The Woman Behind it All
SHERI BINGHAM is the creative force behind Iron Thread Design. Never one to sit still for long, Sheri is a trained singer with degrees in comparative religions and math education. A mother of three, she has always been consumed with making things.
Her love of creativity and mathematical precision is quite evident in her work. Her furniture is clean and solid. It makes sense. It stands strong. It is a careful balance of precision, playfulness and comfort.
Iron Thread Design is very much a family affair. Sheri’s husband, Christian, is a builder and designs/builds the internal structures. Her children are frequently assigned tasks when they visit her studio. She has encouraged them over the years to quit school and work for her, but so far, they have declined.
She has been an upholsterer for over 25 years. She decided to take up upholstery to have something to do while taking care of small children at home; fueled by a love of fabric and of simply ‘making things’, upholstery was a perfect match.
Iron Thread Design is all lovingly hand crafted in Sheri’s Austin, TX design studio. Iron Thread is designed for living with. Daily ritual’s like putting your feet up after a long day, playing a game with the kids, casting off just worn clothes or laying out the next outfit all have a place on an Iron Thread piece.
Iron Thread Design Furniture Origins
At Iron Thread Design, we handcraft our furniture to last—like a mid-century modern heirloom. We obsess over the tiniest details, and while our headboards, ottomans, benches and daybeds feel like sophisticated designer furniture, they reflect the playful vibe of our Austin, Texas roots. Our retro-inspired furniture is meant to be used, not just smiled at.
We are a family business, and our family is wrapped into every Iron Thread Design piece of furniture. As a family, we prioritize furniture you can truly use—the kind of furniture you can put your feet up on and relax around.
Customization is the key to making your Iron Thread Design furniture unique to you, and the thousands of combinations of fabric, tufting, buttons and legs means that each piece feels like one of kind. Have an idea for something like a different fabric you’d like to try? Drop us a line and let’s collaborate!
Years ago, as a stay-at-home-mom to three kids, I taught myself sewing as a means to keep me sane during my early years parenting. I really enjoyed the process of sewing—selecting fabrics (the colors! the textures!) and patterns filled a creative void I knew was there, but didn’t know how to fill. I just knew that I had to make something with my hands. After I honed my sewing skills, I began trading my handcrafted children’s clothes for the work of amazing local artists. Being able to have art I really loved in my house inspired me to create something artistic myself.
Furniture came next. I attacked my first upholstery project the way I live my life and raise my kids—I dove in headfirst. “What’s the worst that can happen?” My inability to put that chair back together led me to an upholstery class at our local community college and an obsession with reviving decrepit mid-century modern furniture. (Shout out to Austin’s former Home Girls shop, the now-defunct vintage furniture store, where I sold my rehabbed pieces!) This growing commitment inspired a splurge on an industrial sewing machine. Just starting it up was intoxicating.
One bench in particular became my calling. Not even good enough for Goodwill, it was put directly into the dumpster outside the thrift store…that’s my kind of challenge. It was covered in a hideous, disintegrating mustard velvet that made my thighs itch just thinking of sitting on it, but it was a delicate bench with scrolling contours along the sides of its tufted seat and I fell in love. My husband went dumpster diving for it (he loves when I ask him to do that) and rebuilt the frame for me. I recovered it in a neutral linen, but trying to figure out what to do with the buttons threw me. It looked like a blank canvas waiting for paint.
I had amassed hundreds of scraps of designer fabric over years of owning an upholstery shop. I never knew what to do with all of those random pieces until that bench. I cropped the colors, lines and shapes of dozens of modern textiles to create mini-compositions on each button. Every button was like a little piece of art. When all of the different colors, textures and patterns were scattered across the neutral linen backdrop, they made sense altogether and the whole piece came alive. That juxtaposition became my signature, and Iron Thread Design was born.
I see my furniture as I see myself. Normal/sedate from across the room, but move a little nearer and you’ll see there’s a whole lot of fun to be had up close.
Iron Thread Design Clothing: A New Thread
Here’s the thing about people who can’t sit still: they eventually run out of furniture to make and start eyeing their closets.
After two decades of obsessing over fabric, structure, fit and detail in furniture, it turns out those instincts translate pretty naturally to clothing. Specifically, men’s clothing — a category that, in Sheri’s estimation, has been underserved in the “interesting but wearable” department for far too long.
The Iron Thread clothing line is just getting started, and it carries the same DNA as the furniture: clean lines, quality materials, unexpected details that reward a closer look. Nothing too precious to actually wear. Nothing so safe it disappears into the background.
Think of it as the bench, but something you can take out to dinner.
The gallery is growing — stay tuned, and as always, if you have an idea or want to collaborate on something, drop us a line. We’re very much still figuring this out, and that’s exactly the part we like best.