Custom Furniture Today: In the Carpinteros Tradition

Southwest Spanish Craftsmen is preserving classic motifs and woodworking techniques that stretch back to 1600, and at the same time, we're creating furniture for contemporary customers who value sophisticated design, craftsmanship and heirlooms. How we achieve all this sets Southwest Spanish Craftsmen apart.

Mortise and tenon construction is one of the oldest forms of joining wood together for hand made furniture. It remains today as the pinnacle of quality in fine woodworking. Unlike most contemporary furniture that is glued and dowelled by machines, Southwest Spanish Craftsmen assures the highest quality of craftsmanship through superior joinery.

Hand planning is a lost art that gives wood a luster that can never be achieved by sand paper. Because we use no sandpaper, every square inch of wood is carefully worked using a hand plane, creating a surface unique to any other.

Like the carpinteros before them, our woodworkers carefully select the native Ponderosa pine for every piece, which arrives at our shop kiln-dried. Each component is milled, shaped and assembled by hand. Hand hewn details and textures are carved, chipped, and adzed into the surface, creating the quintessential look of Southwest furniture. For the final touch, we apply one of our special wood finishes to create the distinguishing look that is Southwest Spanish Craftsmen.

Many of our crew are generational carpenters, who have extended family members who are woodworkers. Unlike most other woodshops, Southwest Spanish Craftsmen is not an assembly line production. Each made-to-order piece is cared for by one craftsman from start to finish. Many of our customers walk through the woodshop to watch the progress of their purchase. Though our Southwestern furniture lines contain a high standard of uniformity, there is also a bit of personality in each, reflective of the particular craftsman who made it. Each piece is signed by the craftsman who made it. Our customers love it!

More in This Section