THE DESIGN PROCESS
The design process is fundamental to our custom work. Collaborating with the client and taking the furniture’s setting into consideration, Rick creates a piece to satisfy needs and aesthetics and then builds it to last.

Initial sketches are turned into a three-dimensional computer model of the piece (and its architectural setting, if necessary) to help visualize the final product.

All raw materials are obtained from local mills, using local lumber. Our furniture is built entirely of hardwood. Cabinetry is built with a minimum of plywood inside hardwood face frames, doors, drawers and countertops. Mass produced furniture practice is to discard up to half of the lumber because of “character flaws” in the wood. Instead, Rick lays out the lumber before building, using wood grain and color as design elements, making them more or less pronounced according to the aesthetic need. Paints and finishes are applied to accentuate the quality of the wood, rather than hiding it: the open pores of ash become a subtle texture in a painted surface; cherry and birch glow with the warmth of oil finish – impossible to mistake for mass produced.

Rick believes that quality is ecological. Furniture that lasts more than a few years pays for itself in the long run, and will be beautiful forever. In the workshop, leftover pieces are reused to make our small items like cutting boards and turned candlesticks and ornaments. Sawdust is composted to feed more trees.