About The Maker

Thomas J. MacDonald studied carpentry at the Blue Hills Technical High School in Canton, Massachusetts. After graduation, he joined the Carpenters union in 1985 and began a four year apprenticeship program at the Robert D. Marshall training center in Millbury, MA.

Thomas finished the program in 1989 earning his journeyman's certificate and then his Massachusetts supervisors license in 1991. He continued to work in construction in the carpentry field. Then, in 2000, Thomas was accepted to the North Bennet Street School in Boston's North End.

Thomas excelled in school and, in his second year he replicated a secretary from a picture of a Chippendale style piece, originally made in Salem, Massachusetts. That Spring, Bob Vila, host of the television program, Home Again, came to film the school for one of his episodes. He saw the secretary and was so impressed with it, that he profiled Thomas in the segment that he was filming on the cabinetry department. He invited Thomas to demonstrate shell carving on one of his shows (Modern Colonial - Click here to watch the episode), and also invited him to showcase his furniture in the house that Vila was building on Cape Cod.

Since he graduated in 2002, Thomas has been designing and constructing custom furniture pieces. Most recently, he has expanded his operations to a Main Street Studio located in Canton, Massachusetts.