Brooklyn Lighting Company Roll & Hill Moves Into Furniture, Adds Designs by Jenna Lyons to Mix

Before Jason Miller founded the design and manufacturing company Roll & Hill over a decade ago, he’d been pursuing a burgeoning interest in furniture. “I went to art school, not design school,” he told Brownstoner. “And I started my career in vintage furniture, and then an attempt at making furniture.” With Roll & Hill’s new offering, launched in April, he makes somewhat of a return to his early roots.

Having spent the past 11 years cementing the company’s status as an in-demand lighting studio, Miller had long wanted to expand Roll & Hill as a brand. “The discussions always came back to furniture,” he says. By acquiring heritage furniture company Alexis Manufacturing, Roll & Hill is now able to fulfill that desire and extend its offering of designs, which merge historical elements with contemporary forms.

Just as Roll & Hill has collaborated with independent designers to create its unique lighting collection, so, too, is it partnering with a number of interior, fashion, and industrial designers for its furniture collection. The initial offering of eight wood chairs, tables and dressers has expanded to 19 pieces by furniture and product designers Karl Zahn, Jason Miller, Campagna and, as of last week, Jenna Lyons, with more to come from other notable names.

From a creative standpoint, Miller said, the same ethos that applies to the lighting brand applies to the furniture. “We’re just trying to make good contemporary designs that will appeal to Americans,” he said. “When I started Roll & Hill 11 years ago, that was actually a novelty. Most of the things that were considered good contemporary design were European or had an international focus. There was this idea that Americans didn’t get it and they had to be taught how to like it. My premise was different; it was maybe they don’t need to be taught anything, maybe they just need to be given different options.”

Like the lighting, the furniture pieces are available online or through one of the 100 independent stores Roll & Hill is in around the world. The furniture is handmade in Grand Rapids, Mich., while the lighting continues to be made in Brooklyn at the Sunset Park studio. It’s the third studio the company moved to, after outgrowing the previous two. “My entire career started in Brooklyn,” says Miller, who was born in Connecticut. “I’ve been here for 25 years.”

This past year has been the most trying, though. The deal with Alexis Manufacturing went through in February 2020, right before the pandemic shook so many small businesses, including Roll & Hill. “We made it through,” he said. “That’s the important thing.” But, with hardly any new hotels, restaurants or office buildings — Roll & Hill’s base clients — being built, a large part of the company’s operations evaporated. Focusing on the new range has been a source of new hope. “We’re really just in the beginning phase,” he said. “For me, the most exciting thing is to see that grow.”

Editor’s note: A version of this story appeared in the Fall/Holiday 2021/22 issue of Brownstoner magazine.

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