Furniture

[Pura Vida]

Since we can all enjoy wood instruments, I'm sure some of you may appreciate this. For the last 4-5 months, we've been working (mostly from afar) to renovate a home in Costa Rica. It's been a great experience. As one of our last steps, we commissioned a local furniture builder to hand-craft a table and two benches for our 3rd floor balcony. They just completed it today, and it turned out great! Can't wait to see it.

[Ozzy the dog]

That's a really nice set. Love the colours on the table and the contrast on the benches. Will look nice on your balcony.

Reminds me of the infinity font at Salisbury Cathedral.

[Neil K Walk]

I look at that table and the parent in me says "my kid would crack his skull open climbing on top of that top heavy thing with those little spindly legs."

[Pura Vida]

Oz, that's pretty is amazing. Thanks for sharing.

Neil, my kids are 12yo and (almost) 9yo, so thankfully, their climbing days are over. And believe it or not, I believe the legs are quite sturdy. The table top is about 6' long, so the legs are probably about 6" wide.

[HodgdonExtreme]

Holy smokes, thanks for sharing!

What kind of wood is that, and is the top surface a single piece??

[Pura Vida]

This is local hardwood from the Guanacaste tree, which is Costa Rica's national tree. All of their wood is permitted through their country's forestry department, so it's being harvested in a sustainable manner. Costa Rica takes its environmental policies very seriously.

And yes, the top is all one piece. We selected it from about a dozen pieces, when we visited there last month. It took about two weeks to finish the table top and another two weeks to complete the benches.

[cotten]

Thank you for answering my questions before I even asked. Beautiful table and benches!

cotten

[Kerbie]

Beautiful stuff... I like it!

[Pura Vida]

Thanks, guys! We've been going down there 2-3 times per year, but due to some scheduling conflicts at home, we won't be able to return until June 2018. Can't wait to see it on the balcony (preferably with a cold drink in hand!).

[nacluth]

I looked at that and said Guanacaste! Steve and I were once given two tables of that wood built in a similar fashion. Unfortunately, the guy thought he had old growth Mahogany and was none too pleased when we burst his bubble. It was worth 20x less than he hoped. We still built him a great guitar in return. And by the way, if you need a matching guitar to go along with your house, we have a lifetime (for luthiers) supply of the wood. It makes an extremely lightweight guitar.

[D. Shelton]

That top pic threw me for a loop!
I didn't get that I was seeing reflections of other things in the table top, and I thought it might be made of a freaky-cool kind of stone (or ?... ).
Really neato work there !

[Pura Vida]

Ryan, thanks for sharing the story. I never thought about building a guitar out of Guanacaste wood, since Mahogany, Cocobolo, and other woods are more commonly thought of from that area.

D. Shelton, I debated whether to include that photo with the reflections. Like nearly everything else down there, their shop is open air, so it's catching reflections from the rest of the shopfront.

[Dave Abrahamson]

Beautiful work!
Funny though, one of the first things I thought of was carrying that dang thing up to the 3rd floor balcony. Looks heavy.

[Pura Vida]

Good point, Dave. We have an open stairway, but they still weigh a lot! Hopefully, they don't have too much trouble delivering and installing the furniture.