A few years ago I was asked to build eight huge tables for a wedding reception hall. Initially, I was a little hesitant to accept the project due to being severely ADD. I don’t do well with monotony.

So I was a little surprised when I said “sure!” to this project. Surprised because it was 31 beds.

Thats not a typo.

It was 7 bunk beds and 17 single beds. Which to a builder, translates to 31 single beds.

Whew…. What an experience.

Two months and over $10k in material alone I ended up with these crappy pictures of the most beautiful single and bunk beds Ive ever seen. This isn’t even all of them….

Solid Alder and a timeless design will ensure that these beds will serve a lifetime in the Coates Family “Cabin”.

This was a big one.

Jeff at Cushman Wakefield contacted me with a request to build some tables to finish out their break room at their office in downtown SLC. The request was simple enough; It couldn’t look like it came from Crate and Barrel.

Ok.

There wasn’t too much back and forth on design with this one. Jeff emailed me a few pics, I emailed him a design that I came up with, he said go with it.

Ok. (we’re rockin’ already!)

Due to the number of pieces in this project and the fact that I dont have a ton of space to build and store stuff, I had to get the tables done, load them in the trailer and then start on the benches. I normally like to kinda build stuff like this in unison because I like to pair them together during fabrication and have a looky-look how they mesh and maybe change or adjust they design if need be. I didn’t have that luxury with this build tho.

Given the design of the tables, and the fact that the benches needed to be able to slide completely under the tables, I had to get creative with the design of the benches to accommodate the trestle. I had a few ideas of what I was gonna do but in the end, but given the fact that the tables were already in the trailer nested on top of each other, I wasn’t able to play around with the design after seeing them paired up… so I just went with it. I think everything turned out pretty rad too.

Thank you so much to Jeff and the rest of the gang at Cushman Wakefield for commissioning this project. And an extra thanks to Jeff for taking time out of his day to muscle the tables and benches into the freight elevator with me! (last pic of everything loaded into a 12×6 trailer!)

How cool did this turn out! Not gonna lie…kinda blew me up a little bit. Its hard enough to weld two things EXACTLY the same, but these bases aren’t welded..they’re BENT! And there’s THREE of them! You wanna talk about measure twice and cut once, this was more like measure ten times and bend, then tweak, then cold-set a little bit…but guess what? They are EXACTLY the same! And if you’re asking yourself why Im making such a big deal about this, its because they all have to sit level on the floor so the bench isn’t all wonky.

And it isn’t.

Kelly is a loyal client whose house has more of my stuff in it than my own house does. Let me tell you…its very flattering to go to her house and see all of the stuff Ive built for her over the years.

So thank you (again), Kelly!

Cliff and Stanna live here in Park City. They built an incredible house in an incredible location and thus, needed an incredible dining table…duh!

This is another one that took a LOOOOONG time to deliver. I remember talking to Stanna in August when she asked, “how long until its delivered?” I said, “Well, it won’t be two weeks but it definitely won’t be Thanksgiving either”

So, a couple days before Thanksgiving Stanna finally gets here table.

In my defense tho, the solid surface guy was the hangup…god knows I never procrastinate…ever! Yeah right!

Anyway, lets get to the table. I mean look at this thing! A Walnut base with a solid surface top called Neolith that is supposedly diamond tough. I edge banded (twice) with Walnut to build up a nice, durable edge and then finished off with two 20″ Walnut leafs, or leaves (both correct if you’re wondering).

At 65 inches in diameter, it spreads apart to over 100 inches to accommodate larger dinner parties, or possibly an aircraft landing. Its big.

Hands down the most intricate, up at night thinking about how Im gonna build it, detailed piece I’ve done to date.

Merci Cliff and Stanna!

(will hopefully update with better pics at some point…and pay no attention to it being wet, it spent the night in my trailer for an early delivery and started to sweat when we brought it in)

I think it was like three years ago that Tom reached out to me to build him some stools. We chatted, traded pics… all the stuff that goes into designing something cool, right? But the stools remained ghosts…for three years. Then a couple months ago we started talking about the stools…again! But this time, the stools became real!

So a little backstory about this whole project. Tom and Kristen have this INSANE house here in Park City. Not insane like those idiotic, 10k s/f super mansions that no one lives in, insane like – super cool, 100 year old, old town, renovated sooooo perfectly, insane houses. This wasn’t just a “oh lets go to Poverty Barn and pick out some stools” kinda thing…hell no! This was a “Lets build some kick-ass bar stools that will be the perfect addition to this insane house!” kinda thing.

So we did.

