Crafting Elegance: The Inspirational Journey of Furniture Designer Greg Sheres

You never know who you’ll run into while you’re out for a jog or a bike ride around Hilton Head. Our little island is a melting pot of locals, tourists and everything in between, attracting folks from all around who enjoy the warm breeze, serene landscape and coastal charm.

One person you might run into is Greg Sheres, a master furniture designer who has been calling Hilton Head home for several years. 

Even if you don’t know his name, there’s a good chance you know his work. Sheres was an early pioneer of what came to be known as the “Classic Modernism” movement in the 1990s, bringing an artist’s eye to the world of furniture design. In an era when the prevailing trend in furniture design was throwback antique- and country-inspired pieces that recalled a bygone era, his designs were anything but traditional. 

Sheres’ work is unmistakable. From tables and chairs to full rooms and buildings, his work uses unexpected shapes and lines—curves, arches, waves—to contrast with the unyielding materials he favors, which include stainless steel, bronze, hardwoods and glass. 

The results are invariably striking, blending the natural and the man made in unexpected ways. Many of the shapes in his furniture bring to mind the ebbing and flowing of water. But their sleek, polished surfaces have an almost futuristic quality. 

That’s no accident. When discussing the materials he works with, Sheres calls stainless steel his favorite, not only for its ability to take on a perfect shine and finish, but for its timelessness. A Sheres table is likely to outlast both its owner and its creator. 

Although Greg Sheres calls South Carolina home today, he was born and raised in New York City. He was surrounded by art from an early age thanks to his father, a fine artist himself, who took his son to galleries (“dragged” is the word Greg uses) and surrounded him with art and artists. The seeds were planted early, but they would take a while to grow. 

Greg Sheres studied physics and engineering at Columbia University before eventually shifting his focus toward art when he found the material “too dry.” From there he spent time during the 1980s working with some of the city’s top artists through the Art Students’ League of New York. 

An early art project, painting a menu onto a restaurant tabletop, first turned Sheres’ eye toward the possibilities of merging art with furniture design. Even so, he maintains to this day that entering the furniture business was more of a happy accident than an intentional choice. Even as his interest in furniture grew and his work became increasingly popular, he always saw himself as an artist first. And because his training was in art, not furniture design, he harbored insecurities about being “found out” as a fraud by the furniture world. 

At this point, it’s safe to say that those worries are unfounded. Shere’s furniture has been hailed as revolutionary and bestowed with just about every award and honor possible. His tables, chairs and other pieces can be found furnishing the homes of renowned athletes, film stars, business moguls and musicians. 

Greg Shere’s work and his life seem to be fueled by equal parts creativity and restlessness. The two qualities go hand in hand, driving him to constantly create new designs and ideas. They’ve also taken him all around the world. 

He has traveled to countries like Italy and China in search of inspiration and knowledge. His search for the right infrastructure to turn his designs into real, tangible objects has also been a constant one, and he has overseen the physical creation of his furniture in numerous far-flung locales. And he has called many places home. 

Sheres has lived in New York, Arizona, Idaho, British Columbia and many other places, but today his home is in Hilton Head. And he doesn’t seem to be in too much of a hurry to leave. Perhaps the ocean breeze and the ocean waves provide inspiration, or maybe the slower pace is the ideal antidote to a life lived constantly on the move. 

As he continues to create new designs that push the boundaries of what furniture can do, Greg Sheres’ philosophy is a simple one: that if you surround yourself with beautiful things, it will enhance the quality of your life. 

His furniture, which he is fond of calling “jewelry for the home” certainly lives up to that philosophy. And in an age when cheap, mass-produced furniture is only a click away, that kind of passion for one’s craft might just be more valuable than ever.