our story

In the early 2000’s with the desire to support my wife, Elisa Hughey, a former art teacher with a fine arts degree, to express her artistic talent, we opened aardvark eclectic home décor store in the town of Ellicottville, NY.  Elisa started to express her artistic talent through interior decorating and design. Together our passion for art and travel gave us the opportunity to enjoy various types of museums and artists at shows in NYC, Atlanta,  Frankfurt , Madrid  Barcelona and the mountains in the Adirondacks which in turn re-awakened my need to design that started as a young child. Natural elements such as rocks, wood, metal and glass inspire my natural taste for not natural designs with a strong influence in contemporary and Greek styles.   I believe that every piece of furniture needs to have a story. It needs to have space created for it.  I know that most people respect, understand and appreciate good design and well-made objects.  Over the last few years my inspiration and excitement have been flowing and I have been constantly coming up with new ideas and designs, combining different wood and creating interactions between space, textures and colors and incorporating natural elements to create new furniture pieces. It takes time, care and attention to detail to see these new pieces and designs come to fruition and I will tell you that if you like what you seen now, just wait to see what is coming in the future! Always rustic , always contemporary,  always with respect for antique Greek lines of design and with inspiration of elements that surround us every day, you will discover that art could be in your hands and in your home.