Custom Furniture | The Final Step
Colorado Hand Built Furniture | The final steps of a custom furniture build are often the most fun.
The hard work of designing and building shines through in the beauty of the finished product. As the piece comes to life it’s also a time to reflect on purpose / intent and make any changes.
On our recent side table build, affectionately termed the Stonehenge Table, there were a few last minute design tweaks that really gave the piece its final character.
The table is an exploration of organic forms, breaking out of the common linear geometry.
As a design in-progress piece, I started with a basic idea, but let the character of the individual parts guide the overall composition.
The walnut legs are coopered into gentle curves. Each curve is slightly different.
Coopering is the process of cutting multiple strips of wood with a slight angle to the edge. When glued together the pieces gently curve. It’s how barrels are made.
The top is spalted curly maple. Spalting is growth of fungus in the wood, giving it beautiful black streaks. Curl refers to the wavy grain pattern that shows up as shimmering ripples. It’s unusual to find both characteristics in a single slab. We were lucky here.
End Table form & function |As the piece came together it seemed to be missing some pop. Adding two brass dowels into each leg really rounded out the character of the entire piece. It goes to show that proper subtle design elements have big impacts.
After meticulous surface preparation a few coats of Osmo PolyX hard wax oil bring the table to life. The top is sanded to a finer grit, giving it a higher sheen than the legs. The higher sheen brings out the incredible character of the spalting and curl of the maple, making it the focal point. The slightly tamer sheen to the legs still highlights the beauty of the walnut while not competing with the top.
Why call it Stonehenge?
Contemplating the form during the build it reminded me of the monoliths. Organic. Solid. Mysterious.
What stories does it tell?
What stories would you create?
Does your current furniture express your individual tastes & lifestyle?
Distinctive in design, with carefully considered visual cues, and built to endure for years. It’s also a lot of fun.
