W hen Dalton Rudd’s family home flooded years ago, destroying their kitchen, it might have simply been an expensive headache: An entire kitchen in need of new cabinets.

Instead, the problem became a springboard for Rudd’s career in carpentry. He built the cabinets himself, impressing his mother along the way, and took an apprenticeship with a local cabinet maker in Chesterfield County.

In 2021, Rudd opened WorkBench RVA, a membership studio where other woodworking addicts can build as they wish.

Rudd, now 31, remembers the moment he came up with the idea, flipping a switch on the studio where he apprenticed for three years.

“It just literally hit me like a car one day. I was like, dang, what if other people enjoy this as much as I do?” Rudd said. “What if other people want to use a fa

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