Detail of the Mark Twain Bench
About M&LF

A Custom Solution

In 1992 a museum educator came to an architect and requested a design for a lightweight, durable, carry-along stool for use in his museum galleries. It had to be attractive, stackable, and affordable.

Universal Application

Based on the success of the original design for The Museum Stool®, Museum & Library Furniture, LLC has produced stools for dozens of educational programs in the U.S. and Europe. As a company begun in liaison with the 20-year-old architectural firm of Thomas S. Shiner, AIA, M&LF has positioned itself as a leader in the design, sales and distribution of of durable, specialized institutional furniture and design services.

Long-term Sustainability

M&LF provides customers with simple, functional, environmentally sustainable furniture exhibiting the highest standards of design and construction quality for use primarily in museums; and secondarily in other environments; libraries, churches, schools, offices, homes. The emphasis is on producing single-piece, non-mechanical, ready-to-use units.

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About the Founder
Thomas S. Shiner, AIA

Thomas S. Shiner,
AIA, IDSA

As an architecture studies freshman at Virginia Tech, Tom Shiner won a national, professional furniture design competition sponsored by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. His competition-winning chair was exhibited at the Smithsonian in 1971. Tom subsequently studied furniture design at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen.

Tom's furniture designs have been featured in Interior Design, The Washington Post, Architecture DC and other publications. Among other honors, his furniture was exhibited in the National Building Museum's Visions for a New Century, and Apartment Zero's Windows on Industrial Design.

Tom Shiner Architect website »

Recognition

Tom Shiner has won awards including the Virginia Society AIA Inform Award for The Museum Stool® and an award given by the Architektenkammer Berlin.

ML&F, Museum & Library Furniture LLC