cooper when I was 25. After working at a production cabinet shop for a year post-art school, I realized I did not want to spend my career building someone else’s designs, and I probably was not going to find the perfect job designing and building furniture and objects unless I created the position for myself. I knew it was going to take decades to build the business and career I wanted, but for me this is a long term pursuit, a lifetime goal. What I do every day for work now is what I would do even if I never made another nickel doing it. This work, making furniture, lighting, and art objects is the love of my life. I’m never so happy as when I am building something new in my woodshop.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I think maybe the hardest part of our business has been finding my own personal design voice. Developing pieces that are distinctive, beautiful and extremely well made is a really tough nut to crack. I feel like I really only started to get where I want to be aesthetically about eight years ago, once I was in my thirties and took some time to really think critically about why I was making things at all. The incorporation of other materials into my work besides wood, like leather, metal and upholstery helped me expand my imagination and kept me excited about making new pieces. Every piece I make now is special to me, and has some element of tedious hand work included in it, but I think this hand work quality is visible in the end product and adds to the overall feel of the things we make.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My husband and partner, Mark Cooper. We built our business together and I could not have done any of it without him. He is not afraid of anything and has always had 100% confidence in me and my work.

Website: wrenandcooper.com

Instagram: wrenandcooper

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