My Story

Louis Deluca

VP Operations

I was born in New Jersey, and my earliest childhood memories are of summers spent at my aunt’s beach house with my mother, father, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and grandparents. There were a lot of people, but not much time was spent indoors. Our days were filled with boating, swimming, fishing, and crabbing.

Those summers gave me a lifelong love and respect for the ocean and for the skilled people who dedicated their lives to perfecting their trades.

My grandfather was a cabinet maker, and many of my uncles worked in various trades. My father managed warehouses, and in his spare time I helped him with whatever project he was building in his shop. We also enjoyed family fishing and sailing trips together.

All of this laid the foundation for what would become a lifelong love of creating things with wood and a deep respect for people who dedicate their lives to mastering their craft, their tools, and their processes.

I started making furniture on my own early in life. When I was 13, I built a cabinet out of solid red oak with beveled floating panels and hand-cut mortise-and-tenon doors. I gave it to my mother for her birthday. It has been in her house and in continuous use for more than half a century.

That piece showed me the love and appreciation people can have for a well-crafted piece of furniture built by someone who truly loves what they are doing.

It also hooked me on the moment when you see the look of appreciation on someone’s face after helping create something that exceeds their expectations.

Even after thousands of pieces, I still live for that moment today.

My parents taught me many important life lessons.

One that has shaped my professional life came from a winter project when my father and I built a Popular Mechanics sailboat—our first. It took us the entire winter to build the 12-foot Scow. After following the plans for most of the build, we decided to add packing foam “for safety” and to protect the hull with a new material called fiberglass instead of the varnish called for in the plans. It looked impressive. However, after sailing through rough weather and then sitting in the hot sun, the boat began to pop and crack as the raw foam expanded and broke the seams apart.

We talked about repairing it, but when I came home from school the following week, the boat had been cut apart and was burning. When I asked my father why, he simply said, “It would never be right,” and he didn’t have the heart to keep it.

From that experience, I learned two important lessons: you must thoroughly understand the materials you are using before building anything, and anything worth doing is worth doing right.

I have now spent many decades working with wood.

While in school I worked at 84 Lumber and Wickes Lumber. I later spent 25 years with Home Depot, starting as the manager of unfinished furniture and eventually becoming the Director of Inventory Sourcing and Planning for the internet business. Since then, I have served in several VP Operations and COO roles and started companies of my own, most recently focused on creating custom furniture and cabinetry. My career has taken me to 49 states and allowed me to see most of the United States.