I was given the opportunity to purchase some old pine floorboards from a friend of my wife’s. And when I say old, I mean old. These boards came out of an old farmhouse that was built before Confederation….that’s old! This design is compliments of Norm Abram and The New Yankee Workshop. I made it a bit longer. It’s 7’ long and 20” wide when closed; 40” wide when the drop-leaves are both open. It can be seen upstairs in The Tea Shop Café in Black Diamond.
John wanted a “waterfall” table. I had never heard of one. So I googled it! It’s not an easy task when you have to cut a 45° bevel on a 2 ½” piece of lumber with a 7 ¼” circular saw. Somehow I managed. This table is made from a live edge piece of poplar that was felled “standing dead” near Drumheller. It also has repurposed fir framing material from the old Tiki Tiki restaurant in downtown Calgary. It is smashing!
Val came to me with probably the most unique request I have had to date. He wanted to conduct guided fishing tours on the Bow River in his “new” fishing boat. But his boat didn’t look very new. He tasked me with the challenge of outfitting the interior with new woodwork. All out of alder and finished with satin spar varnish. Looks beautiful!
Sheryl had a very large, open room that demanded a very large dining table. This one is constructed entirely of hard maple and the footprint is a whopping 114” long and 54” wide. It has 6” x 6” turned, solid maple legs. It was all we could do to get this table out of my shop and into its new home!
Jim and Sonja came to me with a request to reuse the glass from their existing dining table in a new, larger table.... The existing table was too small and instead of wasting the glass from the old table, I added an alder frame around the perimeter of the glass and held the glass up with a lattice-work of African mahogany.
It worked out perfect.
After years of living in the house with no access to the loft, Gwyn finally found someone to build the proper loft ladder... just in time for him to put the house on the market!
It’s made of hard maple and incorporates a 3-drawer bedside table.
John came to me with a request suggesting that he might want a desk with steel legs. So that's what I gave him! This 6-drawer desk (yes, there's 6!) was created after my own new dining table with 2x3 steel legs. The remainder of the piece is maple ply and Peruvian Walnut.
Located on the Bow River in the Community of West Hillhurst, Karen and Peter transformed their 1950’s bungalow into a beautiful two-story Craftsman-style home.
After commissioning me to create the front door for the new home, they also asked me to create the mantle and hearth. Only the woodwork is mine, but I do believe it looks fantastic! Both are created out of alder.
Think of the Morris Chair as the distant precursor to today’s modern recliner. Traditionally the Morris chair has a hinged back set between two un-upholstered arms, with the reclining angle adjusted through a row of pegs, holes or notches in each arm.
I chose Hickory to create my chair largely because the hickory I had in stock had some beautiful grain that could be featured in the side stretchers. I chose dark brown leather for the upholstery because I felt it nicely complemented the dark grain in the hickory.
