GROWING STAFF: Scott J. Pacheco, left, owner and president of Scott James Furniture & Design in Tiverton, with his father, Rob Pacheco, head bed builder. Although the company shut down for two months at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, it has done well since then, Scott Pacheco said, especially “doing a lot more work in the wealthier coastal neighborhoods for people leaving New York,” which has resulted in more full-time employees now than before COVID-19 hit. / PBN PHOTO/DAVE HANSEN
Rhode Island has a long, rich and diverse history of design, which arguably started with Samuel Slater. In 1789, the 21-year-old textile mill apprentice in Great Britain left his homeland after memorizing the machinery design and came to America to start the Industrial Revolution that put his new country on the road to becoming a…