‘Arvid’ – Walnut & Cotton Webbing Stool

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arvid_low I’ve always wanted to design/build a cotton webbing piece, so when I was inspired by Viking ships (while impatiently waiting for my favorite show, The Vikings, to return) I made this piece. ‘Arvid’ is my first made-to-order piece in my Etsy/Chairish shops & I’m currently building a pickled ash twin to this piece… I hope to make a whole Viking-inspired series of furniture :)

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On a side note… didn’t know wether to list this piece as a stool or a bench… I think of benches as being longer, but when I think stool, I see footrest… oh, well, lol *where’s my coffee*

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Cypress & Walnut Triangle Side Table

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cypress_1_somb Saying that I LOVE this table would be a HUGE understatement! It makes me smile every time I glance at it while sittin’ in my favorite comfy chair… it is my woodporn! The design came about simply cuz I needed a side table to butt up against a living room wall so that my big chair could be angled towards the TV. I knew I wanted to use the gorgeous 1,000 year-old river-reclaimed cypress scraps that were leftover from a project at my day job as a woodworker & the beautiful walnut came from my favorite lumber yard, AdvantageLumber.com‘s Sarasota Location. Tell ’em Toni sent ya when you visit! ;)

Playing with the sticks for the top was a blast! The grain patterns in this piece are just stunning & the river reclaimed cypress has such a warm glow to it! The top was easy enough to make, just biscuit joining & glueing up MANY sticks, but so very time-consuming. The straight aprons were super easy being as they were just mortise and tenon joints, but the oblique half lap joints of the angled apron took a bit more tweaking. cypress_detail_somb I just played around with angles on the bandsaw until I got it just right, or got very lucky, lol! I also tapered the legs on the bandsaw, which was super fast. Um, what else went into constructing this piece? Oh, the shelf! That added a good couple days to the build considering glue up time & chiseling the tenons (two glued & one loose on the acute side of the triangle), but totally worth it. I slathered on some lacquer & that was about it. Time to put my feet up in my favorite chair & stare at my little table! ;D

Follow me for progress pics of my Fine Furniture work! –> SawdustOnMyBoot on Instagram

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Artisans by AdvantageLumber.com

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I recently had the pleasure of workin’ with the Advantage Lumber video crew for their brand new ‘Artisans by AdvantageLumber.com’ YouTube series. *Subscribe to their channel* They documented me designing & making a table from start to finish using gorgeous lumber from their Sarasota, FL location. The top, aprons, and drawer faces of said console table are made from Tigerwood (Goncalo Alves) & the legs are made from Brazilian Cherry (Jatoba). These exotic hardwoods were somewhat difficult to work with in terms of density, but the results are worth it! I finished the Tigerwood with Tung oil & the Jatoba got a wet sanding with Danish Oil, resulting in a silky smooth feel. Here’s an after shot of the piece I created for the video…

Here it is!! The final cut of the ‘Artisans by AdvantageLumber.com‘ video!

Keep an eye out for future films featuring other Advantage Lumber Artisans! :D

Turn on your Holidays with Alexa!

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How did I ever get along without Alexa?!! This voice-activated, connected home assistant, weather-tellin’, homework helpin’, bingo playin’, joke-tellin’, music streaming bluetooth speaker from Amazon is nothing short of AWESOME! The Amazon Echo connects my home’s tech like no other device has. It links up with my Philips Hue bulbs & even allows me to create groups of connected devices in the Amazon Alexa app for different tasks or moods. For example, I set up my living room lights individually as lamp and fan, but made a group including both bulbs, which I named ‘Lights’. No longer does my family use a phone or touch a wall switch to control our home automation… we just simply say, “Hey, Alexa! Turn on the lights!” The Echo also links up with my WeMo switches from Belkin, so that whatever device you have plugged into the WeMo can be controlled by simply asking Alexa to turn it on. A feature that is particularly fun for the holidays… a fog machine for your Halloween party, for instance! I could go on & on, but it’s much more fun to see this tech in action! I made this little Halloween video to give you a taste of how you can really turn your holidays on with Alexa!

