Order a live edge full slab table

by Gepetto Millworks | Jul 9, 2018 | Live Edge Slab

If you’re looking for a custom live edge piece for your home, office or restaurant we can supply you with any species locally harvested and specially cured for insect removal and long term humidity stability. Gepetto are the most experienced live edge craftsmen contractors in Virginia and Washington DC. Durable, beautiful, organic wood fabricated with the traditional carpentry techniques of mortise and tenon solid wood matched joints used for centuries.

Avoid live edge problems : hire an experienced contractor

Book Matched Live Edge Slabs

Hire a Richmond Live Edge Contractor

Live edge wood materials are a unique naturally occuring building material. An experienced contractor probably does NOT have handling and building experience with this raw natural material. The live edge plank which is not properly prepared can warp in 5 distinct ways:

bowing: a deformation along the longest length or end to end deformation that would hinder your table or countertop from laying flat. Seen from the edge, the center of the plank rises or falls compared to the ends.
crooking: (also called wain) describes a deformation along the full length of the slab, but turned toward the edge of the wood. If the slab is a table, the table shape would split along a center seam joint as if one side of the grain structure pulled the other side – but the board remained flat. Seen from above, it’s a left or right turn while the board stays flat.
kinking: a localized crook, often due to a knot which does not affect the complete length of the live edge slab.
cupping: describes a wooden warp between the two live edges, in which the edges are higher than the linear center of the wood. Visualized from above the plank is still straight, but the edges have turned up or down so two matched ends would form a wave.
twisting or winding: describes a distortion in which the four corners do not lie in the same plane. Just like you imagine, but to visualize, the top left of a plank would show an arc if you were to try and match it to the bottom right corner.

Avoid Common Plank Construction Errors with Experienced Craftsmen

Gepetto craftsmen sort millions of board feet of lumber a year by hand, and by eye. They can spot and feel potential for kinking and will perform the necessary cutting to release the tension in the wood grain itself – and then use that slab for a different project. Most of the expense in a book matched piece is the time and effort to source the right material. Virginia forests have produced a rich variety of species with delightful growth patterns (producing grain structure) and Gepetto Craftsmen have specialized tools for harvesting down trees.

Call Gepetto To Harvest Storm Fallen Trees

Our specialized saw is portable for on-site work. We can harvest ancient wood from urban lots so call us before the city turns it into waste product. We can ‘reclaim’ that wood for use in countertops, windows, doors, benches, tables, and resell it to furniture makers across the mid-atlantic states. Experienced furniture craftsmen come to us to mill the finest lumber or freshest fallen trees.

Live Edge Slab Contractor Virginia https://gepettomillworks.com/t/live-edge

Plywood from 1954 | Creative Plywood Builder

by Gepetto Millworks | Jul 7, 2018 | Built-in Storage VA, Office Interior Fabrication, Shelving

Hire a creative plywood builder

The book “Plywood A Material Story” came across our desk recently with this awesome video from a wood mill in 1954.

Plywood is an astonishingly versatile material, made by gluing together layers of cross-grained veneers, creating a pliable board that can be stronger than solid wood. Stylish and practical, plywood offers huge possibilities for experimental design, and it has been used to make a wide range of products, from aeroplanes, boats and automobiles to architecture and furniture. This book traces the history of plywood from its use in 18th-century furniture through its emergence as an industrial product in the 19th century, to a material celebrated by 20th-century modernists such as Alvar Aalto and Charles and Ray Eames. An ideal material for the digital age, plywood has become popular again in recent years and is widely used in contemporary design and manufacture. (quoted from the book)

At Gepetto we haven’t done a lot of ultra-modern plywood shaping, but if you want to order a few hundred chairs, we’ll tool up our assembly line to produce them for you!

Build your Pinterest Dream

Pinterest Plywood idea

Of course Pinterest always has a lot of crazy cool pictures – and if you live in Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, Philadelphia, or even on down to Charleston, Savannah or anywhere on the east coast and you’ve fallen in love with a “p interest” picture – contact us to fabricate a similar design!

We can match plywood specifications with any style of face-grade from light maple like shown on the right – to a dark mahogany or walnut.

If you’re a stylish Virginia Commonwealth University student looking for a loft bed, funky book case or other custom dorm room furniture – give us a note!

If you’re a mom, wondering how you can keep your entryway or hallway from continually being cluttered – have us design a coat, shoe, bookbag built-in storage unit made of plywood!

Small — well designed pieces made from affordable plywood are better than going searching at Ikea or Walmart for pre-built and breakable pieces in chipboard.

Just because we specialize in historic woodworking, doesn’t mean we can’t manufacture your small project to any specification or modern design:

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Built to suit in-home bar : custom wood bar order

by Gepetto Millworks | Jul 6, 2018 | Custom Wood Bar, Restaurant Fittings

Custom Made Bartop

You want an empressive entertainment space.

We can build anything you’d like!

Solid Wood Bar

If you’d like your mancave to have that rustic feel.

A hunting lodge meets olde english pub?

Built to suit in-home bar

Are you designing your dream home?

We will design and build the ultimate entertainment center and short service bar for your dream home.

Whether you’d like to go with a modern clean look but utilize a bold live edge and solid slab bar top. Or if you’re designing a rustic or log cabin style with the warmth allowing the organic nature of wood to shine through. We can do everything from reclaim old barn wood – to harvest specific species for grain style and structure just for your project. Custom order an all wood bar with our Virginia craftsmanship.

Commercial Restaurant custom bar order

Are you building out your newest restaurant concept and looking for a builder that can give the space a unique look and feel?

