Two For One
DesignSTL|July/August 2019

The Bender brothers are bonded by a shared love for design.

Chris Naffzinger
Two For One

JOSH AND MATT BENDER often joke that the name of their furniture design company— Blackhall Woodworks—was the one thing they could agree on back in 2017 when they debuted their woodworking shop on Etsy. The brothers were not close growing up, they confide, but today they are so in tune that they often finish each other’s sentences.

Inside their 120-square-foot woodworking shop, in the basement of Matt’s house in Rock Hill, the two meet regularly after their day jobs—Josh is an architect at M+H Architects, Matt an art director at 2e Creative.

The brothers’ interest in furniture making began to dovetail after college, although their paths up to that time differed. Matt graduated from Maryville University with a degree in graphic design, and Josh studied architecture at the University of Kansas. It was a “strong sense of design” that brought them together, says Josh, 33.

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