Steel frames with 100 year old “Pickle-Wood” from pickle vats in PA, with custom leather backs sewn up by none other than Diamond Jim Davis himself! And oh, did I mention that theres TWELVE OF THEM!?

How friggin cool….

Hammered these out for a close friend of mine whose been asking me to build him a table for quite some time.  Daves a pretty cool guy… mountain biker, fisherman, whiskey drinker… a man’s man, if you will. So he wasn’t having anything too terribly fancy, but he still wanted it to be rad, and it had to be functional.

He sent me a few pics of some stuff he saw that he liked but as with any two guys, discussing furniture design always took a backset to more important conversation topics…like mountain biking, fishing, and drinking whiskey!

But once Dave knew that I knew what he was after he pretty much just told me to run with it… and here’s the result.

A killer Maple top with Walnut legs and matching benches. Definitely at home in any “man’s” house!

Delivered these pieces to Carrie today. She and her husband own a great condo at Deer Valley here in PC however the furniture that it came with was a little on the bulky side.

This awesome piece had walnut legs and a beechwood top and bottom shelf. Somewhat hidden is the custom steel truss that I welded up that penetrates each leg and also supports the bottom shelf. It took quite a bit of time to mortise the rectangle holes in the legs and I have to be honest, I even kinda surprised myself with how perfect they turned out!

Also included with the coffee table is this great little cubby shelf I made. Reclaimed sides and dividers with pine shelves and random parquet backing. The hooks are 1-1/4″ steel that I custom bent for this project. I think it turned out great!

Delivered this beauty today to a local company here in Park City. They contacted me with a need for a hip new conference table to go into their new office space, but with a twist.

The company specializes in small startups that get funded by generous investors in and around PC. One question they had for me was if Id be interested in showcasing a table in return for some great exposure to new clients. While I normally have all the work I can handle, I figured it couldn’t hurt…right?

They also needed to keep the cost in check as well so we decided to use pine for the top and some reclaimed gas pipe for the legs. I welded some radius’d end caps on which I thought added a cool twist to things, and also left the random spray paint that was already on the pipe when I found it.

I masked the edges and painted them white for contrast which really makes this thing pop! The spray paint and white edge reminded me of the pieces/sections of the Berlin wall that Ive seen in museums around the world…hence the name.

Whatever its name though, I think it turned out pretty rad!

This is one of those tables that I try and imagine how it will look when its done but could never imagine it turning out this good.

Ive known Preston and his wife Jen for a while. About a year ago he asked if he could build a table with me for their new house. And because Preston isn’t a total tool I said “sure!”

I met preston at the lumber supplier so he could check out some different wood species and he swung for the fence! 8/4″ walnut (8/4 is 2″ incase you were wondering…eight quarter inches…two inches…dig?) and it was gorgeous!

We designed and insane trestle base for this thing with a bench that mimics the table and things couldn’t have turned out better.

We basically created an 8 foot long butcher block. The sanding we did (the sanding Preston did) took days….its SO FREAKIN SMOOTH! We filled cracks. Sanded more (Preston sanded more), and then Preston sanded even more.

There was no way we were schmearing poly on this thing. Opting instead for some natural beeswax to bring out the character of the wood, which is why this post is a “preview”. I need to go back down to Prestons house now that they’re all moved in and the table is waxed and get some good pics of this thing!

The steel base consists of 3/8 x 5″ plate that I welded up. Its partially mortised into the sides of the table which creates subtle shadow lines and I designed the trestle base so no fasteners would show..actually, there are no fasteners visible anywhere on this table. SO snazzy…I know!

All in all a fun experience. I learned that Im horrible at getting anything done when theres someone in the shop that will pretend they’re interested in my mercurial musings. I also learned that I can push off all the sucky sanding onto the apprentice while I do “more important” work….

Anyway, look for an updated post with finished (and hopefully less sucky) pics soon!

WOW! You’d think I’ve been laying around doing nothing for almost a year! I think my last post was in April or May or somethin’!

Well, I can’t say that Ive been building too much; A pretty horrific crash on my bike left me with three broken ribs and A LOT of pain and recovery last year.

I did manage to build a few things though. An enormous quantity of metal railing, both indoor and outdoor, as well as a decent size remodel to part of our house.

So while I can say with all honesty that I have in fact been somewhat busy, I was definitely lacking in the “new posts” department.

Anywhoooo… Im back. Officially. Im going to be accepting a few new clients to carry me through until the booger-eaters are out of school and summer officially begins!

Below are some really, really, REALLY bad pics of some of the projects Ive been working on while I was busy not posting on the old blog-er-oo.

As always, drop me a line if you’d like to discuss having a pice built and thanks for stoppin’ by!