Furniture Tradition Builds Future in Natchitoches

For some, childhood memories can feel like stardust, distantly elusive but brilliant when only we decide to look for them. For Natchitoches furniture maker Chalon Ahbol, those memories are more like sawdust — and a lot of sweat. And they are ever-present in each nook and cranny, in every well-worn turning tool or steep stack of rough lumber across her woodshop. 

“My brothers and I, we say we grew up underneath the table saw, you know,” Ahbol recalls of her formative years watching her father, George Olivier, in this same shop, building his hand-finished cypress furniture business Olivier Woodworks from the ground up, and her first cutting into her own little wood scraps, too. “And we use the old methods that my dad came up with in the ‘60s, and his classic patterns, and a lot of the machinery he custom made back then, we still use today. He was just a genius.”

After leaving his agricultural studies at Northwestern University to provide for his wife and newborn child, New Orleans native George Olivier’s first craftsman commission in Natchitoches was designing and constructing an altar for Immaculate Conception Church. Now, eight years after his passing, Olivier’s daughter continues this act of creation as a spiritual practice with a daily devotion to handcrafted furniture as the focal point for her worship.

With classic French-Creole and Shaker-inspired lines, Ahbol’s work, like her father’s did for decades, includes four-post beds, chests and dressers, tables and chairs and more — all cut and shaped by cypress sourced from mills and lumber suppliers in Shreveport and Alexandria, and finished by hand to a slick, grain-rich sheen in her Natchitoches shop.

“Detail is everything,” says the 58-year-old mother of three. “And I think that the more I do this, the better I get. My dad could look across the shop at somebody working on the lathe, and he knew whenever some little detail was not right. And now I can kind of do that.”

King-size chests, bookcases and buffet cabinets all roll out of the shop Ahbol runs with one full-time employee and two part-timers.

After years in the Navy and a stint at Olivier Woodworks, Ahbol’s son Alix is living in Oregon, and furniture making there.

“I would define her as the handiest person I know,” Alix says. “Once she puts her head down into something, she’s all in it. She’s committed.”

Like his mother and grandfather before him, Alix Ahbol appreciates the act of turning something raw and powerful into something useful and refined.

“Love the fact that we can take a rough saw and lumber and create a shape out of that,” he says. “And it’s not just the shape of the piece, but the shapes within it that elevates it. All the grain and the patterns and knots, we place those with intention, and my grandfather was always preaching that.”

At the edge of Natchitoches, on land once heralded for pecan harvests, Denise Jones owns a renovated five-bedroom she debuted as a rental property six years ago. It is filled with Olivier beds, dressers and tables. 

“Cypress connects us back to the land and to the bayous of Louisiana, so we are just caretakers of it,” Jones says. “Olivier furniture brings a soulful elegance to the space. All of it is really woven into the guest experience.”

Recognizable for its iconic Louisiana look, Olivier pieces are more than physical objects for storage or rest or display — they are passed down through families and carry a continuation of important stories across the generations.

“Chalon really needs to be celebrated,” Jones says. “She’s graceful, and her furniture shows that. It reflects her French-Creole heritage, and it makes a house a home.”

During the famous annual Natchitoches Christmas Festival, conversation trends the same way with visitors to the shop effusively telling Chalon and Alix how many pieces of Olivier furniture they own and have used for decades.

“It just feels so special to be a part of the community in that way,” Alix says. “We have some true evangelists.”

Connection is always Ahbol’s goal. First with the cypress, the design and her father’s wisdom, and then with her clients. When she makes furniture she can feel her dad’s presence, as if he’s still there, and she’s the little girl he’s telling not to practice on scraps, but to just get to work. “He was basically telling me to trust and believe in myself, to take my time and just do it,” Ahbol says. “That is the best advice I’ve ever gotten.”

The creative entrepreneur’s favorite step might be the final one. She and her husband, Rob, offer “white glove” delivery — they’ve driven as far as Knoxville — to personally connect with the families who will be living with her work for many years to come.

“We do everything with detail in mind,” Ahbol says. “It’s all very hands-on. Which makes it a slower process, but you know what? That’s not a bad thing. Because things made slowly, and with great care, are the things that are going to last forever.”

CHALON AHBOL

Occupation
CEO/Furniture Designer, Olivier Woodworks

Website
olivierwoodworks.com

Social Media
@olivierwoodworks

Q&A

What do you love to do for fun in and around Natchitoches? We love walking along the brick-lined walkways by the river downtown. The city does an amazing job keeping it beautiful. You can almost always find a festival or event happening somewhere around our historic town. The Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Historic Site and the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame are wonderful, too. Dark Woods is another favorite spot, their miniature gold is so much fun. We have several new restaurants I really enjoy—Natchitoches Picnic Co. and Sweetie’s BBQ—along with the local staples Lasyone’s, T-Johnny’s on the River, and Merci Beaucoup. And my husband and I just bought new kayaks to use on Cane River and Sibley Lake.

What’s something curious about wood that most people don’t know? Real wood moves with the seasons—expanding in humidity and tightening in the cold. So don’t be surprised and don’t think it needs to be fixed, if your furniture shifts a little as the weather changes. That’s just nature doing its work.

If you could make a piece of furniture for anyone well-known, who would it be, why and what would you make? I would want to build a table with Jesus, the perfect craftsman. And then share bread together.