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Our Story

Our History

Our Story

Our History

1967

Our first foray into building things. Ignoring familiar toys, we use wood, hammer, and nails in the front yard at “the old house” on Spotswood. Although rudimentary and a bit crude, we are hooked on working with our hands.

1968

Our parents stop at each and every antique store and plant nursery between home and the beach. On the car ride home, we straddle plants and the mahogany table that still stands in the kitchen of our childhood home.

1972

The April cover of Lynchburg Magazine features a photograph of us tending our parents' garden, open during Historic Virginia Garden Week.

1983

We spend the summer as truck farmers at Lone Jack, our family farm. Raising 2 1/2 acres of Silver Queen corn and 350 tomato plants, weathering drought and battling aphids, we find getting our hands dirty very appealing.

1985

A tour of the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, Scotland marks our 100th family visit to the plant nursery and garden. Our parents had a knack for finding any and all within a 50 mile radius.

1991

We found McKinnon and Harris to create our enduring outdoor furniture in opposition to the disposable mentality of most garden furniture. We base our first designs — Gothic, Keswick, and Chinoiserie, on traditional English garden furniture.

1992

Our mother receives the highly vaunted Gold Medal from the American Watercolor Society, and paints the second cover for the McKinnon and Harris Style Book.

1993

Our parents, both English majors in college, begin their long unpaid careers as official editors of all written corporate communications.

1994

Three years into McKinnon and Harris, we have analyzed and conducted a sit test in every single piece of family furniture. This constitutes our unofficial degree in ergonomics.

1996

We join DelGreco & Company on 59th Street in NYC. It is a visionary showroom recognizing the importance of furnishing an outdoor space as an extension of the home.

1999

Our Empire Arm Chair wins the Beatrix Farrand Award for Design Excellence from House & Garden magazine.

2000

We are granted a patent on the Beaufort Collection (shown), named after our beloved childhood dog.

2001

An especially graceful foot that we’ve long admired on a family Piedmont Virginia walnut desk has its moment of glory when we incorporate it into the design of our Ardlussa Palm Box.

2002

Symbolic of our enduring furniture, we adopt a Latin slogan Sublimis, Virtus, Sempiterna — Permanence, Beauty, the Eternal — inspired by our mother, who minored in Greek and Latin in college.

2003

We move our workshop to Scott’s Addition, a historic neighborhood listed on the National and State Registrars of Historic Places in the heart of Richmond and many craftspeople bicycle to work.

2004

We introduce the duVal Collection, the very first outdoor sectional on the market.

2006

Our 15th year is marked with the introduction of the Spotswood Pier Table, a serving piece for the garden room.

2008

McKinnon and Harris opens in Fairbanks Studios on Lots Road in London, proving the dank climate with mold and mildew are no match for our cushions.

2009

We open our first flagship showroom in New York City in the midst of the most severe economic downturn since the Depression. Lucky for us, clients want quality and permanence more than ever.

2010

We host a company art exhibition to showcase the after-hours creations of our immensely talented craftspeople.

2014

Our third showroom opens in the La Cienega Design Quarter in Los Angeles. Skylights flood the space with Southern California daylight, a sustainable and appropriate way to illuminate our outdoor furniture.

2017

Bringing our uncompromising craftsmanship and enduring technique to the world of modern design, we launch our sleek, sculptural, and contemporary deCamp Collection.

2018

We move our workshop to a renovated historic space filled with natural light. Our new space can encompass EC², our revolutionary coating technology and a game changer in the world of performance furniture for the exterior.

2019

Our flagship New York showroom moves across East 59th Street to a grand space with the best of both worlds — street-front and inside of the D&D building.

2020

The world copes with a pandemic and global lockdown, spending more time at home with family and in the outdoors. McKinnon and Harris experiences record sales, hiring 50 new artisans to meet demand.

2021

We celebrate the 30th anniversary of our founding in 1991 by launching a heritage collection of reimagined masterworks inspired by our earliest designs.

We use our considerable experience crafting outdoor upholstery to curate and launch our Italian Yachting Performance Fabrics, sourced from a third generation family-owned mill in the foothills of the Alps.

2022

We debut our first outdoor accessories products—deck blankets and custom throw pillows—to make outdoor spaces as comfortable, stylish, and inviting as the inside of the home.

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