In a quiet showroom behind Moorestown True Value Hardware, Michael and Carrie Robinson are building something that has become increasingly rare in South Jersey: a furniture business rooted in quality, relationships, and the belief that pieces should last.
Townehaus opened in 2023 with a clear point of view. “The world does not need more disposable furniture,” Michael says. After two decades of walking into homes across South Jersey, Philadelphia, Bucks County, and the Jersey Shore—first at Jonn’s Contemporary in Montgomeryville, Pennsylvania, and then for eighteen years at Unique Interiors in Cherry Hill, New Jersey—he had watched clients invest in furniture meant to endure, and he had watched the industry drift toward cheaper, trend-driven product that rarely did.
Both Robinsons bring formal design training and deep industry experience to the business. Michael holds a degree in industrial design from Philadelphia University (now Jefferson University). Carrie earned her degree in jewelry design from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University.
Carrie began her career in manufacturing, managing quality control for David Yurman and Lagos, before moving into retail at Morton and Rudolph Jewelers in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, where she worked on countless custom pieces for clients. At Townehaus she manages client relationships, works directly with many of the factory partners, and oversees day-to-day operations. While Michael travels to factories and focuses on the creative side, Carrie keeps deliveries moving, schedules on track, and clients supported.
“We are a true team,” Michael says. “The business only works because we both bring different strengths to it.”
Family played a central role in the decision to start the company. Long retail hours, including most weekends and holidays, became increasingly difficult once the couple had young children. “We realized we needed a schedule that allowed us to actually spend time with our kids,” Michael explains. Both of their previous bosses had no children of their own, which made finding balance harder. “We’re no strangers to hard work, but children grow up fast. Missing every holiday and birthday eventually became too much. Starting our own business gave us the chance to build something lasting while still being present for our family.”
Michael’s design work also provided a Unique foundation. Collections he has designed are now carried in roughly 300 stores across the country, including some of the largest furniture retailers in the United States. The licensing business is built on actual sales performance rather than concepts alone.
Building that side of the business required years of quiet persistence. For about fifteen years, Michael worked six days a week in retail. On his one day off—usually Monday—he drove to Amish factories to develop products and relationships. “Those trips were how I built a body of work that could eventually support a family and cover the cost of daycare,” he says. Over time the royalties grew to the point where they exceeded his retail salary. “Some of the earlier collections are less relevant now, ten years later, but the relationships and the long-term assets created during those years continue to provide. It’s a reminder we try to pass on to our own children: meaningful things rarely happen overnight. A new collection can take four or five years before it starts selling in a meaningful way. You just have to keep going.”
The local retail landscape has shifted dramatically. Over the past decade, most independent furniture stores in the Philadelphia and South Jersey region have closed—including the two where Michael spent the majority of his career. Many of those businesses had no succession plan. Owners’ children were often not interested in continuing, and the real estate had become more valuable than the businesses themselves. The result is a noticeable void. Starting a showroom-based furniture and design business today is both difficult and expensive. Without the combined retail, manufacturing, and design experience the Robinsons brought—and without the licensing foundation Michael had already built—the hurdles would have been nearly impossible. It also helps explain why so few interior designers operate with a physical showroom of their own.
Townehaus operates strictly by appointment. “Real design takes real time,” Michael says. Clients who visit the Moorestown showroom receive undivided attention. More often, the Robinsons meet people in their own homes, where decisions about furniture tend to feel more grounded.
The core of what they carry is solid wood, American-made furniture, much of it built by Amish makers the couple has partnered with for years. Around that foundation they have added other lines that meet the same standard. Some clients furnish entire homes. Others buy a single carefully chosen piece they have been thinking about for years. Both approaches are welcome. Those individual pieces often become the beginning of longer relationships—clients who bought from Michael twenty years ago are now sending their grown children.
The Robinsons position Townehaus against the fast-furniture model. “Heirloom pieces built to last are better for the environment, better for the people who make them, and better for the communities that still manufacture in this country,” Michael says. Supporting those makers is part of how the business works.
Townehaus remains a family business in the fullest sense. The couple is raising two young daughters in the same town where they work. Supporting the local community, they say, is not a marketing line—it is simply how they live.
Their clients are still primarily local: South and Central Jersey, the Philadelphia suburbs, and the Jersey Shore. Yet the model itself is portable—personal service, a network of factories capable of producing one special piece or an entire project, and a consistent point of view about quality. The Robinsons have already worked with clients in New York, Boston, Atlanta, Asheville, Scottsdale, and Miami, including some high-profile individuals. They have also shipped furniture internationally as far as Paris, Dubai, and Tel Aviv.
“Townehaus began as two people deciding to build something lasting in a market that had largely given up on that idea,” Michael says. “That is still the core of everything we do.”
Ready to get started? Townehaus is by appointment only.
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Townehaus specializes in custom furniture and interior design services for clients throughout Moorestown, South Jersey, Philadelphia and the surrounding areas. Call or text 856-581-0378 to get started.
