This Woman’s Work: Meet Furniture Designer Catina Roscoe
Cuban-born, but American-made, Catina Roscoe brings a powerful feminine presence to the U.S. furniture-making industry. Get to know more about this dynamic woman, where to find her work in Memphis and more.
Catina Roscoe is a rare gem β a woman in the furniture design industry and the current president ofΒ American Society of Furniture DesignersΒ and the founder/owner ofΒ Catina Unlimited Design Inc. When we got a call from Chestnut Hall owner Michael Baty that he was hosting a brunch in her honor at his high-end furniture and design store, we were as excited as we were honored to get an invitation. We had a chance to catch up with Catina shortly before her visit to Memphis β and weβre thrilled to have the opportunity to introduce you to this talented and driven woman!
**********
In art school, Catina Roscoe loved working in three dimensions. After finishing her fine arts degree in design and sculpture, Catina quickly found her way to furniture, where she could create work and watch it come to life.
βWhat I loved was creating a two-dimensional drawing and then walking into a showroom and actually seeing the live piece of furniture in three dimensions. That was amazing,β says Catina, a freelance furniture designer and owner of Greensboro, North Carolina-based Catina Unlimited Design Inc. βI had an affinity as most women do to fashion and to home dΓ©cor β my home, my environment is very important to me. I like to surround myself with beautiful things, and art and design have always had a very prominent place in my life.β
Born in Havana, Cuba, Catina came to the United States with her family in the 1960s and grew up outside Atlanta. And then her father took a job that moved the family to North Carolina, and Catina attended UNC in Greensboro.
Her career in furniture got its serendipitous start from that move. With the furniture capital of the world at her doorstep, Catinaβs first job out of college was doing illustration work for a High Point-based furniture designer. She fell in love with creating, and in the field of furniture, she was able to witness consumers and showroom representatives connect with her work. Says Catina, βI develop my product foremost from an emotional perspective so that it connects with the consumer as opposed to just drawing furniture β drawing a box that holds our socks.β
Throughout her three decades in the industry sheβs worked with leading furniture manufacturers, from Kincaid, Hooker and Harden to Pennsylvania House, Lane and American Drew. Catina is the current president of the American Society of Furniture Designers, and her studio is a winner and repeat finalist in the Pinnacle Awards, one of the furniture industryβs highest honors.
Among Catinaβs recent work is a line for Amish manufacturer Borkholder Furniture called Local Harvest that embraces modern farmhouse style. Chestnut Hall Fine Furniture & Interior Design in Germantown carries the solid wood line, part of its commitment to βMade in Americaβ furniture.Β βWhile we have a number of pieces on our floor at any given time that are drop dead gorgeous, at our core, we are very practical people who appreciate furniture that serves the needs of our clients,β says Chestnut Hall owner Michael Baty. βThat is why we like Catinaβs pieces so much. Form follows function in her designs, and she has a wonderful feel for families and how they live.β
Catinaβs Local Harvest line, like all of her work, springs from her desire to touch the lives of the consumers who ultimately own and use her designs. She approaches her work through study and observation, seeking to identify her consumer on the front end and find out what that consumer wants or needs and how she can express it in her work. βI like to think in fresh terms,β Catina says. βIβve been doing this a long time, and I think the real success of it is being able to connect with how people are living their lives today.β
It also helps that Catina is the mother of two Millennials who, as she says, help to keep her young, on her toes and up to speed with whatβs fresh and new. βIf young people are our target audience and our new consumer, those young people are looking for something with more meaning, more value,β she says. βThey want the brands or the products they are investing in to convey a message they can relate to. They want authenticity, integrity, meaningfulness, purpose, sustainability, giving back to the community and giving back to the earth. It doesnβt just come down to a price situation. Itβs not just to solve a problem or fit a need in the moment. Theyβre looking to invest in something that has more meaning than just a product purchase.β
Catina has broken ground with more than just her personal, almost psychological approach to furniture design. As a female, sheβs also scaled the peak of what historically was a manβs industry.
βNormally women are the interior designers, traditionally speaking,β she says. βThere were many more women developing product on the upholstery side, choosing fabrics and coordinating colors. Case goods, the actual wood furniture, was considered woodworking and thatβs very much more a manβs role. Women just did not come into the industry through that avenue. So when I started many years ago, there were very few women involved in case goods and designing product.β
Today, however, women are taking a more hands-on role within the furniture industry. βIn more recent years everybody sort of put the brakes on and said, βWhoa, wait a minute, ultimately women are the ones buying the products and furnishing their homes, so wouldnβt it be smart to have a female perspective along the way?ββ Catina says. βMore and more women have stepped up and gone from administrative positions to moving up into marketing and merchandising and even running companies.β
Through the years Catina has had opportunities to stretch her skills and talents to fit the needs of a variety of manufacturers. For example, she once designed a Laura Ashley line for Kincaid. βThat was very fun,β she says. βIt gave us an opportunity to do a lot of interesting finishes and carvings and different expressions β a garden look, a library look.β Early in her career, she developed some cutting-edge work for Pulaski Furniture, including a British-style telephone booth built as a piece of furniture. βIt was red with a nameplate on the top,β she says. βIt was an oddity, an extreme design, but they did sell it.β
Today sheβs leading the American Society of Furniture Designers at a time when the group is expanding to become an international organization. Itβs been exciting, for her, to usher the industry through a time of so much transition.
βItβs been wonderful through the years. I donβt know that I would do anything else,β she says. βItβs amazing to be able to use my art, my creativity, and to be able to make a living from that. It has ups and downs like any other business. But oh, my gosh, when you get to High Point and see the excitement and the color and go from showroom to showroom β I could redecorate my house every six months if I could afford to. Itβs a fun industry, and to me, thereβs nothing like it.β
Catina Unlimited is located at 518 N Spring St, Greensboro, NC 27401. Learn more atΒ (336) 275-4443Β or catinaunlimited.com.
**********
Learn all about the best Memphis restaurants, shopping and more β visit our SB Guide!
