Entrepreneurs to the core, Michael Partenio and Stacy Kunstel are Dunes and Duchess. They’re both intensely visual but with complementary skill sets. Partenio is an artist with the mind of an engineer, while Kunstel is a visionary with an uncommon eye for design. She’s the storyteller who dreams up many of the fanciful ideas that he, a gifted woodworker, brings to life.

Purveyors of romantic lighting and home furnishings since 2010, Dunes and Duchess is known for its traditional influences and modern vibe, as well as its impossibly high-gloss lacquer finishes. Its hallmark feature—lathe-turned wood spindles combined in artful ways. They dream up, sketch, build, finish, and ship all of their merchandise out of a 3,500-square-foot shop in Brookfield, CT.