Curvy Dining Set In Figured White Oak

This summer, I was able to complete one of my favorite and most ambitious commissions to date. This dining set in white oak and fumed oak was a pleasure to design and build. The chairs and benches in particular, carry a load of joinery and veneering techniques that I had yet to compile into one design. The chairs are extremely strong and comfortable too! It was a lot of fun to slip match up this lovely oak veneer as well...  

Hefty Solid Maple Island Top For a New Modern Home

Large kitchen islands still are very popular in the modern kitchen. They not only serve as excellent work stations but also become a social center, from breakfast to dinner parties. This one is solid maple with it's quartered faces turned upwards for stability, looks, and strength. The finish is a wipe on linseed oil based varnish with zero petrochemicals. Despite popular belief, mineral oil is not an acceptable finish for wood. It evaporates quickly and leaves the wood looking dry and thirsty. A proper varnish will have staying power and can be easily reapplied.

Unique Dining Furniture Fit For a Unique Loft

This dining room room set was designed in response to some of the furniture available from the hip, modern, imported, and factory made furniture stores. It was built with a budget in mind, using minimized fabrication techniques and utilizing unique finishing techniques. The slatted grey-ish wood is quartered white ash. The veneered portions of both pieces are "smoked" oak. All doors and drawers are touch latched to keep the look very minimal.

Note: Above is a snapshot showing one of the doors being clamped up. You can see that the slats are pegged through tongue and grooves to hold the assembly together.

Houseful of Cherry-Dining and Bedroom Suites

Cherry is my favorite wood to work. It's easy on cutting edges and it's deep, rich color is easy on the eyes. Here we have two pieces in the dining room: a bookcase and a secretary of sorts, and two in the bedroom: a bed and it's side table.

Neighborhood Kitchen: A Maple Gem

I had the supreme pleasure of collaborating with a great neighbor to create an updated kitchen for their humble stone bungalow. The kitchen had previously been a white melamine functional set up that needed some of the appliances to be moved around and storage solutions streamlined.

We decided on a lovely flitch of curly quilted maple for all of the book matched panels and designed a door style based on the trim around all of the entries in the house. The overall look sets a serene tone for a very functional, updated kitchen in a limited space. All of the pulls are stainless steel to match the more modern appliances. The drawer boxes are maple and mounted with European soft closing glides.

My favorite detail in the kitchen that really shines is a shallow bookcase type cabinet at the end of the countertop. It serves multiple functions as a place to store cookbooks, showcase specialty items, and glassware behind a unique sling paneled door that saves space. The back of the cabinet is solid wood laid up in a traditional panel to give a sense of warmth and structure to the overall design.

September Shows 2010: Concept VS. Completion Part 2...

September 2010 was a busy month. Along with a show of conceptual work at Rockhurst University, I had the good fortune of having an exhibition of furniture pieces at Gould Evans Architecture in Westport, KCMO. It was a great chance to show off some new and old work, along with photographs of processes in the workshop.

September Shows 2010: Concept VS. Completion Part 1...

Back in September 2010, I was fortunate to have two exhibition running simultaneously. The first pictured here is a group show called ART TEST curated by Sean Kelley at Rockhurst University. The show was a play on a riff following professional craft makers in midstream through process. In my case, I live amongst stacked and "stickered" wood piles that are to become furniture pieces, eventually. These playful stacks have a kind of groovy visual life of their own.

Walnut burl cocktail table: a curvy challenge...

One of my great clients asked me to come up with an adventurous design for a large cocktail table for their living room. I was fortunate to find a lovely flitch of large walnut burl for the top. I composed a nice four-way book matched pattern for the top. The pattern waterfalls over the edges. The design of the base is inspired by a lovely table by the late, great English furniture maker/designer Alan Peters. The mortise and tenon joinery became much more difficult with all of the intersecting curves!

Refreshing residential cabinetry...

In another collaboration with Davison Architecture + Urban Design, I was fortunate in 2010 to get a great residential commission building built in cabinetry for a lovely master bathroom/bedroom remodel. The most fun portion was working out the curved and coved vanity doors.

2010: Back to my woodworking roots and new working relationships.

2010 was my first year out on my own. I had several great commissions, including building the shop fixtures for two new Escapist Skateboarding locations, working in collaboration with Davison Architecture + Urban Design and 3-Axis Inc. The job was a blast and brought back fond memories of designing and building skate ramps back home in NJ when I was kiddo. Kansas City has a very vibrant skate scene, headed by the mighty Escapist crew. The culture of skateboarding is as creative and potent as ever and it's a real pleasure working with these folks.

Creating a little home base to share shop photos, project progress, and thoughts on the making of fine furniture.

Greetings from KCMO! Just completed a large commercial job in Prairie Village, KS for a lovely clothing boutique called CLIQUE. Had the chance to build some fitting room stools using some incredible French Walnut and African Wenge. Did all of the casework for the clothing racks and the point of sale station designed by Davison Architecture + Urban Design.