Furniture Stores Seattle, Green Furniture Maker Tacoma, Sustainable Cabinetry, Woodworking

A Reclaimed Wood Feature Wall

February 27, 2013 in Blog, Feature, General

One of the projects that wrapped up 2012 was this fabulous wall of reclaimed wood that was installed in a downtown Tacoma condominium. Measuring approximately 14 feet square, much of the wood we used came from a historic Tacoma building that had undergone a significant remodel several years ago. Fortunately the owners of The Passages Building (c. 1889) had the vision to save the old growth Douglas fir beams and framing. We supplemented this amazing old wood with reclaimed wood purchased from Rhine Salvage, a local demolition company. To tie the wall together with the color palette of the condo, we white-washed and distressed most of the boards before applying a light seal coat of finish. Some of the boards were left as they were…with stains, nail holes and burn marks…history best left alone.

photo by Dane Gregory Meyer

Tags: contemporary furniture Seattle, custom woodworking, feature wall, home furnishings Seattle, home furnishings Tacoma, reclaimed, woodworking Tacoma
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Great Collaborations = Great Results!

February 11, 2013 in Blog, Feature, General

South South Magazine has a splendid feature on a project in which we played a significant roll!

“Sensible Luxury” – South Sound Magazine, Feb/Mar, 2013

With Scott Neste, as the Maestro, orchestrating a symphony of local talent, this beautiful vintage home was tastefully updated and shows how well a team of committed professionals can create beautiful “music” together!

For more info visit – MinorDetailsDesign.com and TacomaDesignCollective.com

Tags: custom furniture, design collaboration, furniture maker Tacoma, interior design, sensible luxury
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Madera Furniture Company now on You Tube!

February 1, 2013 in Blog, Feature, General

With the help of our most recent SOTA intern, Stephenie King, we now have a short video documentary about Madera on You Tube. Check it out!

Madera Furniture Company documentary.

For the last several years Madera has hosted an intern from Tacoma’s School of the Arts. SOTA is a public high school that gives kids with creative inclinations a unique educational experience fostering their particular passions whether it is music, drama, writing or even video production!

Stephenie’s interests are, in some ways, polar. She loves producing videos and is considering pursuing a career in the field. But she is also interested in studying criminal psychology. She was excited about interning with Madera and making this video with the hopes that it might help her decide which path to follow.

Which ever way you choose, Stephenie, we have enjoyed hosting you. We wish you the best of luck as you venture down your career path. Thanks!

Tags: furniture, Madera, video, you tube
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A custom built-in designed to show off a glass collection

January 24, 2013 in Blog, Feature, General

Here is another project that shows off how a client’s dream get’s realized.

We took the designer’s vision, engineered it so it can actually be built, rendered the design to help the clients “see” what it will look like, coordinated things like the tile work and electrical with the contractor and then built their dream!

The results are spectacular!

Designer Concept

Rendering helps visualize the finished product.

A beautiful wall of art completed!

Tags: art display, built in cabinet, custom cabinets Seattle, custom cabinets Tacoma, custom furniture, custom furniture Seattle, custom woodworking, glass shelving, woodworking Seattle, woodworking Tacoma
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Introducing…

December 14, 2012 in Blog, Feature, General

As 2012 winds down to a close we are excited to begin implementing our new name and logo!!! After 6 years designing and building custom furniture and cabinetry as Madera Fine Decorative Furnishings, we are becoming Madera Furniture Company.

In the beginning a retail art gallery featuring our products and the work of local artists and artisans was located in what is now our woodworking showroom. We had “decorative furnishings” available and the name made more sense. With the tanking of the economy, running the gallery became more of a drain and through time the space has evolved into only our showroom (and the occasional shop over-spill!). In our opinion, the new name is way less froo-froo and hearkens back to a time when craftsmanship really mattered.

In the next few weeks the website will evolve, printed materials will arrive and mass emails will be sent. But that’s it. We will still provide the finest in custom furniture, cabinetry and architectural woodworking. We will continue to give our clients excellent value and the best service possible. That’s the Madera way!

