In this episode, I built a Modern Contemporary Bench for a client in Telluride, Colorado.  One of the great things about building custom furniture in Colorado is visiting all the beautiful mountain towns.  This client wanted a custom bench with a mitered corner so the board’s grain flowed along the top and down the side.  The Bench is made from walnut and is about 18″ tall, 14″ deep, and 72″ long.

Brian discussed using dominoes to join boards together, primarily for alignment purposes for the bench top and to add strength to the miter joint. He mentioned the challenges of working with tight tolerances and the need for a deep-cut handheld saw, such as the Ts. 75, to cut through the thick wood. Brian also highlighted the use of West System epoxy glue for its gap-filling and grain-soaking properties.  He used a glue block technique to clamp the miters shut. He concluded the build with a final finish of a wipe-on poly.

Creating a sleek, modern bench with mitered legs—where the grain flows continuously around the corners—requires careful planning and precision. In this project, I’ll walk you through my process of building an eight-foot-long, two-inch-thick bench with seamless grain matching and sturdy joinery.

Since the bench needed to be thick and long, I chose 12-inch-wide boards to ensure the grain would remain continuous around the miters. The boards were too wide for my jointer, so I spent extra time at the lumber yard hand-selecting the flattest pieces possible.

I used the skip plane method to get the surfaces smooth and flat enough for mitering, removing high spots before running them through the planer. Once flattened, I:

Jointed one edge of each board.

Ripped them to width on the table saw.

Pro Tip: When setting up my shop, I arranged all machines to face the bay door. This allowed long boards to extend outside, making handling much easier.

I used roller stands on both ends of the jointer for edge joining, set slightly lower than the table. This ensured the boards registered flat against the jointer while preventing them from tipping or slipping.

Since I couldn’t flatten the full width of the boards on the jointer, I relied on Festool Dominos for alignment. They saved me hours of sanding by keeping the joints perfectly flush. However, I may have gone overboard—the tight tolerances made assembly a bit of a struggle!

To achieve the waterfall grain effect, I carefully cut the legs from the ends of the boards, keeping track of their orientation. Cutting the miters required a track saw set to 45°—my only tool capable of handling such thick stock at an angle.

For reinforcement:

I used multiple dominoes in each joint.

I used West Systems epoxy for its gap-filling properties and deep grain penetration, ensuring a rock-solid bond.

Challenge: Aligning the mitered edges perfectly was tricky. I ended up using shims under the legs to fine-tune positioning before clamping.

I used CA glue blocks to clamp the miters tightly—a quick and effective method. The blocks pop off easily, and any residue cleans up without damaging the wood.

The final step was applying a wipe-on polyurethane finish, enhancing the natural beauty of the wood while providing durable protection.

This project tested patience and precision, but the result—a seamless, modern bench with flowing grain—was well worth the effort. If you’re tackling a similar build, take your time with alignment and don’t shy away from using Dominos or epoxy for extra strength.

In this episode, I built a Mountain Modern Entry Door for a Colorado Springs client’s home.  The door was inspired by the Mountain Contemporary Modern Style and featured some timber-framing architectural stylings.  The custom door was sized to fit the home’s extra-large opening.

Brian discussed his woodworking project, a custom door with intricate designs and angles. He detailed the process of cutting and fitting the various pieces, including using a bandsaw, jointer, and miter gauge. Brian also explained the use of craft paper for marking templates for the angles and the application of veneer for the door panels. He mentioned the challenges of assembling the door by himself due to its complex design. Lastly, he discussed the construction of the door jam, including the installation of an adjustable threshold and weather stripping. The project is nearing completion, with only the final finish and installation at the client’s home remaining.

Every woodworking project begins with a vision and a pile of raw materials. This custom door project was no different, starting with rough-cut lumber, milled to a final thickness of 1.75 inches. But this wasn’t just any door; its intricate angles and joinery demanded precision, patience, and a few clever tricks along the way.

The left-hand style of the door featured a decorative angled cut. After marking the angle with a straight edge, I carefully cut it out on the bandsaw. Bandsaw marks were cleaned up with a few passes on the jointer—safety first, of course (no stray buckets under the machine!).

The inner panels would sit in a rabbet, so I opted for square stick joinery to connect the rails and styles. To reinforce the joints, I used dominoes, trimming them down by half an inch to fit the groove depth. The tenons were cut slightly oversized, then fine-tuned with a shoulder plane until the fit was perfect.

Working with multiple angles meant precision was key. I taped kraft paper to my bench and drew out all the angles, using it as a reference to mark and cut each intersecting piece. The steepest angle required a glued-on guide block for stability, though in hindsight, a track saw would have been safer.

Each board was only cut and fitted on one side initially, allowing me to push it into place and accurately mark the opposite side. For angled tenons, I butted the ends against the fence and adjusted the miter gauge to support the board during the cut.

