About the Owner

I can remember sitting at my Father’s work bench as a small boy while he was working in his shop asking question after question. To keep me quiet and occupied, Dad gave me some old dentist’s picks and a bar of soap and told me to carve something. I don’t recall what I carved or what a carving done by a four-year old would look like, but I do remember enjoying the process.

After high school, I enrolled in college and majored in Eastern Religious Studies. While I enjoyed university, I realized that my decision to study religion was likely to keep me cooped up in a library or classroom for a large portion of my adult life. I really missed creating and doing things with my hands. I remembered the times in my Father’s shop and how much I enjoyed that environment. It was then that I decided what to do. I quit school.

My father and I spent the next two to three months visiting furniture apprenticeships along the east coast. I settled on one that was closer to home in Virginia. I enrolled and in June of 1999 successfully completed an apprenticeship at M.T. Maxwell Furniture Company in Bedford VA.

I moved back to Richmond in 1999, and began working in construction to supplement what was a pretty meager salary as a furniture craftsman.  Over the next six years, I worked with a high-end home contractor, doing everything from fixing wood rot, to custom cabinets, to small additions.  During this time, I was able to hone my skills and learn new ones, all the while staying true to the attention to detail developed as a furniture craftsman.

After six years in the business working for someone else, in 2005 I decided to go out on my own.  Thus, The Living Wood Workshop was born.

Matt Hirsch, Owner
THe Living Wood Workshop

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