Porter River Studio

Meghan and I love old homes  - the quirkiness, the thoughtful proportions, the histories they hold, but they are often set up for a way of living that is outdated. Our home is one of these homes, built in about 1905. When we bought it 7 years ago the small formal dining room off the kitchen didn't work. We doubled the width of the cased opening and moved in the table saw. 

When we built our shop in the backyard and finally got the table saw out of the house, we were excited by the possibilities the room held. We quickly decided a studio would be the best use of the space. A space to be creative and inspired. Drawing board, pin-up space, and shelves made from an ash tree. 

This ash tree lived in the front corner of the property I grew up on. Along with two catalpas and a white oak, it towered alongside my childhood into adolescence. When the town took it down to run new electrical wires, we asked them to leave the felled tree on our property. I’ve been working through the lumber ever since (you’ll see it in a few other projects here). When the tree came down, it had lived 150 years and was 40” diameter at breast height. Seeing the grain of the wood in our home connects me to my past, watching those enormous branches reach for the sky the way they did.