Country French Furniture

Above: Solid cherry end table

As I have stated in my blogs many times, I love building finely-made furniture in solid wood and many of my clients come to me for just that reason. My latest project is no exception.

My clients, who have become friends as well, recently commissioned me to design and build three Country French-style tables. (I have built many other pieces for them in the past including their front entryway, fireplace mantels, a hand-forged chandelier, master bath cabinets, various other pieces of furniture, etc.). They wanted each table to make a unique statement of their own, not matching, and with different details, woods, finishes, carving, and hardware.

They needed two end tables and one entry hall table. One end table sits between two chairs set at an angle, and the other end table between two sofas at a different angle. Each table needed to be a different height and shape to fit into their surroundings and function properly. The hall table needed a specific proportion to balance the entryway. What I love about making custom finely-built furniture is that I can give my client anything they want; any size, shape, style, wood, finish, carving, hardware.

As with all my projects, I only use solid wood, buying my lumber in the rough and surface planing and cutting it to size. We never use MDF. We chose solid curly maple for two of the pieces with different dyes and glazes to give them a medium light finish. We chose a very nice solid cherry for the other piece, again using dyes and glazes to create a warm, rich finish with lots of depth. The hardware was all made in France, some solid brass and some solid iron with different finishes.

The furniture turned out beautiful and my clients wrote me a kind letter telling me how much they enjoy my furniture, how it fits perfectly in their space, and how rare it is to find such well-made furniture today. I love hearing from my clients on how happy they are with my work. I put so much into my craft and it's great to know it's appreciated. Below are more pictures at various angles of the three tables I designed and built. Most of the pictures were taken out on my client's front porch as the lighting was perfect.