About Umar

I find myself reflecting on a journey that was never meant to be a business, let alone a brand. In 2016, after being terminated for taking paternal leave by a bank, I found myself at a crossroads. With little funds, no knowledge, and only an obstinate desire for perfection, I made a conscious choice to work with wood. Not because it was the practical thing to do (there were a myriad of reasons why I should have failed), but because it was the meaningful thing to do. My soul was exhausted by abstract projects and deadlines and "circling back and touching base". I wanted to touch something real.

When I was working the trading floors for National Bank, RBC, and CIBC, I'd spend my lunch time looking at design blogs and designing furniture on notepads. When asked what I would be doing if money was no object, I said "furniture". But family and kids, and the allure of stable income, kept me in the financial sector for far longer than I should've been. With every year, I felt something inside me yearn for more. When my fourth child was born, I decided to take my full 2 months of paternal leave and spend time with my children. The day I returned, I was fired. I later learned that it was an unwritten rule in finance that men shouldn’t take paternal leave, even if its in your contract. Strangely, the day that I found out, I wasn’t anxious or stressed, but relieved. Life, in its own way, often pushes you towards the path you were meant to walk.

Shortly after, I first began building furniture in my garage. It started as nothing more than a desire to build what I wanted and the fact that I couldnt find it anywhere else. How hard could it be, I thought. Quite difficult, it turned out. With the myriad of mistakes that I made, and the inevitable hard lessons learned, I thought of ways to do it better, and put it up for sale. That opened the floodgates. Within two months I had enough orders to do this full-time. But I needed a shop, and I clearly needed to learn more. It was at that point that I met Rick Howard and Lee Gazley at Howard's. Under their tutelage, my skills and knowledge grew leaps and bounds. And there, I discovered an instinctive love for craftsmanship and a desire to see beautiful old pieces brought back to life.

With the support of our clients, we grew Howard’s into one of the largest furniture restoration companies in the GTA. We handled everything from historic restorations like St Michaels Cathedral, to wood trim on classic cars and sailboats, from sentimental heirlooms to entire hotels.

That passion didn’t stop at the workbench. Over the years, we built partnerships with high schools, YMCAs, and nonprofits to mentor and train young people who’d been bitten by the woodworking bug—just like I had been. We did pro-bono work for charities and women's shelters. We paid our employees better than most, gave them bonuses, 4 day workweeks in the summer, and creative time. More than the commercial success, I was proud that we were doing it the right way.

Howards, for me, wasn’t just about restoring furniture. It was about preserving stories, honouring heritage, and upholding a tradition of craftsmanship in an age obsessed with convenience and planned obsolescence. Every piece we rescue and restore carries a history, a memory, a voice from a time when things were built to last and meant to be passed down.

But 2024 brought challenges that even our strongest efforts couldn’t overcome. Employees sabotaged and destroyed the business from within. At the same time, the SEO company we had hired—who we trusted with our website and online presence—stole our domain and held it ransom. That perfect storm left me no choice but to shut down Howard’s. It was a day that I felt my soul weep.

But out of that mess, something good arose: Crown Restoration.

Here’s to preserving the past, crafting with purpose, and building a future one beautiful, storied piece at a time!