Finished today, has a shellacked mahogany top…
All posts by Greg
There are several new projects in the works right now. I’m making 6 Manhattan design tables with unique features. I got hold of some tractor paint today so I’ll probably make a John Deere green table along with a vintage Caterpillar yellow table. And a polished console table with a metal top. I just found somebody local that has a plasma CNC machine which can precision cut letters, or anything for that matter. So I am going to try cutting METRO on a metal top, and possibly an all metal NY table which I am pretty excited about. It would be big letters that would work as separate side tables, or combined to make a coffee table.
Hopefully next month I’m going to NY, for the first time I might add. Might be there for a week checking out the city, as well as marketing my wife’s bridal line. Can’t wait to go!
I’ve been feeling inspired lately and have been coming up with new design ideas all day long, maybe 10 a day. So I decided that I need to start writing them down because I can’t remember them all! Don’t know how I’ll make all these designs, but it will be nice to refer to when I get some downtime. One idea I am really excited about is to make some lamps and lighting.
I am happy to be part of an up and coming luxury bridal company. We did our first photo shoot this week and I snapped some behind the scenes shots. Should have the real photos in a couple weeks along with our website launch. Our designers Sim and Jeanne blew me away with their creations! It was truly amazing seeing the 11 dresses on our model Sarah. And the next collection is already in the works.
As well as my furniture company has done, I know this fashion line will dwarf it. But fear not, I will continue doing what I love!
If you are interested, feel free to contact me. All the gowns are made by hand, in house, and to order, with only the best fabric imported from European mills.
Here is a shot of the Victoria dress.
This new creation has a thick mahogany top with a shellac finish. It measure 40″ w x 20″ d x 18″ t and weighs a little over 100 lbs. The cabinet has two doors with cast iron latches, and is enclosed all the way around by a cloverleaf screen. Other features include a dark vintage patina on the steel, lots of iron rivets, 6″ cast iron casters, and a small hole inside the cabinet for A/V wiring if you want to use it for that. This piece is designed to function as coffee table or a TV stand with room for components below.
Priced at $1150
This design is based on my media console, just in a coffee table size (40″ w x 20″ d x 18″ t). It would also make a cool tv stand. It has 6″ heavy duty casters, a rich dark vintage patina on the steel, and aged gray oak for a top. Weighs around 100 lbs, but rolls around easily with the casters. I’ll be making some different versions of this, like enclosing the bottom shelf, using mahogany, and making one 50″ wide. Priced at $895, this piece can also be customized to suit your needs.
Here is a Manhattan coffee table, named after the bridge in NY. I wasn’t sure about the red color (which I modeled after the Golden Gate bridge) at first, but now that it’s finished, I love it! The hardwood top is aged white oak and has a waxed finish. It’s a simple design and has a familiar vintage look. Size is 40″ x 20″ x 19″ tall. Price is $795, or unpainted with a natural patina on the steel would be $695.
This website reached 50k hits this week! Pretty amazing! I’ve been chatting with editors working on getting featured in a home magazine. If and when that happens, this business is going to really take off. And so I realized that I love this business and want to grow!
Working on a couple coffee tables based on my media console design. Hope to have one of them ready in about 10 days. Size is going to be 40″ x 20″ x 18.5″ tall. One will have the cabinet doors, and the other probably won’t. This would also work well as a low TV stand. They’ll have the same 6″ casters and will be uber heavy, about 125 lbs. Price will start around $795.
Now I just need to come up with a name for this design line! Here is a photoshop cut and paste of how it might look.
The other day I was looking at New York bridges and felt inspired to create a new design. I call this new piece the Manhattan table, named after the Manhattan bridge. It uses angle iron in a unique way, which lends itself to a strong structural design, while using less material. And I love the combination of cross braces, rivets, and bolts. It measures 11″ x 12″ x 23.5″ tall, has a raw steel patina, and a mahogany top with a dark vintage stain. Stay tuned for a Manhattan coffee table! This vintage industrial design would price around $350.
Here is a slightly altered Brooklyn design coffee table with heavier casters, aged hardwood, and an inset top. I already have plans for a completely new design based on old bridge architecture.
Here is a big console shelf I just finished for a client’s office. I managed to get some really big slabs of Honduran mahogany for the table and it came out pretty cool. It’s huge (70+ inches long and 18″ deep), weighed 130 lbs, and has 5 spoke casters on it.
I had a customer ask about chroming a desk today. Wow, a chrome desk? Sounds interesting, and shiny, and I like shiny things! So I looked into pricing which was $250-$350 for a media console or desk. And they can do brushed chrome or nickel and polished chrome, nickel or COPPER! So my mind has been running, what would look good chrome or copper?! One thought is a making a media console with a polished copper frame, and chrome lower cabinet/doors and casters. Then put a butcher block top on it to make it a rolling island. Or maybe a chrome Brooklyn coffee table? A copper desk with chrome wheels? Hmm, the possiblities are endless.
This would change the style of these pieces a bit, probably more mid-century modern.
I was recently contacted by an Indian company asking if I was interested in buying their furniture. The minimum order was a 20 foot container load. So I took at look at their catalog and was amazed at the prices. $100 for an end table that would take me a week to make. $225 for a dresser that would take me 2 weeks to make. I thought to myself, “holy shit, I should buy a container load and sell this stuff for dirt cheap!” I could even mark it up 300-500% and probably still sell it. But after some contemplation, I realized what a stupid idea it was. Over buying imported products has taken it’s toll on this country, as well as others. Some kid in India is probably working for $1 a day to make this stuff. And it’s fairly dangerous work too. I almost cut off my pinkie the other day. And I am very careful, poorer countries are far from that in my experience. And if I was to be selling this stuff, I’d be taking jobs away from other Americans like myself. I’ve been to just about all of the local industrial style furniture shops around town and many of them are selling these imports. And it looks pretty decent, but feels cheap to me, probably because they use thinner materials. A lot of the online retailers are doing the same thing. Hudson Goods is selling a cart that has the same picture from the Indian catalog. They use reclaimed wood too, but do I care if an India made table is made using reclaimed wood?
Kind of Ironically, I ended up hiring a European immigrant to help me out. He does great work, understands me, and the money stays in this country. Hey, it stays in this state! So if you care, you might ask the store “where does this come from?” Because odds are they took off the “Made in India / Thailand / Mexico / Indonesia / China” sticker. This might be my first political post, at least on this blog.
This is a new Industrial Dining Table design (Aug 2010). Prices start around $1,850, and I can customize this in many different ways.
Here are some pictures of a customer’s dining table and bench. Table measures 7.5′ x 3.5′ x 36″ tall and the bench is 61″ wide. Reminds me of a pub table I saw in London. The top is spruce with the Grandpa stain.
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