Custom Fine Furniture: Tables, Chairs and Dining Rooms

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Triple B Hutch (Big Beideman Buffet) and Table: As my sister and nearly favorite brother-in-law warily approach the onset of full maturity, they felt their former dining room set (ingredients: particleboard, opalescent auto paint, and duct tape) needed some updating. I designed a dining room set that had one foot firmly in the adult world but lets everyone know they're still a little wacky. Especially my brother-in-law.
L and L Dining Table: Figured cherry veneers, quartered mahogany veneers, figured maple, cherry; 29” high x 54” wide x 96” long (144” extended). One day Len and Linda woke up and realized they were no longer graduate students. They wanted a grown-up dining room table, “a center for conviviality” (said Len) for their family and friends. These are very nice people and they have lots of friends: this table grows to twelve feet long.
Catherine's Table and Chairs: Karelian birch veneers, purpleheart veneers and solids, Indonesian rosewood, fabric; 29" high x 42" wide x 84" long without leaves, 120" long with leaves. This fearless and creative Wiltonian wanted her dining room "fun and funky"; I was delighted to oblige. As with all the work in her home, I collaborated with Catherine and her capable interior designer, Kathy Cragan, to create these designs.
Exploding Table and Chairs: pomele sapele veneers, macassar ebony veneers, mahogany, stainless steel 84"l x 48"w x 30"h (table) This one was really hard to engineer: a friend in Sacramento wanted an elliptical table that was thin on the edge and thick in the middle. It actually blew a hole in its top when I had it in the vacuum veneer press; hence the name
Andrea's Dining Table: mahogany, purpleheart84"l x 36"w x 30"h (table) I made this for an engaging Detroit attorney I knew when she was at Smith. She liked some Milan furniture designs that we altered to fit her home
Susan and Lee's Table: Eastern walnut; 30" high x 48" round without leaves, 84" long with leaves. I built this traditional piece from some beautifully wide walnut for friends in Dorset. The quality of the materials and the simple beauty of the design create a harmonious whole
By Hand Table: Figured maple, East Indian rosewood, ipil; 30" high by 46" round without leaves, 92" long with leaves. I built this piece for a show in the early 80's. It didn't sell and I needed a dining room table: my family has been eating dinner at it ever since. It still looks good.
Roger and Linda's Table: Cherry veneers and solids, mahogany veneers and solids, maple, cocobolo; 30" high x 60" round without leaves, 96" long with leaves. It is a special pleasure building furniture for old friends. This table has a single piece of inlaid cocobolo in the mahogany cross-banding to remind them of me.
Schwindt Table: Mahogany, satinwood, ebony, and rosewood veneers; 30" high x 42" wide x 84" long without leaves, 120" long with leaves. Nancy and Paul asked me to reproduce a table I was restoring; I said sure, but it was 1983 and I hadn't done anything quite like it before. It took a few tries but I finally got it right. It still looks good, just like the original.
Hall Table and Chairs: purpleheart veneers and solids, cherry 60"l x 36"h x 18"w These were part of a series of pieces I designed that had incongruous combinations of lines. They were meant to comment on the incongruous combinations of events that make up our lives.
Wavy Front Buffet: Flitch-sawn cherry, padauk, cocobolo; 22" deep x 32" high x 66" long. Like its little brother, the side table, this piece is part of a set exploring simpler design forms while featuring really great wood. The idea was to keep everything from costing an arm and a leg; it almost worked Click here to view detail [ see Wavy Front Side Table ]
Stratton Mountain Inn Buffet: Pine; 28" wide x 36" high x 72" long. This piece (I made four) was part of my first commercial project; I built them and two accompanying sideboards for a designer renovating the inn. I discovered, with no small embarrassment, that in 1982 this antiqued finish was beyond my skills; the designer's daughter had to do all the coloring for me.
Stratton Mountain Inn Sideboard: Pine; 20" wide x 84" high x 96" long. Like the accompanying buffets, these big pieces were fun to build. They had to have a big impact in a large, high-ceilinged space, almost like part of a stage set.
Catherine's Buffet: Karelian birch burl veneers, purpleheart veneers and solids, Indonesian rosewood 22"d x 36"h x 64"l This piece is part of a dining room set I built for a great customer in Wilton, CT. She loves the whimsical, spirited, and funky. We had a lot of fun designing and building this stuff, and it was only three months late. It made it in time for Christmas dinner, though.
Catherine's Hutch: Karelian birch burl veneers, purpleheart veneers and solids, Indonesian rosewood 24"d x 62"l x 84"h This is the big brother of the Catherine's buffet. It holds just about anything you might need for your dinner party. I decided I wanted to build small stuff for a while after we finished this.
Roger and Linda's Buffet: Cherry veneers and solids, mahogany veneers and solids, maple, cocobolo, poplar; 16" wide x 36" high x 72" long. This bow-front buffet is a contemporary look at traditional Hepplewhite and Sheraton forms.
Georgine's Buffet: Figured cherry veneers, cherry, white pine, nickel pulls; 18" wide x 36" high x 72" long. This buffet was yet another in a long series of transparent attempts to ingratiate myself with my spouse. As I point out to her, the sliding doors allow unencumbered access to the contents.
VNR Table: Western walnut; 30" high x 56" round. This table is a showpiece for its magnificent, bookmatched two-board top. I left some of the contours of the original slabs to remind us that the exquisite lumber of this table was once in fact a tree
Hunter Table: Figured cherry veneers and solids, ebony; 29" high x 48" wide x 84" long without leaves, 144" long with leaves. I built this for a couple renovating a truly exquisite home near Williams College. I sliced all the veneer myself from a superb curly cherry plank to ensure extra thickness of the veneered surface. The top is inlaid in ebony in a diamond pattern.
Hudgen's Buffet: crotch mahogany, satinwood, ebony, and rosewood veneers, mahogany solids and veneers, chemical dyes 72"l x 42"h x 20"d This had to look like it belonged in an eighteenth-century English country estate while containing $20,000 of electronics. It was fun to build and pretty convincing, I think.
Cadillac Table: Brazilian rosewood veneers, wenge, gold leaf; 30" high x 48" wide x 120" long without leaves, 168" long with leaves. I built this large table for a very nice couple from Northern New Jersey. It reminded the husband of the grill of an old Caddy -- hence the name.
JeJe's Buffet: French walnut veneers, walnut, padauk, ash; 18" wide x 36" high x 66" long. This design comes out of my architectural period: it reminds me of a bit of a skyline. The different storage functions are separated into two cabinets.
Dawnzo's Hutch: Cherry, pine, glass; 18" deep x 72" long x 84" high. My very nearly-favorite brother-in-law, Ronzo, has almost as difficult a time making up for his marital faults as do I. He commissioned this hutch (and a round dining table) so his long-suffering wife might turn a blind eye to the three motorcycles in the garage.