Purple Pig creativity extends to all kinds of accent pieces. Let us know if you’re looking for lamps, foot stools, magazine racks and more to complement your furnishings. Display family heirlooms on a specially made quilt stand or store your budding wine collection in an elegant wine rack.
Bar Top
A friend of mine was building a small bar for outside use next to his pool. When he told me about this I reminded him that he had given me an ash log a few years ago and that I still had a slab of that wood which could be used for the top. Well, here is the result. He built the bar and I made the top. It’s finished with a marine based finish (the stuff they use on boats) so it should be good for outdoor use.
Kitchen Stand
A small stand for use in the kitchen, made of cherry
Craftman’s Style Table Lamp – 2024
A while back I made a craftsman’s style table lamp and recently I decided I need to make another batch. This time I made 4 each of walnut, butternut, cherry and ash. A friend of mine built the frame of the shade and I added the mica (which my wife cut for me). He did an excellent job on the shade and I thank him profusely as this was the hardest part of this project. The mica is a different color for each species of wood although it’s tough (for me at least) to tell the difference between what’s in the cherry and what’s in the walnut. Here are a few photos of the cherry:
Here is the lamp in ash
Here is the lamp in walnut
Refinish Job
My wife and I stopped in at https://www.facebook.com/battleFishCharter store in Tupper Lake NY a while back. He had a counter top made from a slab of curly maple. It was a nice piece of wood but needed a better finish so I volunteered to refinish it for him. I think it came out pretty nice and he seemed to like it as well. If you are looking for a fishing charter in the Adirondacks or a new custom rod, please check them out, they to an awesome job.
The first photo is before it was refinished. You can see the marks from when it was originally milled.
Plant Stands
I made this pair of plant stands as a wedding present. These are made out of birds-eye maple and are finished with Odies Oil. When used alone they are designed to be put in a corner but when used together they could be used along any wall.
Wine barrel tops
Another customer that I met at Fairport Canal Days 2023 had some wine barrels and wanted some tops made. I had never made a large circle in wood before (kind of strange that after all this time I never had the need). The circle was not difficult at all to make (with the right tools). These tops (there are 2 of them) are 28″ in diameter and are made out of cherry. They will be used and kept outdoors so I put a marine based finish called Epifanes on them.
TV Stand #2 and #3
This winter (2022/2023) I came across some large pieces of walnut I had milled / left over from other projects and thought they would make nice TV stands like the one I made last summer (see below). I had enough of these walnut pieces to make 3 TV stands. I’ve recently (May 2023) finished 2 of them. One has metal legs like the one I made last summer and one has wooden legs. I’m not a metal guy so I had the same guy (John Gloss) make the metal legs. John is someone I met as a vendor at Fairport Canal Days a few years ago. He and his wife do a lot of primitive signs, custom signs, primitive decor, some woodworking and some woodworking incorporating metal. You can see their stuff at Gloss’s Wooden Wonders | Facebook. I made the legs for the other table. I still have materials for one more table which could have metal or wooden legs. Here are a few photos of the 2 I finished. The pictures make it look like the legs are straight, but they are really slanted (sorry, I’m not a photographer).
Here’s the one with the metal legs. It measures 53 1/2 inches long, 15 inches deep and 24 inches high. It has a clear natural finish.
Here’s the one with wooden legs. It measures 43 inches long, 20 inches deep and 23 inches high. The top has an epoxy finish (to be honest, this is not my best job with epoxy).
Chess Boards
I recently (Nov 2022) made a batch of 8 chess boards. Most of the materials used came from scraps and remnants I had lying around that I needed to clean up. The Mahagony came from a friend of mine who had bought a new house and with it came a bunch of small pieces of a variety of types of wood. The chess boards are made from either Mahagony and Maple or Walnut and Maple. Both have a small frame around the playing surface and are finished with a larger frame made of cherry. They measure roughly 18″ x 18″. The photos below are just a sample, one is of the Mahagonly (right) and the other is of the Walnut (left). I really like the way these came out – the pictures don’t do them any justice (I’m a woodworker, not a photographer – sorry).
Desk drawers with new top
I was given some drawers that were once part of a desk. These are very nice quarter sawn oak drawers. I was not given the top of the desk. I wanted to use up some scraps and make this a project using all reclaimed materials but I discovered that I didn’t have enough oak scraps so I pushed the two sets of drawers together and made the top to fit. I think it came out rather unique. It measures 36″ wide x 31.5 deep and is 31.25″ tall.
