Posts by Courtney Fair - Furniture Maker

I am inspired by battered toolboxes, the simple structure of a pine grain bin with its corners smoothed and sweet brown from years of molasses, leather handles worn supple from use, a favored blanket chest with its careful repairs, the massive exposed joints pinning together the structure of a barn, and the proud but weathered…

The process of designing and building furniture puts me in contact with the things I value. The days at the lumber mill, doing business with people I respect and admire. Making simple and intuitive solutions for joinery or surface, decisions that will last with integrity. Hearing the sounds of the wood shavings underneath my feet in the shop…

I love the surfaces that result from creating a piece, and the following years of maintenance or neglect. You can begin to sense patterns in the way some thing was used by the marks it bears. Wide plank flooring reveals layers of paint worn through from foot traffic. Fencing becomes calligraphy as the boards warp twist and fall. Cupboard…

In a shop equipped with modern machines, I often make decisions based on what a machine can’t do. Working with reclaimed and native materials that have a voice of their own, I choose joinery and final surface marks that could only be made by skilled hands, creating work that is vibrant and fresh hoping to…