*WARNING: extreme amount of Halloween dorkiness shown*

P.S. Amazon was generous enough to give me these amazing products in exchange for my honest review, but you can snag yourself these items from the links I provided above! ;D

Padauk & Ambrosia Maple Coffee Table

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Just got finished with this Padauk & Ambrosia Maple coffee table and I actually remembered to take work pics this time! I made this for my own family’s living room since we’ll be getting reclining couches soon & won’t have room for our former rectangular table… plus, well, I’ll take any excuse to build a piece of furniture for my home! ;) I am currently obsessed with ambrosia & spalting in any species of wood, so right when I saw this maple at AdvantageLumber.com I knew it would be our coffee table’s top! It was a fairly easy build… tapering legs with one of my tapered leg jigs, chiseling mortise and tenon joints, sawing grooves in apron, joining maple with glue & biscuits, adding padauk inlay with CA glue to the top, sand, shellac & semi-gloss spar urethane on Padauk, satin lacquer on the Ambrosia Maple top, and then glue up & screw on top with fasteners.

What’s your favorite thing to make for your home?!

Curly Maple & Walnut Side Table with Dovetail Keys

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It was sooooooo nice to work on this simple Curly Maple & Walnut side table after I finished, “Defiance“, the Padauk & Walnut piece! I love the handmade, well-crafted, feel it gives off because of the hand-chiseled mortise & tenon joints and the rough-sawn dovetail keys… aka Dutchman Joints, Butterfly Joints, or Bowties. This piece also has a tiny bit of spalting on the front apron… something I’ve been seeking out at the lumber yard lately since I LOVE the uniqueness of spalted and ambrosia woods! What’s your current wood obsession?! :D

Walnut & Padauk Side Table – “Defiance”

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Yay!!! I am beyond thrilled with how this Walnut & Padauk side table turned out! I painstakingly chiseled every joint by hand and ALMOST enjoyed every second of it! ;) This was my first time working with Padauk and I must say, for a flatboarder, it was extremely workable. My only complaint would be that it chiseled very unpredictably, unlike the walnut also used in this table. I have some fears that Padauk will keep its vibrant red/orange color, but I visited TONS of woodworking sites, and apparently, shellac followed by a UV-inhibiting top coat will do the trick… time will tell.

I’ll be be doing many more oblique cross lap dovetail pieces in the future… each playing with joinery in a different way. Think I’m gonna put a ridiculously high price tag on this one so I don’t feel too guilty for keeping it, hehe!!

P.S. The gorgeous wood for this piece was purchased at my local AdvantageLumber.com! Their customer service and lumber selection is unparalleled & I HIGHLY recommend them!!

Saturnesque Inlaid Live Edge Walnut Console Table

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I just finished this Saturnesque Inlaid Live Edge Walnut Console Table! I wish I had a space for it, but since I am quickly on my way to becoming a Furniture hoarder, part with it I must! I Want to keep it, in part, because it was such a blast to work on! I had the walnut slab top in my shop for months, knowing I wanted to inlay some type of planetary design since the grain pattern looked so orbital. I came up with a Saturnesque design made out of green malachite, turquoise, and magnesite. The twin mortise & tenon joints were especially cool to chisel and the splined miter joints came out really well! Now, if I could just find a wood-loving, sci-if geek like me to buy it, lol!! ;D

Speaking of which, here’s a link if you are that one-in-a-million buyer! Here’s a link to this piece in my Chairish Shop!

Wood Lover Wednesday – Burl Tigerwood

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For this week’s Wood Lover Wednesday I found an incredible set of burl Tigerwood to swoon over at my local AdvantageLumber.com!! The grain patterns and textures of wood never cease to amaze me! Yes, I know, I’m a wood geek, hehe, but, CHECK. IT. OUT! Amazing!

And just in case you’d like to learn a tad about Tigerwood like I did, here’s a link to a previous post of mine that’ll give you the 411 on this unique species!! —> Tigerwood

Inlaid Live Edge Curly Maple & Walnut Bench

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Ahhhhh! It feels so good to finish a piece that’s taken a while! I usually try to whip through furniture, but on this piece, I had to wait on inlay materials, which was excruciating for me, lol! Anyways, here she is, a stunning live edge curly maple & walnut bench (or coffee table)… I call it, “Within”, my conceptual take on the beauty that lies within nature. The chrysocolla inlay came out particularly well & I love how the legs take on different shapes depending on where you’re viewing the piece from! Hope it finds a home soon so that I’m not tempted to keep her!! ;)

This piece is up for sale in my Chairish Shop at this link