Two and a half years ago when I first moved into the Prairie House, Dr. JBerr very kindly loaned me his dining room table. It was a beautiful dropleaf made out of cherry and served me well these past few years. But after the kitchen renovation, the size of the dining room shrunk a bit and with its new size, a new dining table was needed. I searched and searched for months but could never find one that was exactly right. If the dimensions worked, then the styling was wonky or vice versa. Then, on a whim a few months ago, I contacted a local craftsman, Rob Chamberlain. The pictures of his work online were gorgeous, but I assumed there was no way I could afford to go bespoke, especially in the material I was hoping for, which was walnut. Nevertheless, I got in touch, and Rob invited JB and I down to his studio. We talked about various design ideas and left with the idea that we would share photos we found of things we liked. Even that process, however, proved difficult. I couldn’t think of the search terms to get at the type of table I really wanted, so search after search online, nothing quite matched what I was looking for.
But then, Rob suggested he come over and see the dining room in person to get a better sense of the space he’d be working with. While he was there, I was waving my arms around and said, “I’m looking for something that kind of reaches upwards…like arms…or tree branches. I want something that feels organic and growing upwards, but can’t find what I’m looking for to show you an example!” Rob stared at me and said, “I think I know exactly what you mean.” And then he pulled out a photo on his phone of a table he had built a decade before. It was one of those moments: that table was EXACTLY what I had been trying to put into words but couldn’t. And because he still had the templates for the original table, he was able to craft this beautiful thing within my budget.
And so today, Rob delivered this gorgeous, gleaming, solid walnut dining table.
Below those pix, a final snapshot of the cherry dropleaf table before it moved into the sunroom, and a delicious breakfast bagel!
