Last year, we got an inquiry for a bistro table from a client remodeling his kitchen and dining area. He loved our crescent table and round bistro tables on our website and wanted to know if I could design something like that for a rectangular table 36” tall. Only two people would ever sit there, so 48” was long enough. He thought our standard 42” dining table width would allow ample room for their kitchen dining style. Based on how Melanie and I enjoy our Sunday brunch, I imagined he’d need space for an elegantly garnished plate of frittata and a side of laptop computer for multitasking.
Further suggestions included a curly maple top and a walnut base, but with only two “legs” rather than the four our preliminary designs sported. I could not think of how that would work but promised I’d see what I could come up with.
Then later that day, I got an image in my head that sent me to the scrap pile looking for maquette-making material. I have reached the point where I can make a model faster than I can draw a new design. I also relate better to physical 3-D material in my hand than graphite on paper.
And forget about CAD drawing! I am not too old to learn that; it’s just that I have so many other things to learn that are above CAD, drawing on my list of ambitions.
I got lucky and got a form I liked on the first try band sawing out the base. A coat of black spray paint made the photo look decent enough. But when I put the top scaled to 42” x 48” on top of that base, it looked off. Then memories of Fibonacci showed up on the scene, and the “oh, of course” thought came in.


Melanie and I send our sincere Thank you! Our last newsletter, “A Tribute to my Mother,” sparked a wave of thoughtful responses from our readers. Some shared their own stories of loved ones passing. Others commented on my writing with words that clarified that we are writing to not only our client base but a wonderful community with whom we share more than we know. We send thanks to all of you for sharing your thoughts. We welcome that from any of our newsletters.