ABOUT US
It started as a daydream on a sunny afternoon—a San Franciscan driveway, some borrowed tools, and black milk crates used as our first work bench.
We design furniture to live and grow with you. Each piece is crafted to be more than just functional—it's a companion to your daily rhythms, a quiet witness to life's moments.
The studio's roots run deep. Founder Adam Alspaugh’s curiosity of woodworking began when visiting his great-grandpa Sam’s workshop, which was filled with carefully crafted musical instruments and pieces of wood turned on a lathe.
Our aesthetic is minimal yet intentional: clean lines, considered curves, interesting joinery, and forms that speak through simplicity. As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once noted, perfection isn't about adding, but about distilling down until nothing else can be removed
Black Crate specializes in the design and fabrication pieces that have found homes around the globe—each a thoughtful statement of craft and purpose.
our design philosophy
Great-grandpa Sam, working on his lathe.
Our approach to design is rooted in a simple belief: objects should serve a purpose beyond mere function. We create furniture that grows more beautiful with time—pieces that are quiet, purposeful, and deeply considered.
Utility is our starting point. Every design begins with a fundamental question: How can this object improve daily life? We're not particularly interested in decorative excess or fleeting trends. Instead, we seek the unexpected within the classic—finding moments of surprise within clean, substantial forms.
In a growing world of machine made products, we're drawn to objects that reveal their craft, that show the marks of human hands and the subtle signs of use.
Hand-crafted means something real to us. Each piece is an intimate collaboration between material, maker, and user. Wood is our primary language—a material that doesn't just endure, but truly lives. Wooden furniture doesn't just age; it develops a unique beauty, collecting stories and softening with grace.
Minimal doesn't need to mean sparse. It means every line, every curve is intentional. We believe in effortless beauty—designs that feel inevitable, as if they've always existed. Our goal is to create objects that become quiet companions to your life, almost imperceptibly improving your daily experience.