“I think I had gotten a taste of furniture by being
with my former company – they bought out
Thomasville furniture in 1968,” he explained. “When
I graduated from college in 1969 I went to work for
them.”
As with everything he does, once Terry went to
work for himself he plunged headfirst into the
endeavor and soon became a serious competitor in
the country’s home furnishings marketplace. Four
years ago he bought a 50,000-square-foot former
furniture factory in High Point, N.C. He restored the
1929 factory exactly as it was originally. It was a
painstaking process that worked out quite well.
“Last year 91 buildings applied for national historic
status in that state and out of the 91, 17 were
forwarded to Washington D.C. for final consideration,”
he said. “Two buildings were awarded their
contributing status and mine was one of the two.”
Terry has that showroom, called High Point
Enterprise, and one in Las Vegas as well. Those two
cities hold the two biggest furniture shows in the
country every year, and High Point is the biggest in
the world with 12 million square feet of exhibition
space.
While in his showroom he sells many brands of
furniture, from Rooms-to-Go to Broyhill, the furniture
72GASPARILLA ISLAND May/June 2018
pieces he creates himself are far from mass
marketed and are quite often startling in their
natural beauty. His company, Woodbrook
Designs, has become very popular since its
inception more than a decade ago. The products
created have a strong focus on dramatic, exotic
woods paired with more contemporary bronze,
steel and pewter.
“I’m a wood freak,” he admitted. “I’ve always
liked wood, I’ve always had wood carvings everywhere.
The warmth of wood is something that’s
always attracted me. I do some new age
materials out of Italy like polypropylene and I use
LED lights, things like that. That’s more along the
contemporary vein. Now that I’ve spent some
time at a place I bought in Montana, the west has
gotten into my blood. So my new company
slogan is ‘Cowboy to Contemporary.’”
With furniture factories all over the world,
Woodbrook Designs is the only manufacturer
that creates furniture with original artwork
included. He is currently working on taking some
of the inlaid bronze and pewter metalwork
designs from his furniture and making them into
individual pieces of wall art at the request of
some of his clients.
Terry has partnered with Dick Idol – a famous
western outdoorsman, artist and designer – to
create the Aspen Collection. While Idol dabbled
in furniture 10 years ago, this is his first major
introduction to the industry.
“We showed it (the collection) for the first
time a year-and-a-half ago; we started shipping
last year and it’s doing exceptionally well,” Terry
said. “While I mainly do my own designs and then
give them to the factories to make, in some cases
like with Dick Idol I hire a designer. Of course, in
some cases, too, God made it – I didn’t.”
In addition to designing and sourcing for
Woodbrook Designs, Terry has an ownership
position in an Italian manufacturer of
contemporary dining pieces, Domitalia and he
represents two additional Italian companies and
one factory in Guadalajara, Mexico producing
occasional tables. Woodbrook’s products are
sourced in Thailand, mainland China, Indonesia,
Vietnam and India.
It was through his frequent travels that he
accidentally became a wine importer.
“I first visited South Africa close to 30 years
ago when Nelson Mandela was released from
prison and Apartheid was dismantled,” he said.
Terry at his showroom in High Point, N.C.