Ora.House is a new design collective and furniture brand based in Louisville. Co-founded by interior designer Natalie Officer and master furniture maker Daniel Chaffin, Ora.House has a cultural mission: to reframe Southern design as a space for contemporary expression, collaboration, and conceptual craft. Officer, Chaffin, and their collaborators will challenge the primitive design and rustic aesthetic often associated with the Kentucky region.
Officer relocated from Chicago in 2011. Her years of experience in the fashion industry pivoted to interior design in 2006, and she has operated Natalie O Design for almost 15 years. “Louisville has been a really kind market for me, and we have grown a really lovely firm here in the Germantown area.”
Chaffin is a Louisville native who began making furniture in 2000. In 2005, he started Daniel Chaffin Furniture Makers with his wife, Amy and their business partner, Matthew Frederick. “The aim of that company was to build heirloom-quality furniture of our own design,” he said. As a reaction to the Great Recession, the company began to do interior work, remodeling projects that required built-in cabinetry and similar projects. In the process, “we got the good fortune of being able to hire and train several people who turned out to be excellent craftspeople.”
During this period, Chaffin met Officer while working on a project together that was “very exciting to both of us,” Chaffin said. “We really liked the idea of being able to build furniture that we could offer to a wider audience and collaborate on the design work there. So we maneuvered a way to do that.” That collaboration became Ora.House. The first collaborative collection will debut in the autumn of 2025.
The design studio is housed at 701 E. Kentucky St., at the approximate intersection the Germantown, Shelby Park, and Smoketown neighborhoods. The fabrication shop is in a different location. “We are in the process of blending those two things,” Officer said.
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How the past informs the future
When Chaffin started making furniture, his interests were in arts and crafts-style furniture and Japanese joinery, “the sort of thing that seems to be a magnet for woodworkers,” he said. “The intricacy of the joinery in both of those styles has a pull all of its own.” And as he developed his skill, he realized that mid-century modern furniture is informed by both of those styles, taking them to different places. “That became the happy place for me in terms of the stylistic decisions I was making in design.”
“We stayed in that stylistic space for a good long while, and I still absolutely love it, but we’re really trying to push forward from there in terms of our design offerings for Ora.House,” Chaffin said of the direction the brand is going in now. “You’ll see some of that mid-century inspiration. You’ll see some of that Japanese-style joinery, but in a whole new way and incorporating some new processes that are pretty current.”
“We are hoping to showcase the work of our region in a way that puts us in a spotlight, in a visible position across the country and internationally,” Officer said. The craft of the Kentucky area—where the Midwest meets the South—is consistent, and the resultant style becomes a calling card for the region. “We love that! But we would like to be able to use the clean, defined, modern lines of our work to showcase these additional skill sets and make something enjoyable across a more contemporary design that other groups of people are drawn to.”
For Ora.House, an appreciation of regional history informs the desire to maintain some of the techniques from the past, yet joins them to forward-looking contemporary designs. Officer and Chaffin create pieces that are unique to the region but will also appeal to the aesthetic sensibilities of buyers from other places.
Sustainable wood from regional forests
Ora.House is committed to sourcing materials in an ecologically ethical way. “It has always been a goal of mine to use regional hardwoods that we can track the source of,” Chaffin said. “If we don’t know where it came from or how those forests are being managed, that’s not a material that we want to work with.”
When wood is sourced outside of the region or outside of the country, it is increasingly difficult to track their sources and the management of the forests where those woods originated. “We have trusted vendors for those woods so that we can know for sure that those forests are being managed in a way that is sustainable,” Daniel said.
Beyond the source of materials, another ethical consideration in furniture design is how materials can be recycled or discarded. “We want that piece to last as long as it possibly can in someone’s home,” Chaffin said. “If it ever does wear out, we want that material to be able to go back to the earth in a way that is sensitive to the environment. So that affects everything from the finishes that we choose—which are also non-toxic—to the wood itself, of course.”
Ora.House reflects its geographical area through the choices of wood used in its designs. “Ambrosia maple, ash, and beech are all regional woods, and the ones that people could consider to be our homage to our region,” Officer said. “And the materiality we’ve selected gives that traditional flavor in a new way.”
Ambrosia maple is not a species of tree, but rather, any soft maple that has a fungal discoloration caused by wood-boring ambrosia beetles. In addition to these maples, Chaffin said American beech is “a lovely wood that’s kind of underused right now. So we’re bringing it back.”
In the studio, Officer and Chaffin avoid environmentally abrasive solvents that can seep into the water table. “We try to keep all of that stuff out of our shop for our health too. That’s one of those things that impacts the health of the people that work here. And it’s just scary to me,” Chaffin said. “It has been a difficult journey trying to do that. There are upsides to using dangerous solvents. But no, thanks.”
The art of textile selection
“We’re also using mohair, which is derived from wool. We’re using leather. We’re using fabric that is essentially cotton and just a little bit of polyester,” Officer said. “The materials we’ve selected are very intentional. The use of these fabrics can be residential or commercial, but they really should not be wearing out anytime in the near future.”
The way the artistry of Ora.House is informed by environmental stewardship reflects the thoughtfulness of their designs. “How long can this piece of furniture actually last given a reasonable use case? The answer for us is very long—generational—timescales,” Chaffin said.
“We didn’t want to make pieces that are so precious that it limits the life of the product,” Officer said. The textile components of Ora.House pieces are mostly handcrafted by her, and Daniel is the magician that makes the wood pieces. And the designs really work. That’s the collaboration. That’s where we meet.”
Officer manages the selection criteria for Ora.House textiles. “The textile side of our design is living art,” she said. “We have thousands of options within our studio.” She often returns to the New York-based fabric product manufacturer Maharam because they create textile products that are durable, and they also educate their customers. “I hope to follow suit in selecting elements that have longevity. So if we select a mohair, but we want to do it in two colorways, and next year, we want to change our entire color story … It’s kind of like having a box of crayons that you can select from.”
Wearability of fabrics is at the top of Officer’s list of criteria. “The upholstery is the thing that molds or weathers or stains and can shorten the life of furniture. I really didn’t want to select anything that put us at risk of doing that,” she said. “And I love color. So we’ve used a lot of color.”
“I think that’s who [Ora.House] is for: someone who enjoys wonder and imagination, because each of these pieces can evolve and become something new over the lifetime of the product,” Officer said.
“Adding these upholstered elements and the vibrancy of color that they allow was frankly, slightly terrifying for me,” Chaffin said with a laugh. “Seeing it all come together is eye-opening and wonderful. Now I’m hooked.”
Expanding regionality
Ora.House set a near-future goal to engage three new artisans every six months, “so we’re not just hoarding this concept and all of the energy we’ve poured into it,” Officer said. “We would like to be evolving our collection every six months.”
In the autumn, Ora.House will begin to work with tile artists, glassblowers, and other makers. “We will add nuances to our collection from our region,” Officer said. “And that region could be as far west as Saint Louis and as far east as Cincinnati, certainly down to Nashville and beyond. We want to focus on this region of truly talented people and give them a spot in this collection as a collaborative part of what we’re trying to grow.”
Contact Natalie O Design to view the collection in person by appointment at any time. Visit the Ora.House website for detailed views of the collection and purchase options.
This article appears in Jun 6-19, 2025.