I thought that I'd restart my blog by republishing some of my favorites from my previous blogging effort.  This speaks to the nature and pleasures of building custom things.

My first encounter with the notion of “bespoke” happened early in my business career when some gents visiting from England were caught up in a conversation about their clothing.  I had never heard the word before but its suggestive sound and context made me understand what it meant. At the time custom-tailored clothing seemed like a lot of trouble for getting duds that I could easily buy off the rack for a lot less money.  I guess I still think that’s the case at least for clothing.  Chalk that up to my “Yankee” upbringing or, more to the point, to the fact that I was never very fashionable and can be seen these days wearing mostly plaid shirts and jeans.

Years later the company I was working for at the time moved into new office space and each of the Partners was given a budget to purchase office furniture.  I decided to get a custom-made desk by David Margonelli, a furniture maker working out of Edgecomb, Maine.  I was about to undertake my first experience with a bespoke personal object.

Initially, it seemed like a very straight forward task: pick a design, tweak it a bit, wait a while, sign a check, get to work!  Fortunately David didn’t share my perspective on the task at hand (except for the sign the check step.)  His idea was to create a unique piece of furniture that would embody my design tastes and, importantly, my personal work style.  So he began to ask questions about my design preferences and work habits and how I wanted them reflected in the desk.  Needless to say, I did not have any ready answers.   To provide them, I needed to step back, observe, reflect and codify my personal work habits and to think about how something as prosaic as a desk could become a tool for making my work life better.

The trivial organizational and work flow details that occurred in and around my desk had always been taken for granted. I was never in favor of the clean desk philosophy but, in some cases I admired the not so subtle message it held that the clown behind the desk was in control.  In other cases it only confirmed that he had either a serious case of lint-picking ECD or inconsequential duties fit for a bobble head. Since I suffered from none of these afflictions, my deskscape was somewhat chaotic receiving an occasional reordering reminiscent of an autumnal yard clean-up.  The prospect of designing a desk that would facilitate more orderly work habits was intriguing.

I decided to borrow a design from a desk my grandmother used for many years.  It was a tilt top, where the desk top is folded down from the cabinet to reveal storage drawers and compartments and folded up to hide the clutter when work is finished.  For a month or more I thought about how those drawers and compartments should be configured to absorb and organize my clutter.  I created 12 compartments that would each take a small stack of papers, since I liked to organize my project work in piles.  I had a compartment made for my lap top computer so it could be easily stored and retrieved.  I had drawers sized for specific desk items like tape and staplers to get them off the desk top.  Meanwhile David came up with a simple but elegant design that suited my taste perfectly.

When the desk finally arrived it performed its function admirably.  But it was more than just a tool to make my work life better.  For me the desk had a heart and soul with roots to my grandmother and features that reflected my own personality and idiosyncrasies.  It was a selfless personal steward that anticipated my needs perfectly and never asked for anything in return.  It was a work of art that reminded me daily of the value of craftsmanship, elegant design and vision.  It reminded me of the transformative power of excellence and dedication, where David was able to take rough, gnarly wood and make it into a graceful object of true beauty and function.  It was a very personal object standing tall in an impersonal office filled with steel, glass and shiny reproduction office furniture trying to convey an image that is something more than the objects deserved or could ever hope to be.

That is the nature of “ bespoke.”  It’s why building a custom home is so rewarding.