Iconic Furniture Brand Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams Celebrates Its 30th Anniversary
In 1989, Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams founded their eponymous furniture firm in Taylorsville, North Carolina, with the vision of delivering livable, contemporary style with a lead time that was a fraction of the industry norm—a few weeks instead of a few months. The pair rapidly grew their boutique operation into one of the most respected home-furnishings manufacturers in the country, producing everything from sofas to tables to lighting. Along the way, Gold and Williams championed sustainability long before it was in vogue and pushed to demolish dated ideas about families with attention-grabbing ads featuring same-sex parents and an openly gay former high-school football player.
Today, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams continues to set the bar for everyday American style. ELLE Decor recently caught up with the founders for an inside look at their typical day.
Williams rises at 5 a.m. “I go to the gym first, then come home and get ready for work,” he says, just as sunlight begins filtering into the 1947 house in Hickory, North Carolina, he shares with his husband, Stephen Heavner. Breakfast is an opportunity to admire one of his prized possessions: a restored 1936 eight-burner, three-oven Magic Chef range. “I found it in this little-bitty antique appliance shop in Georgia, and it took a year to restore,” he says.
For Gold, daybreak means it’s time for omelets with his husband, Tim Gold, at their house in Conover, North Carolina. “It usually involves a lot of leftovers, but my specialty is the hamburger omelet,” he says. “One night, Tim ate half of his burger and said he wanted the rest for breakfast. It was on the bun, with tomato, cheese, onions. I jokingly chopped that up, dipped it in egg batter, and made him an omelet—and it was incredible.”
By 8:30, Gold climbs into his 1986 Jeep Honcho for the 20-minute drive to the company’s 1 million–square-foot Taylorsville factory. “We put a Vortec 6.0 engine in the Honcho—it’s like a souped-up Corvette engine—so it’s not just cool-looking, it’s also superfast and sounds badass,” Gold says. “Living in a rural area, I think I gained a lot of credibility. Bob has truck envy.”
At the factory, Gold handles pressing business issues, including financing and production, while Williams and his design team aim to divine future home trends. “We’re constantly evolving and trying to stay ahead,” Williams says. “We’re doing more modern styles than we did in the past, like the Poppy,” a swivel chair with a cylindrical form that already has a place in his own living room.
Then, the partners turn their attention to their 1,000 employees. “We’re out in the middle of nowhere, so we put in a day care for our employees’ children, called Lulu’s Child Enrichment Center,” Williams says. “On graduation day, it’s fun to see the kids in their caps and gowns.”
There are also meals prepared by the company chef, Sean Robinson. “His team makes a healthy breakfast and lunch at the factory every day,” Gold says. (A typical entrée: grilled grouper with a puree of cauliflower and butternut squash.) When Gold hosts a meeting at home, Robinson prepares a Cobb salad with grilled salmon.
When their workday wraps up around 6 p.m., Gold and Williams motor home to frolic with their dogs, which have been a central part of their lives—and brand—since day one. “Tim and I love taking care of dogs,” Gold says. “In addition to our Doberman, Zola, and our Lab mix, Elsie, we train dogs from the Humane Society. Tim turned the space above our garage into what we call the Puppy Palace. We get them into good health and find them homes. For some dogs, it’s lifesaving.”
For Williams, there are few things more enjoyable than pouring a glass of wine and relaxing with his husband and pups. “We live in a big house, but we have a really nice den, painted a dark chocolate, that feels more intimate,” he says. “It has a built-in bookcase filled with things we’ve collected over the years. We just chill and play with Violet and Petey.”
Petey, he adds, was one of the Golds’ rescue dogs: “He’s as sweet as can be, and he licks us to death every night.” mgbwhome.com
Produced By Parker Bowie Larson
This story originally appeared in the October 2019 issue of ELLE Decor. SUBSCRIBE
You Might Also Like
