Building Furniture, Slowly But Surely

I started building furniture as a hobby in 1998, concentrating on Mission-style pieces, first popularized by Gustav Stickley in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The name came from furniture he saw in Spanish California missions and emulated in his work — simple, clean lines in contrast to the overly ornate (in my view) furniture of the Victorian era. Stickley later popularized Craftsman furniture, which is considered more carefully proportioned. Both styles still hold broad appeal. Mission style is considered a subset of Craftsman furniture. As with most hobbies, I went whole-hog for a few years,...

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