The process of selecting the material for a custom wood table doesn’t simply end when we’ve chosen which type of wood we’re going to use, far from it. In a table like this one, something like five to eight boards will make it into the finished table top, and we make sure that they’re the right five to eight. Our walnut dining tables are made from the highest quality material available, a fact that makes us both proud and lucky. Commercially available tables simply don’t get made from this caliber of material.

Walnut comes in a range of tones, all centered around the deep, warm chocolate tones that you see here. It can have undertones of red, gray, purple, and even sometimes yellow. All of these variants are beautiful, and all of them have projects that call for them. When we go to our lumber racks to pull boards for a walnut dining table of this size, we’ll pull enough boards to make a table top nearly twice as wide. That’s because we know that not every board is right for every table.

In the process of laying out a table top, an essential part of the process is a visual check: do all of these boards play well together? Will they all look right in the finished product? A custom wood dining table deserves this level of attention, and it’s the only way we’re willing to build. A table top that has six chocolate-colored boards shouldn’t have one that’s distinctly reddish. So we’re always willing to take the time to put that reddish board back and pull one that looks right. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that board, and it’ll probably look perfect in the next table we make, just not this one.

Of course, there is natural color variation both within and between boards – indeed, it’s the reason we love the material. If we wanted a table that is completely monochromatic we probably wouldn’t be building wood tables at all; plastic would be the better choice. This variation is beautifully echoed in the bases here, which are made from thin strips of wood laminated one on top of the other and clamped to a form. The process is time- and labor-intensive, but the end result is stunning.