Custom Creations
You imagine it. We build it.
We take pride in our creativity, and we invite you to put our craftsmanship to work in the service of your design concept. One thing you can count on: We keep an open mind, and we make it a point to underpromise and overdeliver.
Says owner J.R. Smith: “I don’t know how many projects I’ve gotten where I’ve actually said to the customer, ‘I’ve never done it before, but I can figure it out.’”
Our custom furniture and other design creations share the characteristics we value most: great build quality and close attention to every design detail. See our extensive photo gallery for multitudinous examples of our creations!
These flourishes in wood, Celtic knots made of box elder, were custom-fabricated for installation on the front doors of a residence that featured an Irish-pub theme.
J.R. Smith Custom Furniture from time to time purchases choice materials to have available for custom furniture. Here, a portion of a bowling alley lane from Colonial Lanes in Huntington, W.Va., undergoes restoration, in preparation for use in a made-to-order vintage industrial style table.
From time to time, exceptional source materials become available, and from these we fabricate our own custom creations for sale. Here, an old whisky barrel has been turned into wall-mounted bottle openers and coat racks. We could smell the whisky as we created these!
Speaking of custom creations, this table shows some of the characteristic creativity J.R. Smith Custom Furniture brings to projects. A gnarled and feature-rich wood piece is here combined with bold blue and an epoxy filler, resulting in a striking, one-of-a-kind heirloom table. Legs are finished with a concrete-based bonded material.
Owner J.R. Smith has for years taken a special interest in furniture creations that feature live-edge wood. This one is finished in clear epoxy.
One of our favorite woods, cherry offers rich possibilities for any style of décor. Here, again, is a live-edge project that showcases the wood’s natural shape and lines.
Can you tell that this table is a favorite of our J.R. Smith Custom Furniture crew? This custom creation currently resides in Ashland, Ky.
We do particularly enjoy certain custom projects that let us show our abilities, gained over many years and trial-and-error experiments. Here, a piece we call River Table features a custom slab with an epoxy reservoir over a turquoise flow gap, with a concrete-as-rock based with curved-wood support.
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At J.R. Smith Custom Furniture, we always keep an ear out for interesting wood opportunities. Here, J.R. oversees the dismantling of bowling alley lanes for use in custom furniture.
Our shop at J.R. Smith Custom Furniture is outfitted with numerous pro tools, such as this thickness planer, that enable us to make quick work of furniture projects.
All custom projects begin with a solid base and substrate that can stand the dual tests of regular usage and time. We do tend to overengineer our custom creations so that they last a looong time.
When we create custom pieces for clients, often a step in the process is to experiment with various finishes that are possible. Here, the choice was between a rough or a smooth concrete-based table leg.
Talk about attention to detail! Either that, or he’s hiding from colleagues. …
Here we see the base of a custom creation we called River Table. A specially formulated concrete bonded material was used for a unique surface on the legs and base.
In our J.R. Smith Custom Furniture spray booth, we line ‘em up and knock ‘em out. These are door panels and shelves.
This custom-made door featured old barn wood. It is a heavy beast! A solid – formidable, even – entryway to a rustic cabin.
Burled and gnarly can be difficult to work, but it also can be uniquely beautiful. From nature, we derive our inspiration.
This client wanted a wall featuring vertical cherry wood with live edges. Definitely in our wheelhouse!
At J.R. Smith Custom Furniture, we have developed a few specialties, and one is certainly live-edge wood tables and other furniture. Here, a trio of walnut tables with live edges feature hairpin-style slender metal bases.
Speaking of custom creations, here J.R. Smith Custom Furniture is working with a client to fabricate a wall-mounted shelf of wood and iron pipe. The client’s concept begins coming to life with a drawing by J.R. for review.
From the fertile imagination of a client and then into the design studio (J.R.’s workbench, his pencil and a yellow notepad), the idea of a wood-and-metal wall-mounted shelf gets translated into reality.