Tags: cabinetry, furniture, logo, Madera, new, re-branding
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Looking back at a busy year…

November 19, 2012 in Blog, Feature, General

2012 isn’t quite over yet and we still have some amazing assignments on the boards. But looking back at our projects over the last 11 months leaves me feeling extremely proud of our team and the diversity of our accomplishments…

A gorgeous custom kitchen in Seattle completed in July…

touch latch operated cutting board hidden in counter top reveal

Below are photos of a custom timber mantel we created for a beautiful new home in the Dash Point / Redondo area.

Also I have included pictures of a custom dining table we collaborated on for the home of a local architect. The top was made from locally sourced/urban-harvested elm.

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Tacoma – The City We Build: Revisited

November 12, 2012 in Blog, Feature, General

Each month our showroom plays host to Lynn DiNino’s Tripod Slide Shows. Always on the 3rd Friday of the month, the Tripod Slide Show features 3 short presentations by members of our community with an interest in sharing about a passion. Topics have ranged from photo safaris from faraway lands to inside some of Tacoma’s most historic landmarks. We’ve seen images of hotel signs from across the west and explored the insects in a local yard up close and personal. We’ve learned about the cartoon architecture of Las Vegas and the incredible imagery of a Renaissance study in central Italy.

This month – in conjunction with Tacoma’s Art @ Work celebrations – Lynn is hosting a special presentation this Wednesday November 14 at 7:00 p.m. featuring Tacoma City Councilman, architect and Visionary (yes with a capital V) David Boe. Boe will present and energetic review of the urban planning visions for our fair city – from the historically rejected Olmstead Plan to Exit 133. $5.00 suggested donation at the door.

Tags: architecture, design, history, Tacoma, urban planning
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Heritage Distillery open for business and looking marvelous!

November 4, 2012 in Blog, Feature, General

November 3rd marked the opening of Heritage Distilling Company and the completion of the first phase of our installation of their custom cabinetry and furniture. This includes the most unique (and challenging) bar we’ve ever fabricated. Here are a few pictures of the tasting room and sales area. We’ll take some more and post them to our Flickr page soon.

All of the bar tops were made from locally sourced Western Maple and range in thickness from 1 1/2″ – 4″ thick. The cabinetry was made from domestically made maple plywood with no added urea formaldehyde. All of the stains and finishes Madera uses are waterborne, VOC (volitile organic compounds) and HAPS (hazardous airborne productS)-free.

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Gorgeous Stair Remodel…before and after!

September 29, 2012 in Blog, Feature, General

…finally getting around to making a post about a project we completed this past spring… We were asked to create 4 custom newels for a fabulous home remodel being orchestrated by our friends at Choice Construction. The clients had a fairly specific design in mind for the lower newel posts. But due to their large size we had to develop a design for the starting step that could support the scale of the new newels and work with the existing entry layout.

stair remodel before

stair remodel preliminary design

Some sketchup models of our preliminary design.

Ultimately, we fabricated the newel posts, starting step and the volutes (the handrail turnouts at the bottom, above the newels) and installed the starting step. Choice’s finish carpenter installed the newels & replaced the balusters and their painter stained and finished the project. As we have experienced before, a coordinated team effort yielded fantastic results!

The end results!

Tags: custom woodworking, newel post, stair remodel, woodworking Tacoma
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Wood slab bar top and more!

September 8, 2012 in Blog, Feature, General

We are well underway with an exciting project incorporating several live edged wood slabs. Heritage Distilling Company will be opening in Gig Harbor later this fall and we are thrilled to be building their cabinetry and bars. You can follow along with our progress by visiting our Flickr page. This link takes you directly to the set of pictures from the slab project.

The design of the bar refers to the shape of an elk antler. We were challenged to find wood that would allow us to achieve the design We lucked out at a local mill that had these 4 1/2″ – 6″ slabs of Western Maple that had been cut a couple of years ago. Besides the main bar we are working on 3 cocktail bars for the tasting room and slab counter tops for another bar in the production area, 2 back bars and the retail sales counter. The end results are going to be simply amazing!

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