We can build to your architectural plans for a 20ft, 30ft, 40ft, or even 50 or more linear feet of commercial bar service. Designing in modern amenities to speed drink preparation and delivery by your staff.

Reclaimed wood keeping all the irregularities and character

We bid and create complex architectural drawings:

2D traditional elevation drawings
3D CAD drawings for existing construction
Renovation design and 3D render creation for quote
spatial design
rendering and previsualization
custom kitchen designs
library and media room contractor
Office Space Finish Contractor
Bar & Restaurant Specialty Interior Contractor

Complex Archtectural Millwork Fabrication Virginia

by Gepetto Millworks | Sep 13, 2017 | Architectural Millwork

Gepetto craftsmen fabricate the most complex interior and exterior projects made of wood that you can imagine or provide CAD for us to construct.

If your architectural drawings are complete, have us competitively bid your:

complex kitchen design with hanging cabinets
multi angle library with pocket doors
built in media wall for hiding electronics and sound equipment
extensive historic renovations requiring authentic craftsmanship
extravagant stairways with spirals, arcs and butterfly designs

We accept CAD drawings and standard multi-view 2D architectural drawings by mail or PDF.

Complex Architectural Millwork Fabrication Virginia

Historic Windows Richmond

by Gepetto Millworks | Jun 21, 2017 | Architectural Millwork

Historic Windows RVA Restoration and Renovation

A drive through Richmond gives a tour of an abundance of vintage architectural styles from Greek Revival (circa 1820s-1860) to Italianate (1840-1885) through Georgian & Queen Anne, Federal Beaux Arts and Arts and Craft. If you listen to Ayn Rand’s first literary success “The Fountainhead” as an audiobook and pretend you’re the idealist Howard Roark as you drive, you will have 32 hours and one minute to contemplate if exterior architectural styles are worth preserving. Richmond’s rich history showcases the architectural influences just like Howard has to quit his draftsman’s job and work on a steel construction site to learn what steel can do for a building. The struggles and influences of the evolution of glass making in England and the U.S. forms the look and style of many of the oldest Historic restorations we accomplish. Our knowledge of wood craftsmanship influences how we bit and build a job to be the longest lasting and most effective use of the material.

The earliest windows are made of crown glass, which was blown onto a crown or hollow globe, flattened and then spun into a flat disk. Even though extremely thin, the glass was durable and many individual panes still live on. The individual sections of glass which are called “lights” in the trade can be sourced to give actual historic context to your new build. The thinnest glass was at the edge of the disk, while the glass at the center was thicker and more opaque. Take a close look at this high-res photo to notice the irregularities in the historic lights:

Historic Window Glass Light

Historic Windows Richmond

Historic Windows Richmond VA

Historic Windows Handmade in Virginia

Richmond VA Commercial Millwork Supplier

by Gepetto Millworks | Mar 5, 2017 | Architectural Millwork, Commercial Spaces, Richmond VA Woodworkers

Richmond VA Commercial Millwork Supplier

Construction materials supplier
Millwork supplies
Made to order doors
Made to order windows
Made to order trim
Architectural millwork
Local Craftsmen
Woodworking best practices
Commercial mill work quotes
Complex drawn wood fittings quoted
Custom kitchen quote
Construction Bidding

Submit your architectural drawings for cabinets, libraries, and other complex plans for a quote by Matthew. We are glad to work from a target budget as we spec the materials as well as suggest shortcuts to overly complex or any unnecessary costly elements. We have worked in most major CAD and PDF construction planning software to speed up your service and our delivery.

Richmond VA Commercial Millwork Supplier

Richmond VA Construction Supplier

Richmond VA Millwork Construction

Best practices in the construction bid process vary from firm to firm, so allow us a few opportunities to achieve the best results for your company. We focus on best practices in the woodshop, and try to get ahead of any potential obstacles as early as the bidding process starts. Construction in wood and the myriad of details that our multiple career’s worth of experience bring to the table allow us to be a valuable consultant for meeting your goals. Different project materials inform our in-shop construction methods and the extent to which the materials type might affect the cost in bidding can be addressed early in your project. Our specialty allows us unique oportunities to source material from all over the globe and will highlight the important distinctions between high quality cured lumber and hastily produced materials. Our role in the bidding is to help all the primary players better understand the final finishing stage of construction projects and our valuable insights are not something money can buy.

Richmond VA Commercial Millwork Supplier

Commercial Millwork Supplies for office interiors and restaurants

Order a live edge full slab table

Avoid live edge problems : hire an experienced contractor

Book Matched Live Edge Slabs

Hire a Richmond Live Edge Contractor

Avoid Common Plank Construction Errors with Experienced Craftsmen

Call Gepetto To Harvest Storm Fallen Trees

Plywood from 1954 | Creative Plywood Builder

Hire a creative plywood builder

Build your Pinterest Dream

Built to suit in-home bar : custom wood bar order

Custom Made Bartop

Solid Wood Bar

Built to suit in-home bar

Commercial Restaurant custom bar order

Reclaimed wood keeping all the irregularities and character

We bid and create complex architectural drawings:

Complex Archtectural Millwork Fabrication Virginia

complex kitchen design with hanging cabinets

multi angle library with pocket doors

built in media wall for hiding electronics and sound equipment

extensive historic renovations requiring authentic craftsmanship

extravagant stairways with spirals, arcs and butterfly designs

Historic Windows Richmond

Historic Windows RVA Restoration and Renovation

Historic Windows Richmond

Historic Windows Handmade in Virginia

Richmond VA Commercial Millwork Supplier

Richmond VA Commercial Millwork Supplier