After air drying this South Pasadena Oak street tree for two years, we selected it as the material used in making Diane’s commissioned table. After it fell, we called in the mobile band saw, sliced it into planks on the edge of Grand Avenue, and took it to my favorite storage place, otherwise known as…my driveway.

We decided to work with Marty of Shalders’ Fine Carpentry as our collaborating furniture maker. There was significant warpage during drying, so we selected the best pieces, then Marty ripped them down the middle, butterflied them like a piece of chicken, laid them flat, and hand-milled them with a jig and router. It was a labor intensive process, but necessary to maintain maximum thickness. We finally rejoined the slabs.

The table is more finely crafted than a typical live edge plank, but retains a rustic look, due to the checks and splits that give the planks their character. We decided to use two planks instead of three, even though it creates a large void in the table center. We chose a piece with unique grain to fill this void. Diane didn’t want to lose ANY of the beautiful grain, but I broke it to her that we had to break some eggs to make the omelette. We trimmed the table to the desired length and removed some lumber to get the Yin to join with the Yang.

During the design process, we had to resolve several challenges. We had to make some choices regarding the shape of the top. We normalized the edge into a smooth curve and slicing off the little protruding bumps. Diane decided the table was a little bit too long for her space so we cut 6” off of each end to reduce it from 9' to 8’4”.

We eased the corners using the radius of a nearby paint can, and eased the ends into broad gentle curves. This table has reverse curves at the edges, which gives it an hourglass type shape.

The next challenge was choosing a leg system to support the table. We sat on the idea for three weeks until I came up with the concept of a two-part splittable table, where the Yin and the Yang can be separated and used as console tables. We were originally going to make the legs out of a different wood, but decided to use wood from the same tree. We laminated lumber for the remaining planks to create the heavier stock needed for the leg system.

The cool thing about the table design process is that you take one step and that presents a few problems to solve, and then the next step presents more design solutions and the next step and so on and so on. We were truly chasing the nature of the wood and the problems that arise because of its uniqueness and that’s what makes this table special.

We decided to make a prototype of the leg structure out of 2x6 framing lumber. The leg system resembles a wishbone and takes its stylistic cues from the prior oak dining table and coffee table. The legs are placed for maximum stability and to provide the right clearance at the seating positions. We really like the leg design and may use it as a template for more tables in the future.

Photos by Lisa Romerein

This Keita Design project is the biggest project we’ve ever undertaken. The 15 foot table was hewn from 3.5” thick slabs, milled from a 150 year old oak tree in Altadena. The wood was so unyielding, it was like working with stone. Each quarter of the table is a single plank from the same tree, roughly book-matched in two directions. The table top alone weighs approximately 800 to 900 pounds, making working with the table a challenge. It was sanded in two rounds; the first was a rough sanding, followed by epoxy filler to fill the significant checking and insect bore holes in the table top. The second round was the finish sanding.

The grain of the wood is very unusual because it alternated between a blonde oak color and a dark oak color, making the table top a very interesting variety of tones. The final thickness of the wood is about two inches and we decided to shape the table to be symmetrical around the central long axis and slightly asymmetrical about the short axis. We trimmed the interior void formed by the natural shape of the wood into the shape of a perfect ellipse in order to reference the elliptical staircase in the house that we designed. We filled the void with wood from the same tree, so the element would become a seamless part of the table top.

We decided to purchase red oak for the base because it was a complicated joinery project. Working with live edge wood and laminating it together into pieces that are stable enough to be converted into a very sturdy and carefully articulated base would be a huge effort, so we purchased red oak which the finisher, Julio Lamas, bleached and finished to compliment the table top.

The table is designed to seat sixteen people. The project is the latest in a series of Keita collaborations between Chris Peck and Ladislav Czernek. The finisher, Julio Lamas, was very excited about the project and performed his magic on the table.

It is in a client’s house in Benedict Canyon at the conclusion of a long and successful house design project completed by PECK Architecture Structural Civil. The furniture had been custom designed to compliment the house project.

Photos by Lisa Romerein

Keita’s elliptical staircase project utilized the architectural and engineering modeling and drafting skill of the PECK Architectural and Structural team. Challenged with finding a way to construct a complicated elliptical staircase for one of PECK’s architectural projects in Benedict Canyon, we considered, vertical glued laminated timbers fabricated on site, a site-built wood box beam, and a site assembled pair of box beams fabricated from water jet or plasma cut parts. We settled on steel roll forming of 4x8x1/2” hollow structural sections.

The design’s elliptical form has a constantly changing radius which made it challenging to fabricate. By using PECK’s staff to create the staircase geometry in the digit model, along with part descriptions for the shop and unfolded elevation views of the stringers, we were able to provide a very economical construction for the owner.

