01
Walnut
American Black / Oil Finish
The classic choice for a dining table that anchors a room. Deep chocolate heartwood that lightens to honeyed brown over the first decade, gaining figure as it goes.
Furniture — Dining Tables
Handmade dining
tables, built to order.
Each dining table begins with the room it will live in — its light, its proportions, and the number of people it must seat. From there we draw the piece, select the timber, and build it by hand with mortise-and-tenon joinery and a hand-rubbed oil finish. One table at a time, signed by the maker.
How a table is built
(01 — 03)01
Mortise and tenon
The apron-to-leg joint on every dining table we build. Cut by hand to a friction fit, then wedged through the tenon so the joint tightens with age rather than loosening. Where a design calls for steel or brass, that hardware is specified deliberately and left visible — never used to cover a weak joint.
02
Breadboard ends
The ends of a wide top are capped with cross-grain boards joined by tenons. This lets the top expand and contract across the seasons while staying flat — the difference between a table that lasts a lifetime and one that checks within a year.
03
Hand-rubbed oil
Four coats of a house-blended oil and wax, burnished between each. The finish sinks into the wood rather than sitting on top of it — breathable, repairable, and it deepens the grain without hiding it.
Three timbers for a table
(01 — 03)The species sets the character of the table for the next fifty years. These three carry nearly every dining table we build — hickory and cherry are available for custom pieces. For walnut specifically, see our walnut dining table page, and for a natural slab edge see our live edge dining tables.
02
White Oak
Quarter-sawn / Fumed or Oil
Quarter-sawn for medullary fleck and seasonal stability — essential for a wide table top. Hard, closed-pored, and the most honest expression of grain we work with.
03
Hard Maple
Sugar Maple / Natural
Pale and luminous for bright, south-facing rooms. Dense enough to shrug off daily use; ambers slowly from cream toward a soft wheat over decades.
Hickory, cherry, ash, and select exotic hardwoods are available by request for one-off custom tables.
Commission
Commission a handmade dining table.
Tell us about the room — its dimensions, its light, and how many people the table should seat. We will bring timber samples and a drawing. Current lead time is 12 to 16 weeks.
luke@greatplainswoodworks.orgWrite to the studio