Bench

We really love this table because it does something that all woodworkers appreciate: it uses material efficiently. Our clients for this project were a young couple who had just moved to  Boston’s North End, and they wanted a show stopping dining table that could serve as a center for hosting friends and family. When they saw the inventory of walnut slabs from our friends out at Berkshire Products they fell in love with the one you see in this tabletop. There was just one problem: it was too big to make any sense in their home.

While the bulk of our work is statement-level dining or coffee tables, we also love to build smaller, more personal pieces like this one. Our client for this table and matching bench set is moving towards retirement, and she came to us hoping for a design that she could use as a craft table. While at first blush high-end custom furniture might not seem like the natural direction to go in a craft room, the more we discussed the project with our client the more sense it made. After a long career of hard work, she wanted a workspace that could offer inspiration as well as utility.

This was designed by the client. We contributed the design for the moulding, which was handmade, and converted her hand drawing to a CAD, and off we go! She originally thought that she wanted oak with a brown stain, but once she came to the showroom she fell for walnut. Here at Cannon Hill Woodworking specialize in dining tables, but now and then we make a unique cabinet or side table for a client that wants something they can't find elsewhere. The client loves her new piece, and we hope it sparks joy every time she enters her home. 

Custom built teak storage bench built for a new construction home with a beautiful oceanside pool and pool house. This bench is made from real European teak which is approximately two to three times the cost of some of the teak alternatives. Teak has a natural waxy nature, which repels moisture, and makes it a great option for outdoor furniture. This teak bench has a mesh bottom for storing wet towels while giving them air room to breath. There is also a bottom steel shelf for towels.

This piece was built to go in a transitional area between the pool and the house, so it will hold wet towels and bathing suits, and has a storage shelf for dry towels or slippers and sandals beneath. We chose to build from iron because of the natural water repellent properties of the wood and the beautiful grain and color. Iroko is commonly used in furniture as a teak alternative, as it's less expensive. Iroko is tricky to work with. The boards are very hard and sometimes hold so much tension that when you cut or rip them, they move slightly.

The clients have a built-in bench in their kitchen in Cambridge and they previously had a very thin table alongside it. The table needed to be thin because if it were any wider than 28" it would encroach upon the doorway.

The clients are remodeling their own home in Natick. They've taken on the remodel as a passion project and wanted a table that fit perfectly into their new dining space that could seat two extra people without getting any longer. The solution was to go wider, so that two can comfortably feet on each end of this wide reclaimed oak dining table. 

This Reclaimed Oak Oval Table is 80 inches long and 40 inches wide. The bench matches the curved profile. The finish on this table is called "pure" and the legs are custom made trapezoids. We can make oval tables of most lengths and widths. It's a beautiful set, now living in Providence, Rhode Island.

Believe it or not, this project of 8 tables and 16 benches for Downeast Cider was our very first project at Cannon Hill and it was done on a major budget. A friend of ours works at Downeast and connected us to their tap room manager who wanted all new tables for the taproom to replace a bunch of rickety old tables that came in boxes from overseas.