Here's My Workshop!
Richard Lahr
Gulf Cove, FL
My life in wood began in 1968 when I joined the Carpenters Union in Lake Tahoe, California. Four years later, after completing my apprenticeship, I became a Union Journeyman Carpenter when I was already in high demand as a trim carpenter and continued working on high end vacations homes in the area.
As years grew on, so did my love for wood. My passion took me off to Canada where I, after schooling in British Columbia, became certified by the Canadian Log Builders Association in Log and Timber Construction. I continued on by instructing courses along with working for three years in the Arctic Circle on both Government and private related projects. Traveling back to the northeastern states to Vermont, I expanded my craft to include commercial hand carved signs, some log and timber work (by reconstructing a few old barns) and building houses; conventional and log. Although the Logs and Timbers were massive and rough, I found that the actual, ultimate precision in that construction was a fit so tight it could be a dovetail joint on a fine piece of furniture.
From the cold winter weather in Vermont the journey went south to the Carolinas; back into the finish carpentry in the finer homes on Hilton Head Island and also some fine yachts. I arrived on Daufuskie by chance in 1983 while sailing by on my 37 foot boat, Nimble. The sight of a dock just being built (then Cooper River Landing and becoming Melrose) stopped me in curiosity. I took a walk around, and settled on the island.
Daufuskie Woodworks was born in 1986 when the shop was built and the rest is history. The shop rapidly became a staple on the island during the development of the island; spanning projects for contractors and homeowners in Haig Point, Melrose, and Bloody Point, including some of the historic district clients. This is in addition to clients off island to Hilton Head, Bluffton, Florida, Kansas, Maryland and New England, and also expanding to destinations of those yachts I previously worked on.
In 2006, I relocated with my wife to the S.W. Florida Gulf Coast. I built my new shop near Englewood Beach and I now refer to it as
Custom Furniture and Marine
. The shop primarily serves individual homeowners and interior decorators with furniture pieces, along with work on Yachts ranging from 35 to 110 feet. CF&M offers shipping to other areas throughout the United States. CF&M is looking forward to many more years of producing exquisite, individually designed furniture pieces as well as fulfilling Yacht owner's desires with excellent interior/exterior reconfigurations, modifications and repairs.
To see a video tour of Richard's shop,
CLICK HERE
If you have any questions you can email Richard at
Richard@CustomFurnitureandMore.com
. You can also visit his website at:
www.CustomFurnitureandMore.com
.
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, featuring many of the
shops that we have featured in previous editions of Wood News.
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