Behind the Workshop: How an SP Fabrication Piece Is Made

Every piece we build begins with a conversation and ends with a delivery that takes longer than the client expects. The time in between is where craftsmanship happens.

Here is what that time actually looks like.

Step 1: The Brief

We do not begin with a catalogue. We begin with questions. What is the room? What is the light like? What do you already own that this piece needs to coexist with? What do you want to feel when you walk in and see it?

We find that most clients arrive with a clear sense of what they want — and a less clear sense of what they need. Those two things are not always the same. Part of our job is to help navigate that gap without overriding the client's vision.

Step 2: Timber Selection

For any piece with exposed wood, we visit the timber yard in person. We are looking at grain direction, figure, moisture content, and the particular qualities of each slab that will determine how it behaves after it is milled.

We air-dry all timber in our own yard for a minimum of six months after purchase, regardless of the supplier's stated drying time. Wood that has not finished drying will move after it is built. We do not build with wood that has not finished drying.

Step 3: Milling

Every piece of timber is milled in-house using a combination of wide-belt sander, jointer, and thickness planer. We joint faces before we plane them. We check for twist and bow at every stage. Stock that does not pass our flatness standard goes back to the pile, regardless of cost.

Step 4: Joinery

We use mortise-and-tenon joinery for all structural connections and dovetails for drawer boxes. Dowels are used only where they are the structurally correct choice, never as a cost-cutting substitution for proper joinery.

All glue-ups are done at controlled humidity. We use PVA glue for most applications and West System epoxy where gap-filling or waterproofing is required. Nothing leaves a clamp before the minimum cure time has elapsed.

Step 5: Finishing

For solid wood, we hand-scrape before sanding — a step that most production shops have eliminated and that we believe is non-negotiable for the quality of the final surface. Hand-scraping removes mill marks and tearout that sandpaper cannot address without over-sanding.

We sand through grits, not across them. We raise the grain with water between coats. We apply finish in our spray booth and sand again between coats. A typical oil-and-wax finish takes eight to ten days from first coat to ready-for-delivery.

Step 6: Upholstery

Our upholsterers are the last hands on every soft piece before it ships. They work from patterns that are cut fresh for each commission, not pulled from a stock rotation. Springs are hand-tied. Cushion cores are cut to thickness and density specifications that are matched to the weight and posture preferences of each client where known.

The fabric is cut with a 10% overage allowance. Pattern matching across seams is mandatory on any fabric with visible repeat. There are no shortcuts in our cut list.

Step 7: Delivery

We deliver in our own trucks with our own team. We carry furniture in blankets, not straps. We do not leave until the piece is in its final position and the client is satisfied.

If anything has moved in transit — a drawer that now binds, a cushion that has shifted — we fix it before we leave. That is not exceptional service. It is the minimum standard we hold ourselves to.