Project overview
The brief, in a sentence: make it belong.
Ten seats, one walnut tree, one family of forms. The Mercers asked for a dining suite that could host extended family and survive small grandchildren. We built a 3.2-metre black walnut table with a matching bench and sideboard, all sharing one chamfered edge language.
Project facts
- Category — Custom Furniture
- Location — Austin
- Client — Private residential
- Completed — 2024, over 7 weeks
Challenge
What made it hard
A 3.2-metre solid top moves with the seasons — in Texas, significantly. Breadboard ends on sliding tenons, a tensioned steel-free base design and a two-part top allow movement without cracks, while the finish resists heat rings and washable-marker incidents alike.
Materials
What it is made of
Single-origin black walnut, book-matched across top, bench and sideboard fronts; catalysed matte lacquer over hardwax oil for a wipeable yet tactile surface.
Craftsmanship
How we built it
Full-scale drawing in the clients’ dining room with chairs and tape outlines, then a sample corner to approve the edge profile and finish. Seven weeks at the bench, delivered in one morning and levelled on their uneven oak floor.
Result
How it lives now
First Thanksgiving seated fourteen with extensions the suite was designed around. The table already bears the soft sheen the Mercers call “the good kind of wear”.
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