one of our favorite projects is creating a custom dining room ... we have a project coming up where well be doing an expanding dining table with a hard curly maple inlay, 8 chairs, and a cherry and curly maple sideboard. we get to make the pieces relate, in essence, determine the style of the room ... the designs for this new project are loosely based on the furniture in my own dining room above, with of course, the clients unique input which is based on their own experience with a table i made for the clients brother in 1990 or so ... round and round it goes. click the photos to enlarge them ...
this is part of the proposal for that project ..
meanwhile, for a potential client who is coming to visit this week to discuss furniture for her dining room, i rounded up photos of different projects of different styles, most of which consisted of at least a table, some chairs and a sideboard ...
while in the natural cherry photo above this one, we were going for a more contemporary look, here were shooting for the traditional, with the dark, carved mahogany legs and stained mahogany and walnut chairs with burl backsplats ...
here, weve clearly taken a contemporary slant on the traditional, dark, arts and crafts style, taking our cues from the designs of greene and greene and stickley, but by using natural cherry we have (hopefully) brought it up into the present.
hanging fir and burl table lantern ... inlays in the top and 0n the aprons of the table
here we have the one board bubinga dining room ... plain and simple design, the table top and face of the sideboard was made from one 46" wide, 19 board of bubinga ...
here, the view from the other end ...
another take on what we refer to on our website as our studio style, a mix of natural or stained woods with painted details and accents. (love the milton avery boxers over the mantle) we used to make quite a few windsors, but, not so many any more ... im encouraging the padded seats ...
the sideboard for that table ..
and another ... for more, check out the dining table, seating, and sideboard sections of our website for other styles and designs ...
one of my designer clients sent me this eero saarinen table base and asked us to make a wood top for it with a chalky flat finish. she chose quartered white oak and we all thought it was a cool form when it went out the door today ... im not sure exactly where she found the base, but they are out there somewhere, and, it appears from this link, they can be purchased at a very reasonable price sometimes. since we fixed some danish modern couches and chairs a while back, i have become re-interested in the style, which i find simple, yet practical and elegant in an understated choice. i kind of think of those danish and swedish guys as 1960s and 70s shakers, without the religion. use what you need, and as little of it as you need, to get the job done.
simple detailing
simple construction
it was originally going to be a walnut top, but that was too dark ....
we refinished it naturally with dark danish oil from watco ... perfect ...
straightforward joinery and minimalist design. badly repaired several times in the past ... we plugged 
i even bought the book, which i have enjoyed
check it out ... great stuff and some interesting design ideas there ...