TV Stand with metal legs
A new customer came to me with a specific design in mind for a table to put their TV on. It wasn’t a complicated design, but it did have one feature that I was not equipped to deal with – metal legs. I did the only thing that I could do, phone a friend. I met John Gloss at Fairport Canal Days a couple of years ago. He and his wife Shelly had a booth across the street from me. He does a lot of primitive signs, custom signs, primitive decor, some woodworking and some woodworking incorporating metal. You can see their stuff at Gloss’s Wooden Wonders | Facebook. I met with him, showed him what we had in mind, and we came up with a plan. A week later the legs were done, and they came out awesome, my customer loved them. The wooden part of the table is made from 2 slabs of walnut with a live edge. It’s about 54 inches long and 20 inches wide. If you have something in mind that combines wood and metal, let me know, I’d be happy to work with John again on a project or two.
Refinish Bowling Alley Kitchen Island
A customer of mine (purchased the Cherry Parts table at Fairport Canal Days 2022) has a kitchen island that was made out of a portion of a bowling alley. It had seen some better days; had some cracks and needed a good refinishing. I’m not real big on refinishing work but this was a flat surface with no curves and its was for a current customer, so I took on the project. I filled the cracks with epoxy and gave it several coats of finish. The hardest part of this project was moving it around, I’d guess it weighed in at around 200 lbs.
Card holder for games
I’ve recently discovered a world of games made for adults. These go way beyond Risk and Monopoly. Games like WingSpan and Catan. While playing one of these games with my family, some of the participants got a little frustrated with the piles of cards getting all messy. So, I put on my woodworking hat and came up with a solution. A simple holder for the cards. Each holder will hold 3 stacks of cards. These can be discarded cards, energy cards etc. I’m selling each holder for $8 (a game like Catan (base version) will need 2 holders). Please use the Contact page if interested. You can also email me at PurplePigWoodShop@gmail.com.
Foot Stools
A person I work with recently asked me to build them a foot stool for under their desk. Sure, easy peasy. Here are some photos of what I made for them. I made 3 and 2 more with different legs are in the work (I’ll post photos of them shortly). These are all made out of cherry. They measure 15″ wide, 9″ deep and 6 1/2″ tall. I have 2 on hand right now and the other 2 should be done in the next few days.
Spice Cabinet
A nice little spice cabinet made of butternut with a tung oil finish. It measures roughly 27″ tall, 24″ wide and 5″ deep. Some of the wood came from a friends backyard in Irondequoit NY.
Adirondack Chairs
A few years ago I made some Adirondack chairs out of some ash that came from a tree in my wife’s grandmothers back yard. These were really cool because of where the wood came from, however, they were a little to big for my wife. They weren’t uncomfortable for her, it was just that they could have been more comfortable. Then when a customer came over to pick up an end table, their roommate saw these chairs and wanted me to make one for her. I ended up making 4 chairs, all out of cherry. I adjusted the size of each chair to the customer (one of which was my wife). I used a finish called Epifanes which is frequently used on boats so it should keep these chairs in good shape for a long time. I think these came out really nice but it was not one of my favorite things to build (lots of parts, finishing was a pain etc.).
Refinished Oak Dining Room Table
I don’t usually do much in the world of refinishing but one of my best customers asked be to refinish a dining room table for a relative of theirs. How could I refuse? This oak table was in 5 pieces and measured roughly 85 inches long and 41 inches wide. Here are some before and after pictures. The table wasn’t in bad shape, it just need a refresher.
I think it turned out okay.
Tall Tumbling Tower of Blocks – $75
This game plays just like the popular game Jenga ® except the blocks used in this game are bigger, much bigger. Each block measures 10.5 inches long, 2.5 inches tall and 3.5 inches wide. All blocks are sanded smooth with every attempt to make them all the same. The game comes in its own crate which is typically used as a platform to start the game. At the start, the blocks measure 27 inches tall. The known record for the tallest tower is 42 levels tall (see photo below).
Quilt Stand
A simple shaker style quilt stand. I’ve made several of these in cherry and walnut. The sides are 1 1/2 inches thick which gives the stand some weight and stability but doesn’t look bulky. Most of the stands I’ve made have been used as wedding presents but my wife and I have been using one (made with cherry) for years.
Poker Table Cart
A customer has a large poker table that is awkward to move around and was looking for a solution. This is what we came up with. It’s made out of walnut, has wheels and a handle. Now he can pull it into the game room and play.