The finished product, in a client’s home, features live-edge wood, iron pipe and the homeowner’s personal touches as the final flourish
Although we no longer do field work as one of our primary offerings, at J.R. Smith Custom Furniture we are proud of certain landmark projects that showcase our ability to fabricate-to-match. Here, we filled in with concrete where a window used to be and set out to match the concrete to the existing block wall.
Our many years of designing in concrete are at your service when it comes to custom creations.
Fabricated in the J.R. Smith Custom Furniture shop – with a great deal of care, patience and attention to detail – this concrete vanity sink was then installed by us in the client’s residence.
This custom-in-concrete vanity sink features modern lines for a unique look.
Every wood project involves multiple steps, from chainsawing to planing to rough sanding to fine sanding to spraying to burnishing – for starters. The goal is a beautiful piece of furniture that will stand up to years and years of regular use.
A live-edge bar top, in sycamore with chestnut stain, is the star of the show in this residence’s entertaining area.
From the forest to the client’s living room, this live-edge slab was fabricated into what we called the Y Table, featuring a custom base of metal and stone.
Talk about a custom creation! This table – created in MDF, glass and many other materials for a sci-fi gaming fan – is lit from within and certainly will something you’ll see anywhere else on the planet.
This business sought unique signage, so we worked with them and, together, created a concept: sign on wood, encased in epoxy. Here, the epoxy form surrounds the sign at core.
Did we mention that we work in multiple materials – pretty much whatever it takes? Here, the sign-on-wood plus custom-fabricated metal mount are placed in the proper orientation for later encapsulation in epoxy.
This custom-created signage signals to customers and passers-by that this is a business that takes originality seriously.
We particularly enjoy – and specialize in – turning unique large slabs of wonderful old wood into custom furniture to be enjoyed for generations. This is box elder.
Concrete countertops – particularly large, uninterrupted ones like this commercial installation – can be a tricky creation to get right – fraught with peril at many steps in the process. We have deep experience in this field of endeavor.
Sometimes we come up with nicknames for custom creations as we are fabricating them. This live-edge slab on custom-wild legs came to be known, simply, as Beast Table.
Another example of live-edge wood over a concrete-as-stone base, this arrow-shaped stable is literally solid as a rock.
This massive piece, a slab of ambrosia maple, shows the promise of rich texture when sanded. Stain and finish will bring a revelation in wood.
Each custom piece of furniture tends to be unique, and certainly each live-edge table, such as this blistered maple beauty, has no match anywhere. Sometimes the bark can be incorporated, and sometimes it cannot. The wood itself tells us what is possible.
From the mind of a creative client, through the design process of J.R. Smith Custom Furniture, and then through the process of fabrication and installation, this wild green bar back came into being. Like no other!
We do like our live edges. Here, a slab of curly oak awaits fabrication into a custom piece of furniture.
All wood shops of any ability must master joinery, here on display for the corner of a custom bar top.
We started with the wheel and built out from there. Looks like it’s a hundred years old.
Do we bring in a big man with a big chainsaw occasionally to do some of the big cutting work our projects sometimes require? A big yes to that!
When we say we do “custom creations,” we mean it – across a wide range of fabrications in wood and metal and whatever other material the job takes. Here, the client had a classic ornamental decoration that required a super-solid + beautiful base to match. Can do.
A standup-bar table made of complementary blonde and dark wood grains gets installed on-site at a retail establishment.
Speaking of working in multiple materials, here we created a custom railing from solid PVC for the deck over a porch roof. No rot, ever, in this material!
With a hand planer, we uncovered grain features in this slab for a bar top.
A magnificent slab of spalted maple travels on its journey to new life as a bar top. The partial decay, called spalting, gives the wood dark contrasting lines and streaks where fungus has begun to attack the wood. Encapsulation in clear finish slows/halts the decay and results in a spectacular aesthetic.
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phoenix speakers