The center panels needed to fit the complex shapes, so I traced their outlines onto kraft paper, extending the lines by half an inch to account for the groove. After cutting the templates with a utility knife, I used spray adhesive to attach them to plywood, then cut out the shapes and prepped them for veneering.

For the veneer, I restored some vertical-grain Douglas fir, cutting it to fit each panel. After taping the pieces together, I placed them in a vacuum bag with mesh and let them press for an hour. Once cured, I trimmed the edges flush with a router bit for a seamless fit.

Pre-finishing the panels ensured no unstained areas would show if the wood shrank later. Then came the real challenge: assembling all those angles. It was a bear to put together solo, but clamps helped pull everything tight.

The decorative cross pieces were inlaid along the diagonal, marked with a knife, and chiseled out. A router plane removed most of the waste, while a chisel maintained clean shoulders to prevent splintering. The final inlays became my favorite detail of the whole door.

Since the door was a non-standard size (42″ wide by 7′ tall), the jamb had to be custom-made. The first cut accounted for the door’s thickness plus weatherstripping; the second removed waste to create a channel for the weatherstripping to slide into.

After test-fitting the lock set and hinges, the jamb was assembled with dados and staples. An adjustable threshold was installed at the bottom, and weatherstripping was cut to fit. After everything had been tested, the final step was to apply the finish and install it at the client’s home.

This project was a lesson in precision, problem-solving, and patience. From angled joinery to veneering, each step required careful planning. But the end result—a beautifully crafted, one-of-a-kind door—made every challenge worth it.

In this episode, I build a rustic-style barn door for my client’s Denver home. I used authentic barnwood reclaimed from a 100-year-old barn. The client loves the gray-weathered look. To create the door, I made a welded steel frame to hold the barn wood.  This was a great way to create a custom door.

Brian discussed his process of creating a reclaimed wood door. He sourced the wood from a salvage business.  He started the build by cutting it to rough length. To avoid pencil marks on the beautiful weathered barnwood, he used blue tape to mark the locations of the dominoes. He glued the wood pieces together in smaller sub-assemblies before assembling them into a complete door. To prevent bowing, he used an F-style clamp. He then cut steel to length and mitered the corners, grinding a bevel along the miter for a seamless finish. He welded flanges on the back to hold the wood in the frame and marked bolt locations using a drill bit. He performed a test fit of each bolt to ensure smooth operation of the door.

There’s something special about working with reclaimed materials—each piece carries its own history, texture, and character. For this project, I sourced most of the wood from a salvage business down the highway. The owner has an incredible collection of materials, and after picking out the perfect boards, I headed back to the shop to begin crafting a unique, distressed wood and steel door.

The first step was cutting the boards to roughly the right size. Since the wood had been part of batten boards (used to protect it during storage and weathering), there was a brown strip left behind. To ensure clean edges, I jointed one side straight, allowing me to safely rip off the weathered strip.

Because I wanted to preserve the wood’s natural distressed look, I avoided sanding it. Instead of marking measurements directly on the wood (which could leave permanent pencil marks), I used blue tape to indicate where the domino joints would go.

I aligned the dominoes toward the back of the door so any minor unevenness would appear on the show side, adding to the rustic aesthetic. Since excess glue could ruin the unfinished look, I applied just enough to hold everything together without squeeze-out.

Given the number of pieces involved, I broke the assembly into smaller sub-sections, gluing them first before combining everything into the full door. To prevent clamp marks or black staining (a common issue when metal clamps meet glued wood), I used cauls as buffers.

The door’s length exceeded my longest clamps, so I improvised a reverse clamping system. By securing one end of the door to the workbench, I could push the final board into place while maintaining even pressure. A style clamp helped prevent bowing during the glue-up.

Once assembled, I trimmed the door to its final dimensions using my track saw.

With the wood portion complete, I shifted focus to the steel frame. After clearing the workbench, I cut the steel to length and mitered the corners for a clean fit. To ensure strong welds, I added a slight bevel along the miters, allowing the weld to penetrate fully. Later, I ground these welds flush so the frame would appear seamless once painted.

One of my favorite parts of welding miters? If there’s a gap, you can just fill it with molten steel—problem solved!

I welded flanges onto the back of the frame to secure the wood panel. Even though the wood was already distressed, I took precautions to protect it from sparks and heat, including using a welding blanket to prevent scorching or accidental fires.

For the header above the door, I marked bolt locations by spinning a drill bit backward in the hole to create an indent. For precision, I drilled pilot holes using a drill press instead of a handheld drill. A slight misalignment could cause the door to hang crooked or roll unevenly on its track, so I test-fitted each bolt with a wooden block to keep them straight during installation.

This project was a great reminder of how reclaimed materials can be transformed into something functional and beautiful. The natural wear of the wood, combined with the industrial steel frame, gives the door a rugged yet refined look, perfect for a workshop, barn, or modern rustic home.