Chest rebuild
Someone had an old chest that they wanted some changes made to. He wanted it a little shorter, then flipped it on its side. Then using the materials that were cut off to make it shorter, I made doors for the front, shrank the original lid down, added a shelf and ta-da a new chest. Here’s a quote from the owner: I AM ECSTATIC with the finished product. And I smile every time I walk into the living room !!” Thanks JW for that
Fireplace Mantel
A friend of ours was installing an electric fireplace. They did all the stone work but needed a mantel and a frame around the fireplace and they asked me to help. This is a simple box design made out of curly maple. It’s about 8 feet long, 6 inches high and 7 inches deep.
Floating Shelves
Floating shelves: What is a floating shelf you may ask? It’s a shelf where the brackets that hold the shelf to the wall are hidden so it looks like the shelf is just floating in mid air. I’ve made a couple of these recently and could make some for you. The ones shown below are made out of ash, have a live edge in the front and are mounted with heavy duty brackets that will hold 125 pounds. Please use the Contact page if you want to talk about having me make some custom shelves for you. Thanks for looking.
Art Boxes
A customer of mine does some water color painting and wanted a way to store/organize their materials. One of the things they needed to store was a piece of glass where they keep their paints that are in use (apparently the paint doesn’t dry for a long time when on the glass). They also needed to store other materials such as brushes and paint. They wanted something where the paint on the glass would not be exposed to dust etc. The result is this art box. It’s made out of walnut and has some supports on the insides for the glass. This way the can put all the materials in box and then put the glass above those materials on the supports.
Walnut and Butternut wine cabinet
This wine cabinet took me roughly 25 years to build. I would work on it for a while and then let it sit for a decade. It’s made from butternut and walnut. It holds 48 bottles of wine and a bunch of glasses (on the right). It also has a drawer to store miscellaneous stuff. It measures 34.5 inches wide, 15 inches deep and 46 inches high.
Shuffle board table
A while back I was poking around on Craigslist and found someone in Buffalo selling 10-foot-long pieces of bowling alleys. I couldn’t resist. I bought 3 pieces that had come from “Thruway Lanes”. I had in mind that I had never build a shuffle board table and thought that this would be the perfect way to do so. The table measures 110 inches long, 28 inches wide and 35 inches high. The playing surface is 95 inches long and 18 inches wide. Not quite as big as you see in some bars but a nice size for our basement It has a number of levelers to make it play true. The playing surface is finished in epoxy. The beauty of the epoxy is that it gives a perfectly flat surface. The frame is made from cherry and the legs are 4×4 pine.
Craftsman’s style table lamp – version 1
I wanted to build a lamp like this for a long time. I took various parts from several other designs I’ve seen and build the lamp shown here. The shade is made from mica and was quite challenging to make. Of all the things I’ve made, this is still one of my favorites. To me it really fits what I consider the Craftsman style – simple clean design that’s very functional.
Flower Box
My friends at McArdle’s (a local restaurant that I’ve done work for on the past, see https://www.mcardlesfairport.com/ ) have an outdoor seating area and wanted to jazz it up a little. They asked me to build a flower box. This flower box is 42 inches high, 22 inches deep and 20 feet long. The outside if made out of the material they use for decks called “Trex”. Once they plant flowers in it I’ll post some updated pictures.
Magazine Rack
This magazine rack was a custom request from one of my wife’s co-workers. It’s made of cherry.
Dog Stairs
When I had a booth at the Fairport Canal Days arts and crafts show in the summer of 2019, I met a couple that asked me if I could build a set of stairs for use by their dog, who was getting old and had short legs) to get into their bed. Why of course I said I could do that and I gave them my card. A few months later they gave me a call and I build the stairs. There are 3 stairs, each stair has some carpet pad on it and is cover my some fabric. The stairs are made out of walnut but have been stained quite dark in order to match the other furniture the couple has in their bedroom. Overall dimension are about 15 inches high, by 15 inches deep and 17 inches wide.
Lego Shelves
Another project that I got as a result of the booth I had at the Fairport Canal Days arts and crafts show in the summer of 2019, was a set of shelves. This couple has a son that has a expansive collection of Lego figures and wanted a place to display them. These shelves are made of hickory and are about 7 feet wide, 6 feet tall and 10 1/2 inches deep. There is a slot in the front of each shelf that will hold a thin Lego so that small figures can be mounted.
Coaster Holders
So what’s that piece of wood with the slots? Why, it’s a coaster holder. My friend has been making custom coasters using alcohol ink (they’re awesome) and asked if I could build a custom holder for them. I made her a couple and at the same time made a few more. These measure 4″ wide by 4″ long and 1.5″ high. Here’s the result.
