Charleston, West Virginia
One of a kind doors and furniture
Made in the United States by Aaron Saxton in Charleston, WV.
History Never Repeats LLC.
Our Story
Born and raised in New Zealand, Aaron Saxton moved to the USA in 2010 to live with wife, Maria, a West Virginia native. She introduced him to Mid-Century Modern furniture and design which quickly became an all consuming passion. He became an avid collector and eventually they opened a store selling restored mid century modern furniture and art.
Aaron learned how to restore and refinish the furniture. He met a group of renowned local cabinet makers and master carpenters who shared their time, knowledge and amazing workshop space with him.
After years spent doing restoration work Aaron began considering building his own designs. He started with one of the most difficult designs to build since there was a huge gap in the market for it - custom doors. Building doors is some of the most difficult, precision work and it refined his skill set and challenged his level of craftsmanship.
After a decade of building custom crafted wood doors and fifteen years of restoring fine furniture from some of the world's best designers he decided to start designing and building custom furniture. In his work Aaron discovered a good design can only be let down by poor production and quality. He had carefully studied the construction techniques and materials used by the best furniture makers differed vastly from the lesser names and companies. Good design must go bone deep and quality can never be sacrificed.
Living in Appalachia and learning from local master craftsman Aaron became captivated with the heartwoods of the USA and in particular Black Walnut. He had observed how techniques for furniture production were abandoned in lieu of mass production techniques and the quality, longevity and feel suffered for it. This exquisite walnut is what we use to produce custom furniture and bespoke entrance doors. Aaron produces special radial walnut pattern door via a technique he developed himself over five years and could never be duplicated in mass production.
History Never Repeats has clients nationwide and abroad. We are currently restoring our home which is a Usonian house by architect Howard Johe. Aaron is also an avid orchid grower and is one of the few people to get a ghost orchid (Dendrophylax lindenii) to bloom outside of its native habitat.
What we do
Modernist Entrance Doors - all Custom to your specifications
We design and build custom higher end doors for new builds and for retrofitting to an extant home. Each door is entirely handcrafted by Aaron Saxton start to finish at his workshop in Charleston, WV.
Visit our Inventory of special vintage furniture, decor and custom pieces.
This is our link to our storefront on 1stdibs which showcases what pieces we have for offering.
Starburst kits for Interior and Exterior Doors
Starburst kits for Interior and Exterior Doors
A kit produced from either solid brass or stainless steel (or custom color) for new flush doors or vintage doors. Learn More