Kim McIntyre

After building everything from canoe paddles to a queen-size bed while a student at tiny Sterling College in Vermont, Kim McIntyre says “I started imagining a life where I would spend half the year creating furniture and the other half leading wilderness expeditions.” The wilderness half came true straight out of college, as she became a guide for alpine backpacking and whitewater canoeing in Montana, and dog sledding and cross-country skiing in Minnesota. It took a few more years—and stints at the Vermont School of Woodworking and in her father’s shop in Virginia—to bring the furniture half to fruition. Judging by her recent schedule, which included paddling remote lakes in northern Minnesota and building tea boxes and stools in her new shop near Seattle, the vision is fully in focus.