Jatoba and steel furniture

Faced with the terror of shopping at ikea, and a quiet patch in the film industry i decided to make the most of it and build our own furniture. We spent days shopping around and learning about the various pros and cons (AND PRICE!!) of different woods, oak, cherry, walnut, teak… eventually we came across an awkward looking wood jatoba, it was very hard, and looked a weird kind of pink in its rough sawn state on the racks of  McBeaths. turns out it has many of the same properties of teak but without the crazy oils that make teak rot resistant (but also make it a nightmare to glue). Interestingly it was cheaper than all the woods i mentioned above and we were assured that once oiled and exposed to light it would mature into a nice dark color over time.

McBeaths planed them down and trued them up, leaving me to laminate, sand, cut, sand, drill, sand… sand, sand, sand. (The whole house was covered in inches of ultra fine pink sawdust. we are still finding it in odd nooks and crannies.)  and “varnish” we used goodstuff, its durable food safe and can be applied with a rag as its kind of gelatinous.

Jennis’s work table, a scaled down version of the main kitchen table

All in we probably spent a bit over $1000, but thats for three tables, two media center shelves, a bedside shelf and a bookshelf. But most importantly, we got the satisfaction of making them exactly the way we want, and not a dime went to ikea.

An early idea for jennis’s work desk. a little too ornate for my liking.