Wentzel Wood Designs

Wentzel Wood Designs has been in the making for over 40 years. Our first project was in the 70's with hatch cover tables. However, more pressing concerns for creating an income kept us from pursuing furniture and we found ourselves taking the path of traditional general contracting endeavors. Our passion for table making resurfaced again here in California after the construction of our current home. No longer wishing to be an active general contractor and seeing old scaffold planks left over from construction, the idea was reborn. It didn't take long before a full array of tables started filling our shop and spilling into our home. Various tree slabs, reclaimed planking and wood projects that laid dormant in my mind for decades are now finally coming to reality. These are not traditional tables, but rather rustic pieces that are all one-of-kind. Each design is somewhat dictated by the uniqueness of each piece of wood. The shape of each piece and end finish seems to be more controlled by the wood itself rather than my opinion. Some woods just seem to have a mind of their own and it's this that determines the final finish and color hue. Rather than deciding to force a stain onto the wood, most of our projects use our own hand-rubbed oil formula that lets the true hue of the wood come through. This isn't always the case, but it's what we do most of the time and this has been the source of producing most of our best pieces. We use exotic woods, but so far most of our favorite pieces have come from California's own selections of trees. Many of these trees have fallen over or died and are headed for the fireplace before we grab them.