This kitchen and pantry in northern New Mexico is one of the greatest challenges I have faced yet, and I’m very proud of the result. The process involved building pieces in Brooklyn, and shipping them West before travelling myself to install. It took a few trips, but in the end, everything fit like a giant puzzle. Nothing gets your heart rate up like seeing months of work being lifted precariously on and off of flatbeds.
The clients of this 3rd Avenue apartment in New York City wanted to update their kids’ bedroom without going over-budget. The solution was to leave the pre-existing closet cabinet in place and give it a new look. I first nailed oak strips to the old structure, making sure to keep them plum and perpendicular. Then I fabricated new custom drawer bodies to fit the existing cavities. Finally, I constructed doors and drawer faces before installing them to finish the face-lift.
For this project, I was the lead installer on a small crew. The goal was to keep up with a second crew working in the shop by setting all the bases and cabinets on site in time for the next round. The large scope demanded that I juggle many balls: make sure that deliveries flowed smoothly; provide daily guidance and delegate to my co-workers; stay on schedule and attend job-site meetings; and act as the liaison between the client, architect, designer, and my employer, all while handling my own share of the installation work.
White on white isn’t the most exciting, but in the end I was satisfied with the sheer volume and precision of this project. Special challenges included navigating a freight elevator roughly equal in size to the pre-made cabinet sections, and scribing filler pieces against very uneven floors and columns.
This project was a private commission for a couple re-doing their living room. Together with their input and my experience, we agreed upon a design that best suited the desired form and function. The thick, shop-made oak veneer used for the frame and panel doors adds a special touch to the patterned outcome.
I teamed up with a co-worker in order to outfit this studio/cottage in upstate New York for an esteemed artist. We chose mahogany for all the work in order to provide warmth to the space. Special care was given to veneer layup as well as matching all the solid rails and styles. I was especially excited about the very long wall-to-wall desk that arrived oversized and was scribed to fit on-site, although I wasn’t happy at the time when we had to lift and maneuver it through the bedroom window.
When a client wanted a long yet minimal dining room table to match their sleek downtown apartment, the solution was to encase an aluminium frame in substrate and custom teak solid edge. After pressing veneer on the top and bottom, I achieved a table top that is both beautiful and extremely stable. The alternating layers of side and end grain on the legs and edge are a nice complement to the chairs chosen to complete the set.
A major, new museum approached my employer to make and install handrails in their foyer. As a result, I was tasked with traveling to Maryland multiple times in order to scope out the space, as well as install multiple prototypes. In the end, we made a three-part hickory handle on the CNC router that was glued together in sections and eventually custom cut and dominoed on-site. As a finishing touch, I brought along many off-cuts from which custom plugs were chosen, matched, and cut to conceal all of the Tapcon fasteners. The result is an almost invisible mounting system.
This cabinet is one of the many pieces of furniture I have made as a holiday gift for a loved-one. I decided to make semi-transparent doors in order to showcase the contents, while also offering a sense of organization. Mortise and tenon joinery was used for the base, and routed pulls add a design flare to this custom piece.
I try to get away from machines once in a while, and this gift was the perfect excuse to bring out my hand tools. There’s nothing quite like the calm and quiet of hand cut joinery, especially when the pins actually fit into the tails. I also love pine for it’s soft feel, even if it can be unforgiving.
My role on this project was mostly as an installer when our shop was asked to remodel a third floor living space near Union Square. The wall panels and doors are all oak, which I hung on tracks and hinges once the existing space had been demolished right down to the framing. The kitchen and free-standing cabinets became a challenge since they were made out of paperstone and aluminium which scratch all too easily. After much shimming, scribing, and polishing, the result was quite pleasing to the eye.
Here again is a space that started in Brooklyn and finished in New Mexico. I made all the cabinetry and built-ins mostly by myself, and installed them with a small crew of helpers. The clever design of this room called for massive, floor-to-ceiling cabinets complete with doors that act as space dividers. Redwood was wrapped around cedar to divide the bedroom from the bathroom and create two distinct spaces.
I’m totally addicted to the physicality and satisfaction of making objects on a daily basis. Here are some progress shots of past projects that make you wish you could bring your work home with you once in a while.
