By “perfect” I meant that this project was one of the few that I can honestly say “I wouldn’t change a thing.” The constuction went flawlessly and everything came out as designed. (No having to say “Oh well I changed this part because of…) This happens so seldomly that I feel it deservers recognition. This piece was built to match some end tables that I built a few years ago. See if you can spot them in my gallery. This is walnut with rustic hickory accents. Good ol tong oil finish. This is a design I’ve made several times. I love the square pegs and the breadboard top! The top shelf was made spacifically for a sound bar if you were wondering why its spaced the way it is. Which leads me to my next point.

I find it so interesting how a trade as old as woodworking just keeps adapting to the “new thing.” This would not have been a typical entertainment center 20 years ago. There weren’t 60” LCD screens back then and there was need for VHS storage in the cabinet. This customer didn’t even own DVDs anymore as all his media storage has been moved to non physical space. He needed a short flat topped stand with only shelves for electronic componants. I just find it fun to see the changes this old skill takes.

Here’s the project I’ve been toiling over for low these many months. Its a massive 8’x 11’ kitchen island at the Rulo Winery in Walla Walla Wa. This beast, that the owners have lovingly come to call the “The Continant,” sports a solid hickory butcher block top. The cabinets are of rustic hickory. To make use of the dead space between the cabinet boxes on either side I designed an 8’ rollout cart that is hidden behind the front panel. This was a great use of space and it worked out really well too. Speaking of the front panel I used one of their wine barrel heads as a raised panel under the bar. And speaking of wine barrels, I built bar stools out of their used wine barrels too. These will have their own post soon so stay tuned. All in all it was a pretty awesome project!

Here she is in all her glory! My Wine Barrel Cradenza! This beauty features the integration of wine barrel staves and heads into the construction of a cabinet. It was built for the storage and display of the wine glasses for Rolu Winery in Walla Walla, WA. The sides of the cabinets are panels made of the barrel staves inverted on the top and extraverted on the bottom. The sides of the top cab are purple from being stained as the wine soaked in over 2-6 years of its use. They even include the bung holes! Also apart of this piece are the labled barrel heads. These were used as rails on the tops and the bottoms of the doors. Look closely and you can see the winery’s lables in them. I also used the lable plaques from the heads and applied them to the bottom of the doors. The frame and the top were made from rustic hickery and really pears well with the white oak of the barrel. Wine barrels are made of the finest quarter sawn white oak there is. There isn’t the smallest knot or faintest check anywhere in the staves. The hickery was used to tie this piece in with the next project for the winery, an 8’ x 11’ solid hickery butcher block kitchen island. This thing was the funnest thing I’ve built in awhile.

The reason its the “M2 Table” is due to the fact that this is the third one of these tables I’ve made all three belong to the same couple of gals, Michelle and Michelle. The first two reside in their restaurant in downtown Walla Walla, WA. This piece though, is all thiers. This table features a great design idea I’ve used several times. Instead of a single long bench on each side there’s 2, 2 person benches per side. This eliminates the person sitting in the middle from having to step over the bench to get to sit down. The table is 8’ long and with the future end chairs this big mother will seat 10. It’s premium walnut with cherry butterflies and foot pads. Poly finished.

I always looked up to chair making as one of the highest forms in our craft. Even as a little kid I marveled at how they were constructed. I’ve always idealized those who could confidently call themselves “Chairmakers.” Though I’m not there yet I relish the chance every time I get to practice this high art in woodworking. These simple oak chairs where a real treat to get to design and build. Every part was fun from designing to scooping the seat. If you’re reluctant to try this don’t be, just jump in the deep end of the pool and start paddling. It very fun once you get the hang of it. And there is nothing like sitting in a handmade chair!

I had a problem. I got a job to build a sewing machine cabinet with a drop lift. However all I could find when I looked for a lift online was a full lift that drop the machine all the way into to cab… not what my client wanted. Plus they where kinda spendy. Inspired by a flat tire change I happened to watch on TV, I found the perfect solution. Grabbed an inexpesive emergency jack and build a purdy little crank for it and wallla! Its the only sewing machine cabinet that has a 3000 lb capacity. The rest of the cab is made of cherry with “special walnut” stain and a good ol tung oil finish. Its got a drop leaf on one side and pull out trays at the top of the drawer stack. And if the casters ever have a flat…

I love my job! When you get to work on projects like this it makes all the headaches of running a business almost seem worth it. “Can you remake our old Scandinavian chairs”, “Sure,” I replied. Her husband wouldn’t let her throw out their originals which had been passed down by grandparents because they were so comfortable… the chairs that is, not the grandparents. So we made some minor modifications to the design and built her a couple. Just in the nick of time too, I sat in one of the old ones the other day, it broke and I nearly broke my @#$. If you know what I mean. Anyhoo I replaced the original jointery with some strong and attractive Maloof style chair joints and walla. I got the chance to build a dowel making jig I’ve been dreaming up. I should put that on here one of these day too, it works mighty slick! These babies are made out of cherry, (hence the throw back tune for the title) and finished with good ol tong oil. A friend of mine did the upholstery.

The new coffee spot in town “Shooter’s” needed counter tops and like the ones I have in another resturaunt in town. We ended up doing tops and cabinets. Everthing is made of blue pine, even the tops. They are absolutly stunning slabs with epoxy coat.

