The Woodshop
People often say that a walk through the shop adds value to the furniture.
Floor Plan
It's a small building relative to the volume of furniture we produce, 2700 square feet. It's laid out for the way we do things, the order in which we do them, and the catalogue of furniture we build. It's an evolving organism, not a collection of machines and work tables. It's an instrument, it has rhythm and harmony, and it must be kept in tune.
The Scale and the Pace
Some people call this space a studio. There is artistry...but it's a shop. It's noisy. We put our backs into our living. Machines play a big role. It's not a factory where parts move from station to station manned by operators doing the same thing all day. Parts do move from station to station, but they are accompanied by crafts men and women whose hands, eyes, and hearts are engaged in the steps and invested in the outcome.
Typically, we mark and cut out the parts for ten or so chairs and/or stools from rough lumber, work them until they are ready to assemble, match them into coherent compositions of figure and color, mark them as individuals, and rack them in the assembly room. As we begin to assemble those chairs (2 or 3 a day) we cut out another batch.
We build tables, and other more or less custom items, along with the runs of chairs and stools.