Our Work
Our furniture is handcrafted from solid American hardwoods, including walnut, cherry, white oak, quarter-sawn white oak, curly maple and ambrosia maple. To give our pieces more dimension and contrast, we like to mix different combinations of hardwoods. Our bed frames are made to be easily assembled with interlocking hardware. Our tables are made with removable legs for ease of shipping. All of our furniture is finely sanded and finished simply in linseed oil, to reveal the natural color and beauty of the wood grain. When you buy our pieces, you can rest assured that you're not bringing questionable wood or dangerous chemicals into your home, because our wood is solid, new, furniture grade lumber, our glue is low-VOC and our finish options are 0% VOC. We build a lot of furniture for chemically sensitive people, often beds for people buying organic mattresses. With everything we build, we think about safety, usability, functionality and durability of our pieces for generations of use.

Our Story
Established in 2014, Mountain Mule Hardwoods is a collaboration between Megan Pinch and Nelson Adolphson. With over 25 years of finish carpentry experience, Nelson personally creates each piece of heirloom-quality hardwood furniture. As a former art and photography professor, Megan runs the business and does all of the design, marketing, social media, business, web design and photography. We also have a talented shop team to assist with some carpentry, finishing and sanding.

Our Name
Located in the mountains of Limestone, Tennessee, our shop overlooks acres of woods and our mule barn and arena. Why mules, you ask? We love our surefooted gaited mules for trail-riding in mountainous terrain. Mules are a hybrid cross between a horse and a donkey and have the best qualities of both animals. Tough and intelligent, mules are known for being full of personality and extremely loyal once their trust is earned. We identify with them personally, and build our furniture to be strong and durable, with the unique characteristics of the natural hardwoods shining through the simple finish.

The Carpenter
Originally from central Pennsylvania, Nelson Adolphson made a living as a finish carpenter for over 25 years. He has trimmed the interior of many prestigious golf clubs and high-end homes around Virginia and Tennessee. His first piece of furniture was a hutch he made in high school, which his father still uses. Nelson enjoys turning a rough-sawn stack of lumber into a beautiful and functional piece of furniture, and hopes that people will treat his pieces as heirlooms to be passed down from generation to generation.

The Artist
Megan Pinch grew up in Rochester, NY and holds an MFA in Visual Studies from SUNY Brockport, and a BA in Russian and Art from College of the Holy Cross. Megan moved all over the country for her 13-year long career as a college photography professor. This ended in 2014 when the college where she was poised to become department chair and receive tenure abruptly shut down. Seeing that she could use her skills to help Nelson realize his dream of building fine furniture, she started Mountain Mule Hardwoods. She enjoys working with people to design custom pieces, selecting just the right lumber for each project, and making her own schedule!