Requesting A Call:
Oraxis – Elegance, durability, and timeless design for your interior.
Loading...
Oraxis – Elegance, durability, and timeless design for your interior.
Ethan and Maya’s shared love for sustainable design sparked an instant connection. They spent months traveling to remote workshops in Scandinavia and Japan, studying minimalist craftsmanship and renewable materials. In 2020, they launched Arbor & Stone—a direct-to-consumer furniture brand merging Ethan’s eye for organic forms with Maya’s expertise in eco-engineering. Their mission? To create heirloom-quality pieces that give back to the earth, using reclaimed timber, carbon-neutral finishes, and modular designs that adapt to evolving spaces.
The duo’s breakthrough came with the “Roots Collection”, a line of tables and shelves embedded with seed capsules. Once retired, the furniture can be planted to grow native trees. This innovation earned them a spot on Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Brands” list in 2022.
Based in Asheville, North Carolina, Arbor & Stone operates out of a solar-powered workshop nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Ethan and Maya live on a 50-acre forest farm with their twins, Kai and Nyla, who inspire their kid-friendly “Sprout Series” (think: non-toxic, spill-proof finishes and hidden puzzle compartments).
In 2015, while balancing a demanding career as a professional soccer player in Europe and pursuing a degree in environmental design, Ethan Cole began handcrafting wooden furniture in his garage. What started as a therapeutic escape from the pressures of sports soon became an all-consuming passion. His pieces, inspired by the raw beauty of forests, caught the eye of local artisans and design enthusiasts.
By 2018, Ethan faced a crossroads. A recurring knee injury forced him to retire from soccer earlier than planned. Though heartbroken, he saw an opportunity to pivot fully to design. That same year, he met Maya Varma, a MIT-trained mechanical engineer turned sustainability advocate, at a climate innovation summit in Copenhagen. Maya had left a high-profile tech career to focus on eco-conscious solutions, driven by her upbringing in India’s Western Ghats, where her family practiced centuries-old woodworking traditions.
Why Arbor & Stone?
“Furniture shouldn’t cost the earth,” says Maya. “It should heal it.”
Ethan adds, “We’re not just building tables—we’re planting legacies.”
Arbor & Stone: Where Nature Meets Narrative.
