Maddy Baker
All images by EM WOLLEN
Maddy Baker and her husband Tom are the forces behind the furniture brand Thomas Keith. The duo have been together since 2012 but it’s only been in the last year that Maddy has transitioned into the business full-time. In this piece we explore this big move, what it’s meant for her, the business and her relationship. This story is an extension of our profile of Tom and his work which we included in our book published in 2020.
Having grown up in Centennial Park, Maddy Baker might have started out a city girl but it didn’t take long for her to find her place outside the big smoke. Leaving behind her career as a nurse, Mads has recently become part of the team that is Thomas Keith, the guys that make those tables. So how has Maddy gone from health education and the Royal Flying Doctors to having forged her own role in the business we’ve come to know as her husbands?
Maddy might be the first to tell you she has no entrepreneurial experience but over the course of the last decade she has done her fair share of exploration. Working her way through a number of nursing specialisations including ICU, midwifery, health education and a stint with the Royal Flying Doctors, all leading her to where she is now. Pairing her experiences with her naturally outgoing and inquisitive nature sets the stage for Maddy’s undoubtable success in this new chapter of hers.
“I did nursing straight out of school because I didn’t know what I actually wanted to do, it was the safe bet. I just knew that I wanted to be in the country because I’d just always been drawn to it, I grew up in Sydney but my relatives and extended family were all in the country and we use to go there in the school holidays and I loved it and the pace of the country, I always wanted to move. That’s why I went to uni in Armidale, and it happened to be where I met Tom.”
Since then Maddy has spent time living and working in Sydney, Tamworth, Narromine and Broken Hill before settling down with Tom in their home just outside of Orange, where Maddy’s itch for something new really started to take hold.Tom had been work- ing fulltime in the business for four years and as Mads was facing a future of night shifts and little job satisfaction she knew it was time for something to change. Know- ing that if there was ever a time to take the leap it was now. A year on and Maddy has done just that, having now been working full-time in the business since January 2021.
But how does one actually start to carve out their own role in a business you haven’t founded yourself ? “It was a challenge to be honest, but I can’t do things by halves so I knew I just had to dive in and try to understand every aspect of the business. I’d grown up in a family business, my dad had pubs, I’d been surrounded by it most of my life. So I knew I could do it, the risk of working for myself wasn’t too daunting for me, but that didn’t mean I actually knew what I should be doing when I first started working with Tom. I guess I just started. There was a lot of trial and error as far as what I was actually going to bring to the table day to day.” Leading Maddy to spend most of her early days in the business at work in the workshop, hungry to gain a deep understanding into how Tom and his team craft each piece of furniture. Which has seen Maddy, like many other like-minded creatives who are taking their first entrepreneurial steps, find a more organic and less linear approach to business.
Another major undertaking Maddy has tackled this year was rebranding the business. Moving away from the original name of TK Reclaimed and transitioning to Thomas Keith. “I wanted to really highlight that we’re a philosophy about bringing people together around a table and the importance of doing just simply that. And for the sustainable and recycled nature of our team’s work to be secondary. It really resonates with me when a business has a clear specialty. Knowing that if we just keep doing what we do best then Thomas Keith will naturally become known as the guys that create the fantastic tables. I wanted our brand to reflect that.” And although the recycled and reclaimed materials used to craft Thomas Keith’s pieces are still a huge component of what their tables represent, they really are more than just that. Which has seen Maddy refocus the brand on the emotive element of what a table means to people in their homes. Knowing that people will firstly pick a product that they love, leaving the reclaimed elements of each piece to secondarily emphasise the emotional connection to each table. Shifting the brand’s core identity is also fitting for the current consumer climate. With the forced isolation and the increased presence of digital relationships that many of us have experienced over the last two years, a new desire for life’s simple pleasures, such as sharing a meal at the dinner table with the people you love, has certainly emerged.
Refocusing on this core philosophy is also creating space for Maddy’s own ideas to take root and find a place in the business without compromising the underlying direction of the brand. Which gives rise to a lot of creative thinking, experimentation and exploration of what could be next for Thomas Keith. This creative freedom in part has been fostered by Tom and his own hard work establishing the business to this point. “I’m really enjoying working with Tom. I get to take things wherever I want. He is super generous in terms of giving me space to do whatever I feel is right. He’s created this incredible business from nothing and I feel so grateful to be a part of that now.”
When you spend some time with Tom and Maddy, it’s clear to see they are the perfect pair both in business and in life. Their humble and fun loving natures pave the way for a working dynamic build on trust, experimentation and learning. There is almost a fearlessness in their humility, like the absence of any expectation leaves room for only the great stuff to happen. Even though Mads is still very much committed to the business she is also forging her own path, balancing her involvement in the business with individual aspirations. Although she’s yet to figure out all of the answers as for what’s next for her, she’s dipping her toes into the world of interior design. Starting her education in the field with a diploma through Billy Blue College of Design. “With interiors I love the idea of working on big projects, slowly bringing it all together and then one day it’s done. Seeing all the people come together to create an amazing space. But I suppose you could say the same thing about building furniture as well.”
No matter what she’s working on, Maddy always centres learning at the heart of it all, especially when it comes to collaborating with other creative minds. Immersing herself in the skills and experiences of her creative counterparts. Never afraid to jump off the deep end and give something a go. Scouting opportunity and always work- ing on rediscovering and redefining what she’s good at (a lot, she’s good at a lot) is a sure fire recipe for success. No matter what Maddy decides to turn her hand to next, it will certainly be golden. You never know, we might just see some Thomas Keith Furniture designed by Maddy herself yet.
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