A HANDCRAFTED BEDROOM

..and that isn't all this retiree has been up to...

SHOP OWNER: Sherwood Hawthorne

LOCATION: Pineville, LA

I am a retired carpenter and Baptist preacher. My wife and I have never had any fine furniture in our forty years of marriage, so I built this oak bedroom suite this past year. I started it last fall and finished it this summer. During that time, I also had bypass surgery that laid me up for about three months.

I spent a lot of time sanding each piece, starting with 100-grit and going all the way to 600-grit. Then I stained everything with an oil stain and applied a tung oil finish.

It was a labor of love. Now my wife wants a highboy to go with it.

At left is a picture of a grandfather clock I built last year. It was my first try at building one. It is my own design. It too is finished with oil stain and tung oil finish.

And, below is a picture of a solid maple island I built for a friend of my wife. She wanted raised panel doors and a finish to match her birch plywood kitchen cabinets.