What a job, wew! Outside Joseph Or there is an amazing place! Aranch where one of the 2012 olympians is training. And where some of the finest craftmanship around is. I was honored to get the chance to build the office fixtures. Honored, but exausted! This long lasting project sports a wrap around natural edge counter top with a root waud support. On the other side of the room there is a combination book shelf, file cabinet, fire place. Everthing is in good ole blue pine. The counter top is finished with a pure on epoxy and the cabintes are finished with laquer. The root waud has about 100 coats of poly. Man it soaked it up!

Here’s a couple of produce bens I built for a natural food store. They are actually a two separate bens composed of two small bens that latch together. Both bens have locking casters. They are built of blue pine with a laquer finish.

This is a functional buffet with a motorized TV lift. Oh ya it is pretty cool! Quarter sawn white oak makes it all the more cool! Early american stain with a nice tung oil finish really makes those big grain rays in the oak pop! All in all very fun project.

Sorry its been a while jock buddies. The shop has been slammed on some long tirm projects that I just finished up with. Here’s a couple nice little window benches with storage. This is in the same house as the TV lift and Marsa’s bedroom projects. They are built with white oak stained with good ol Early American Minwax and tung oil finish. There is a third one made of boxelder that I built with these ones I’ll put up if I even get the time to finish.

By “Pine is Fine” I don’t mean it’s “Ok if you haven’t anything else”. I mean it is an elegant beautiful wood that should be prized by woodworkers. I think to often its dubbed as a soft option, no pun intended, by woodworks who only use high end hardwoods. I am here to say that this wood has its own set of techniques and skills to work. Any woodworker who is too hoydi toydi to use it is not selective but limited in their understanding of woodworking.

Now that my rant is over… This is a beast of a table! 8’ long built out if 1 1/2” stock. The owners wanted benches with it but didn’t want the people to have to step over a bench to sit down. So we came up with this two person bench idea and it works really well. I will definatly use it on other projects. It got a nice satin poly finish on the blue pine. A great place for thanksgiving dinner!

Lets play a little game here LJs. Some of the pieces of this bedroom set were exsiting antiques. Some of them I made to match the antiques. I’m putting my rep on the line to see how well I matched the set. In a few days I’ll get back on and spill the beans if no ones got it, so check back.

The set is mahogany. It really was a trick to stain match (infact I had to totally strip and refinish part of it because of a mismatch) as I refinished the existing pieces in a different stain. Restaining over an old stain always makes sort of a hybrid color thats tough to hit sometimes. Its kind of a federal style set. It was stained then finished with tung oil.

HAPPY PLAYING!

This is a project that I’ve worked on, one piece at a time, for several years. The most resent being the doors and large side light. Armondo, the owner is a man of vission and loves custom woodworking. All of this is done in blue pine I milled out on the sawmill locally. You can see more at http://roguefineliving.com/la-fiesta/

These are a variation on my most popular design. That’s whats great about custom furniture. If you see something you like but for a little difference, you can have it just the way you want. How many times do you get to say that. Usually you have to deal with what you can get. I changed my single shelf design to fit a double shelf need, no problem. And the hickory really sets off the walnut nicely. Its a combination I haven’t done before but will certainly do again.

This was my first project completly designed over email. It started as an inquiry in my website and after a month of mailing drawings back a forth here she is! Its walnut with bookmatched maple panels. Could there be a better pair? The posts are solid 4×4 walnut, no laninations. The panels are 5/8” thick so you can lean up against them no prob. As always its finished with tung oil!

When someone says “this was my great grandmother’s table” I don’t care what it is, I’m in. It could be in a million pieces and I wanna work on it. Because hey, after 150 years it exists and thats enough to make it awesome! And this was in a million piece but luckly all million of them were there. And it turned out incredible. Although you don’t have to make it look that good, just getting the thing to the point that it’ll stands on its own makes you the man. Its like diggn up someone’s great grandpappy, dressing him up in a suit and getting him to walk around. It doesn’t matter if hes a bag of bones, thats amazing. But this is far from a bag of bones and there is nothing cooler than taking something this old and giving it new life.

A local salesman for “Sunheat” modular heating units contacted me about building some custom cabinets for the heaters to set in. He wanted to start with his personal heater he uses in his living room. I thought, “sure shouldn’t be to tough.” Wow was I wrong! the cabinet he wanted included a spiral stair case the curled down underneath where he wanted the mantle to sit. The stairs are gently curved to give then a conical feel. This curve also gives more step surface in the front and more head room behind the steps. The curve also looks beautiful with the traction patters I routed in. There are shop turned null posts at the top and the bottom. The whole corner was covered with shop made wood flooring the wraps down around the hole’s edge too. As you walk down at one point you are directly below the heater unit. This may sound claustrophobic but I am 6’ 3” and there is a surprising amount of head room. The stove cabinet is a raised panel cabinet that is vented in the back. Everything was oak with golden oak Minwax stain. Its finished with lacquer. Wood doesn’t really like to do round. Ever part of this project was a real stretch for the materials and my know how. It was a real growing experience and I’ve learned a ton from it.

“How’d you get into woodworking?” I have gotten the standerd “My dad tought me when I was a kid” to some real odd ball stories.
I got into woodworking mainly in art school. Though I’d grown up messing in my dad’s shop it wasn’t til college that I realized the vercitility of wood. I took a presentation class and hd to make custom frames for a bunch of my paintings. I had as much fun making the frames as I did painting the pictures and I’ve been pittifully hooked ever since.
This is a new painting that I had to frame. I thought about framing the piece from the first brush stroke.