Into The Woods
Clean-lined and handcrafted, Doug McCollough’s furniture heralds a warming trend in modern design.
Doug Mccollough, a former schoolteacher, may have gone into furniture design on a whim—“A friend told me about a woodworking center in Maine, and it sounded like fun”—but it clearly was a smart decision. Since launching his New York–based studio, DM/DM, in 2008, McCollough, 28, has been garnering buzz for his quietly elegant pieces that blend the honest craftsmanship of Sam Maloof with the understatement of midcentury Danish design. “I like modernist furniture, but it often lacks a kind of warmth and character,” says McCollough, who custom-makes each piece by hand. “My work isn’t meant to remain pristine. It’s meant to take on a patina.” His clients include artists and interior designers, but one of his best, not surprisingly, is his brother Jack McCollough of Proenza Schouler; he created a rustic wood bed for Jack’s country house and industrial-looking mahogany tables, benches, and black lacquer cubes for the Proenza showroom. “Doug has impeccable taste,” says Jack, who recalls the elaborate drawings his brother used to make as a child. “And what I have noticed in his work—which is a quality I like to think we share—is his intense, almost OCD-like attention to detail” (917.776.7874, dmdm.us).
McCollough: Gillian Laub; furniture: courtesy of Doug McCollough
