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Where to buy custom Nakashima-style live edge furniture

Commission it from an American furniture maker who works in slabs. Cost is driven more by the slab than by the labor, which is unusual for a commission and worth understanding before you start. One thing to be clear about first: George Nakashima Woodworkers still exists. The New Hope, Pennsylvania studio is owned and operated by the family, with his daughter Mira Nakashima as Creative Director and president, and it continues to produce his designs. If you want an actual Nakashima, that is where it comes from.

Reviewed

What a maker builds for you is a piece in the live-edge tradition. Not a Nakashima. That distinction is covered in our guide to commissioning reproductions, and it matters more here than almost anywhere else, because the name carries real value and the studio is a going concern.

What is his, and what is the tradition

Worth separating honestly, because a lot of marketing blurs it.

The broad vocabulary is not proprietary. Live edges, slab tops, butterfly keys, exposed joinery, working with the natural form of the board: these are woodworking techniques, several of them centuries old. Butterfly keys in particular are a traditional joint used to arrest a check long before the twentieth century.

What is his is a specific body of designs, a distinctive proportional language, and a corpus with documented provenance. The Conoid, the Minguren, the Frenchman's Cove: named designs from a studio that still makes them.

So a maker can absolutely build you a walnut slab table with butterfly keys and a sculpted base. What they cannot do is call it a Nakashima, imitate the studio's mark, or let a buyer believe it came from New Hope.

The slab comes first

This is the thing that makes this commission different from every other one on this site. In most furniture the design leads and you find wood to suit it. Here it is the reverse: you choose the board, then design around what it is.

Element What to specify
Slab Species, dimensions, thickness, and crucially whether you want to select the actual board. Walnut is the default; claro and English walnut and figured stock cost far more
Edge How natural. Bark removed and the edge cleaned and softened, or more sculpted. Say how irregular you are comfortable with
Checks and voids Filled, stabilized with butterfly keys, or left. Make this decision consciously rather than discovering it at delivery
Butterfly keys Contrasting species, size, count, placement. Structural or decorative, and be honest about which
Thickness Drives visual weight more than any other single dimension
Base Wood, blackened steel, or a sculpted trestle. The base is where a piece either reads as considered or as a slab on legs
Finish Traditionally an oil finish that leaves the wood feeling like wood. Ask about durability if it is a dining table
Underside A good maker finishes it. Run your hand under the edge of anything you are considering buying

What it costs

Unusually for a commission, the material can exceed the labor. A wide, long, well-figured walnut slab is a scarce object with its own market, and two tables of identical design can differ by five figures on the board alone. What drives the number:

  • The slab. Species, width, length, thickness and figure. This is the dominant line
  • Whether you select the specific board, and what the maker has dry in stock
  • Base material and complexity. A sculpted trestle is a different job from a steel frame
  • Stabilization work, including butterfly keys and how voids are treated
  • Finish schedule, and how much durability the piece needs
  • Edge work. A properly cleaned, softened and sealed live edge is craft, not a default

How to tell good work from bad

Live edge is the most-copied idiom in contemporary American furniture and the quality range is enormous.

  • The slab is properly dried. This is the whole ballgame. A slab that has not reached equilibrium will move, cup, and open fresh checks in your house. Ask the moisture content and the drying history. Air-dried then kiln-finished is a common and good answer.
  • Butterfly keys do something. They should span a check and hold it. Keys scattered decoratively across sound wood are costume jewelry.
  • The base is designed, not defaulted. Hairpin legs under a beautiful slab is the tell.
  • The edge has been worked. Bark left on is a maintenance problem and usually sheds. A cleaned, softened, sealed edge is the craft.
  • The underside is finished and the top is attached in a way that allows seasonal movement.
  • The maker signs their own work, never with anything that could be mistaken for the studio's mark.

On resin

Filled voids, and especially colored "river" tables, are a distinct contemporary style rather than part of this tradition. Nothing wrong with them, but do not brief a maker for a Nakashima-influenced piece and then ask for a bright epoxy river. Those are two aesthetics pulling against each other. Decide which you actually want.

Who does this work

Furniture makers who work in slabs, often holding their own drying stock, frequently paired with a metalworker for steel bases. When you start a commission, ask specifically about slab inventory. A maker who dries their own wood is a different proposition from one who buys a slab to order.

Sources

Maker MarketPlace Background

Frequently asked questions

Yes. George Nakashima Woodworkers in New Hope, Pennsylvania is family-owned and still producing his designs under his daughter Mira Nakashima. Period pieces also come up at auction. Anything else is an interpretation, whatever it is called.

The slab dominates. A wide, long, well-figured walnut board is a scarce object with its own market, and two tables of identical design can differ enormously on the board alone. Ask what the maker has dry in stock before you talk about design.

Black walnut most often, for color and figure. Claro and English walnut for higher-end work. Maple, oak, elm, sycamore, and cherry all appear. Ask what the maker has in stock and dry.

They span and stabilize a check so it does not propagate. They are structural first. Used on sound wood they are ornament pretending to be engineering.

It can, if the slab was not properly dried or the base does not allow seasonal movement. Ask about moisture content, drying history, and how the top attaches. See why wood tables crack.

Usually not, and you should not want it. Bark separates over time and traps dirt. A properly finished live edge keeps the natural line but is cleaned, softened, and sealed.

With many makers, yes, and it is worth doing. It is the single decision with the largest effect on the finished piece.

Building in a tradition is legal. Selling something as a Nakashima, or marking it to suggest it came from the studio, is not. See our guide to reproductions and the law.
    Where to buy custom Nakashima-style live edge furniture | Maker Marketplace