Whitcomb + Cate officially began in the summer of 2015 by Timothy Whitcomb and Selena Cate. Timothy and Selena both followed their creative and passionate dreams separately before meeting briefly in 2009 in Portland, Oregon when Selena was moving from Washington to Northern California.
Selena has spent over a decade honing her skills through antique curating, thrifting, merchandising and creative writing. She grew up on an olive farm in the north valley of California. Her father, a self made inventor, was a great inspiration for her as she watched him build things for the farm from cast off junk from the local dump. She later spent four years in Europe where she began to work on furniture design and restoration.
Timothy, who is an award winning filmmaker, has evolved into interior design when he spent 5 years remodeling an 100 year old laundry facility into Portland's most advanced digital film studio.
This last spring they realized that they were kindred spirits and both wondered how they had not discovered how much they had in common years earlier, since they were Facebook friends for years. Timothy recalls, "I often would 'like' all these incredible finds she would post on her wall and I remember thinking to myself. "where does she find all this cool stuff!?"
Selena had been inspired for the last decade by Charles and Ray Eames - husband & wife American designers that worked together. For the last few years she had a strong vision to work side by side with someone that saw the world through similar creative eyes. Selena recalls, "Little did I know, this acquaintance I knew on Facebook wrote me and asked if I could find him a 'vintage Nintendo Gaming system' that he needed as a movie prop".
They began writing to each other regularly in April and May and discovered all these incredible similarities.
This last June they began to buy antiques together, work on restoration projects and eventually design and create furniture from vintage reclaimed wood.
When they find a worn piece of furniture their greatest satisfaction is bringing it back to life as part of their HappenFound Restoration Line. These are truly one of a kind pieces.
It's not just about the profit, it's about saving something that is crafted from quality wood and is historical. Furniture alchemy as they like to call it.
Timothy and Selena live on a small farm in Sonoma County, California with a ram called Charlie, two spirited Waldorf children, four chickens and a tortie cat called "Roo".
