Company Background

All of us at West End Pier on the Severn River.

Russell & Mackenna was born in a one car garage near Annapolis, MD in 2003. With a single client, a table saw, and a few rough sketches of furniture designs on notebook paper, Kevin and Lauren Russell set out in pursuit of the American dream. They began to build a cottage industry business from scratch.

Prior to founding Russell & Mackenna, Kevin worked for T. Rowe Price in Baltimore as an investment counselor and was on staff at The Severn School in Maryland. Lauren has been a design artist since graduating from college in 1994 and was an Art Director at an advertising agency for several years before going it solo as a Marketing Consultant specializing in consumer products. As a hobby, Kevin had been building furniture designed by Lauren for family and friends. It was not long after their first large order and $18,000 in seed money that they left their former careers behind and convinced Lauren’s Dad, Larry Strassner, to come out of retirement and help run the business. With his many years of business experience, they now had the strong management and leadership skills to help make this little furniture company an American success story. Russell & Mackenna now ships furniture from a 6,000 square foot production facility in Jessup, MD all over the country including regular deliveries to the Hamptons, Martha’s Vineyard, Kiawah Island and Palm Beach. 

Everyone involved in Russell & Mackenna agrees that the journey, so far, has been one fantastic ride. At the end of each day we find ourselves more energized than the day before and we have tried to capture that energy and spirit within the pages of our catalog and throughout our website. We are free spirited around here and try not to take ourselves too seriously. So we added a dash of wit and a touch of humor to our product blurbs and people bios to get some smiles, giggles and even a few rip roarin' laughs. In the words of Jimmy Buffet, "If we didn't laugh we would all go insane." This song has become a sort of anthem for us. Jimmy, if you're reading this we hope you can be a guest of honor at our next party photo shoot. We'll have our people contact your people! 

So there you have it...we at Russell & Mackenna are proud, funny and build darn good furniture that is sure to uplift your spirits!