Once the individual pieces of the sideboard are cut, they get assembled, glued, and clamped. The wine rack style was adapted from an antique sideboard I saw in a photo, and the customer requested that I leave room on either side of the wine rack for storing her large mixer and food processor.

The next step is to create the top for the sideboard, and I am excited to work with the beautiful grain of the black walnut and give it some special detailing that will make it pop.

The leg of the sideboard shows the mortises that will receive the apron tenons and give the sideboard strength and durability. There will also be a lower shelf connecting the four legs that increase the stability of the piece.

The apron of a table or sideboard creates the stability for the legs where they connect to the flat top. In order to maximize the strength of the joinery on this sideboard, I cut the apron pieces with longer tenons mitred at 45 degrees so that they will meet each other inside the legs and allow more surface area for the glue up.

I will be taking the black walnut boards from the last blog post and building this kitchen sideboard with them. It always feels a bit like magic to me every time I start with pieces of raw wood and begin crafting them into a totally new creation. Furniture making is both exciting and challenging, because the work is so delicate and intricate.

Keep watching my blog over the next few weeks to see this sideboard begin to take shape.

I love the grain on this black walnut wood. A deep brown shot through with lighter brown and even shades of purple. These boards are destined to become a sideboard with a wine rack, commissioned by a customer in Calgary, Alberta. Once the sideboard is made and oiled, it will really bring out the grain and all the colours.

Keep watching my blog to see if I can create a stunning piece of furniture out of these plain looking boards.

These are some cherry trivets (hot pads) that I played around with for the kitchen. The variations in colour and grain in the cherry wood are very attractive, and having beautiful wood trivets for the tea pot makes having a cup of tea even more appealing. They are coated with two applications of LandArk natural oil finish and one application of food grade beeswax and mineral oil top coat.

Our five year old son was so excited to help with the draw for the maple & walnut cutting boards that were the draw prize we offered at the Castlegar Home & Lifestyle Expo. He drew the name of the happy winner, and here is a photo. Enjoy them, Deb!

I have been experimenting with using various types of wood together which have different colours and grain patterns. I liked how the colours of the maple and black walnut woods were so striking when alternated with each other, so I decided to make a set of cutting boards in this style.

The small board is light and very portable, useful as a cheese board or for small items. The bigger board I made with thicker pieces of wood to be a sturdy all-purpose cutting board in the kitchen. I was really happy with the result, and so were all the people who entered to win these in the draw I offered at the Castlegar Home Expo!

The cutting boards were finished with food grade hemp oil and beeswax.

To show something a little different at this year’s Home & Lifestyle Expo in Castlegar, British Columbia, I decided to frame a Japanese style timber pergola. The front of the frame was inspired by Japanese Torii Gates, which mark the entrance to Shinto shrines and indicate that you have entered a holy place where the spirits are more likely to hear your prayers.

Although not obvious from the angle of this photo, there is a symmetrical lattice frame for the roof, which will easily take a glass roof or vines growing over the pagoda. The size of the frame is 10 feet by 10 feet and 12 feet high, crafted out of douglas fir sourced from the Harrop-Proctor Community Forest, which harvests timber sustainably and is Forest Stewardship Certified.

Here is a view of the cabinets installed in this straw bale house in British Columbia. The PaperStone countertop is a polished addition to the cherry cabintery. Although small, the house design optimizes the use of space to create a very comfortable nest for family of three.

With the open concept of the main floor, the wood stove easily heats the space, and bigger windows on the south side bring in natural light to the full interior. The upstairs has a cozy loft atmosphere, with sloping ceilings in the two bedrooms complimented by large dormer windows that provide plenty of light.

We installed the kitchen cabinetry, the stair railing and banister, did some interior finishing carpentry, and built the front entrance exterior landing for this house. It was a fun project to work on, out in the forest using a generator, as the house is off-grid. It will be a beautiful retreat house for the family, tucked away in the trees.