The Nathan Dining Table

$6,000

Tom and Linda set out to find a dining room table suitable for their new room and some custom handrails to replace their outdated ones. Being avid art enthusiasts and collectors, anything brought into their home had to fit. They were referred to me and the connection was made. They let me know that they were open to design ideas and suggestions. For the table they wanted a solid hardwood top and steel legs and skirt that were minimal and that it needed to be 10' long. I suggested a table top built of black walnut, with all the boards joined with a continuous sliding dovetail, the entire 10' length of the table. No mechanical fasteners or adhesives. It took little bar soap and a couple of hours to slide the boards together. I then hand planed the top surface for an old world style finish, very little sanding, just good sharp hand tools. The 6 legs are solid steel 1 1/2" square bar stock that are hand forged down to less then 3/4" at the bottom. The skirt material was given the same hand forged treatment to show the beauty of the metalsmith's talent with the hammer. The top, legs and skirt were then attached to a welded, steel sub-frame. The only mechanical fasteners used are those holding the top to the sub-frame. The top was treated to a pure tung oil finish and the steel was hand sealed and burnished with carnauba wax.

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Matt Michalec

Royal Oak, MI

Member since: 2014

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Born in Detroit, the youngest of 5 siblings, Matt began working as a carpenter at the age of 19 framing a house in Birmingham with a small crew.

When the house was finished, everybody else on the small crew was let go. Matt and the owner then began building office furniture, making laminate countertops, doing interior trim work and kitchen installations, all from a small garage shop.

He then moved to another small construction company that took residential remodeling projects from start to finish.

Matt joined the Detroit Carpenters union in the mid 1990s working with union contractors doing both residential and commercial projects until moving to George P. Johnson Company.

At George P. Johnson, He was now building auto show exhibits. Matt quickly rose up to the role of a set-up supervisor on the Nissan and Infinity team. He traveled around the country working with local labor, overseeing the project builds, making sure the displays were set-up properly, safely and ready for the public, providing supervision for those major shows required excellent project management and organizational skills.

Grateful for the skills perfected, and opportunities presented, at George P. Johnson, Matt now wanted to strike out on his own again and produce custom work for his clients.

A close friend and great architect, Keith Phillips, put him in touch with William Massie, head of the architecture department at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Bill asked Matt if he was interested in going to upstate New York to work on a few custom builds.

One of the projects was a house Bill designed for Matt’s now good friend Greg Wooten. This home has been featured in design, architecture and fashion, books and magazines.

He then worked closely with Bill on his “Americas House '08” project, a build that was eventually set-up as a temporary exhibit on the grounds of Cranbrook in front of the art museum.

The next experience with Bill Massie had Matt traveling to the small Caribbean island of Mustique to manage and work on a new resort project. He spent three weeks at a time working on a very high end, private resort the likes of which had not been seen on that island, and likely an architectural rarity on any island.

Matt continues to concentrate efforts on expanding his business fabricating custom furniture and built-ins. His expertise carries on into many different materials, such as, metal and cast concrete, in addition to wood.

Matt also restores vintage Detroit muscle cars, helping him to hone his welding and metal working skills, and recently expanded into his new custom shop in Royal Oak, MI, from here on out referred to as his happy place!