We worked with Carolina Rolling for the rolling of the parts and Josue Hernandez at JHV Welding Services for the on-site welding and installation. After we installed the steel substructure, carpenter, Daniel Kingery, of ARK Builders, constructed the wood components, including the framing for the quasi-helical soffit surface with double curvature. Our design incorporated the landing at the middle of the staircase into the overall volume of the form, resulting in a smooth underside.

We were excited to be engaged in this beautiful design exploration with PECK, combining our high levels of expertise, solving tough problems and innovating together to create in a cost effective way that will benefit everybody. Keep an eye out for future collaborations.

Photos by Lisa Romerein

The first Keita project is a collaboration between furniture designer and woodworker Ladislav Czernek and Chris Peck. Ladislav has been a professional designer and fabricator of innovative furniture for 20 years and his products have been showcased in New York based DESIGNLUSH's Modern Masters Series.

On the low end of the tech spectrum, the design tools were a pen and a pencil, paper of various types and the wood itself. Various influences contributed to the design direction, from early colonial American farm tables to Henry Moore sculptures, to Noguchi, to Scandinavian modern.

The three legged design concept originated with the plan to place the table within a space that would accept and benefit from the tapered design. The result is a table that seats seven.

The raw materials consist of 100% air dried California Live Oak, milled in Sierra Madre by the non-profit Urban Ecology Project, which obtained the fallen street tree from the City of Pasadena. The Pasadena foothills wind storm of 2011 yielded a fine oak trunk, which had been growing in the City of Pasadena for the past 100 years.

Ladislav and Chris met to discuss each next move in an iterative fashion, which allowed the form of the table to evolve in response to the shapes and character of the planks. There are traces of the process in the finished product. The underside of the table shows the wild nature of the raw material that was ripped and re-joined in 4 sections. The checks and splits are fully expressed, as are the varied and beautiful grain patterns.

Made at Ladislav Czernek Furniture

Photos by Dunja Dumanski

A collaboration between furniture designer and woodworker Ladislav Czernek and Chris Peck, this three-legged coffee table is a member of the same family as The Oak Dining Table.

Made at Ladislav Czernek Furniture

Photos by Dunja Dumanski

There are two parts to the story of this table. The first is the wood itself. We tested eucalyptus to see how it would respond to milling and what type of grain would emerge when finished with oil. We wondered if we could make a beautiful table out of it and the answer is YES! It’s millable, stable and has a beautiful grain.

The second part of the story is the leg. We decided to create a leg design that can be used with any rectangular table top. These four legs were each assembled from three water-jet cut aluminum parts and then welded and plated with nickel. We are currently working on a casting process to produce them in two or three sizes. We may expand this concept to round tables as well.

The proportions are just perfect and they are made of substantial, 1/2” thick aluminum. The table top hovers above the legs with rubber spacers giving it a streamlined appearance, and a bit of a shock absorbing effect. We see the flexible rubber as analogous to cartilage and may allow us to create geometries that are similar to anatomic forms.

Leg design by Chris Peck, table top made at Ladislav Czernek Furniture, water jet cutting by Monrovia Water Jet, and plating by General Brite Plating. Leg welding coordinated by Ladislav Czernek.

Photos by Dunja Dumanski

We made the conference table using the “digital file to water jet cutting” technique. We developed a form that we felt would work for us structurally, given the constraint that we would be using interlocking flat plates for the table legs, which is a function of the fabrication technique.

In order to to make the leg structure stable in three-dimensions, we experimented with methods of interlocking the parts together. We landed on a mortise system with tapped holes placed adjacent to the mortises. The table base is locked together and then screwed in place with stainless steel screws. The form turned out to be incredibly stable in both directions, and we understand that the next table can have a thinner profile.

The next step in the process was the plating, during which the pieces were dipped into a bath of nickel with a charge on the metal so the nickel would adhere to the aluminum and chemically bond. We discovered plating to be a fun, beautiful operation and the end result was a set of beautifully finished nickel plated aluminum table legs.

We brought the aluminum mortises through the surface of the table, which provides a beautiful effect and evidence of the joinery and construction beneath.

The top is constructed in four pieces of Aleppo Pine harvested in Bel Air, California. We bleached the pine to make it more white than yellow and to highlight the broad swirls of the grain. The four elements of the top are joined by a steel cross shaped spine which is also plated and is expressed on the surface.

Leg design by Chris Peck, table top made at Ladislav Czernek Furniture, water jet cutting by Monrovia Water Jet, and plating by General Brite Plating. Leg welding coordinated by Ladislav Czernek.

Photos by Dunja Dumanski