The craft behind every piece.
From the first sketch to the final joint, every piece we make is custom-designed, built from solid wood or furniture-grade plywood, and made to be handed down. Here's how we think about design, materials, and the work itself.
Designed to your specifications
Designed to fit your style — and to stay timeless long after the trends move on.
One of the most frequent questions we get is:
“I saw a piece of furniture in a catalog, but it won't fit in my space. Can you build one like it?”
The answer is yes. Because we draw every design ourselves, we can scale any design smaller or larger to fit your space. We can also adjust the actual look or function of the piece to match your needs — if you wanted slanted legs instead of turned legs, or an extra drawer instead of a shelf, those are fairly easy changes to make, especially when you're working with a custom builder.
To be timeless
Styles and fads come and go, even in the furniture business. There are nearly limitless types and styles to choose from, and although we have experience in many of them — from Mission to Modern — we believe the best furniture for you is the piece that fits your need the most. A few questions worth asking when you're thinking about a piece of furniture:
- What is the main purpose of this furniture?
- Will it have more than one useful purpose?
- Does it match the style of furniture around it?
- How sturdy is it?
- How long will it last?
- How do I take care of it?
We're here to answer all of your questions and to guide you toward the best piece for you. In the end you'll have a solid piece of timeless furniture that will serve you well for years to come, no matter what style you choose.
Want to try your hand at design? Explore SketchUp →
Building lasting furniture
It starts with the right material, the right joint, and an honest look at how a piece will actually be used.
We only use solid wood or furniture-grade plywood for our builds. Why does that matter?
First, a little education. Engineered materials have changed the furniture industry forever. They let large-scale manufacturers produce furniture on an industrial scale while keeping costs to a minimum. That's good for the bottom line, but quality is sometimes sacrificed, resulting in a shorter lifetime for the product. Some of these materials are genuinely useful — but many of them, used in the wrong application, lead to early failure of the furniture.
Materials we avoid
MDF — Medium-Density Fiberboard
Very fine sawdust mixed with glue and pressed into large sheets under a hydraulic press, yielding a dense, very flat panel. MDF has its uses, but because it's hygroscopic — it readily absorbs moisture — we don't build furniture from it. It's also heavy and adds undue weight to a piece. If your kitchen cabinet shelves have bubbles in them, they're likely MDF.
Particleboard / Chipboard
Fine wood chips mixed with glue and pressed into sheets, usually sandwiched between two thin layers of veneer. It's common for dining-table tops, but the veneer is too thin to ever sand down and refinish, which shortens the table's life. It's also used for the carcass — the sides and bottom — of kitchen and bathroom cabinets. Cost-effective for the manufacturer, but not necessarily for you, since it's very susceptible to water damage.
Not all plywoods are created equally.
Furniture-grade plywood
Plywood is made by gluing several thin sheets of veneer on top of one another, with the grain of each layer oriented perpendicular to the last. That creates a very strong, very steady sheet of wood that doesn't expand and contract easily. But not all plywoods are created equally — just as lumber is graded, so is plywood. Furniture-grade plywood is the highest grade available and our preferred choice for most projects. (There's nothing wrong with a lower grade, as long as the application matches its designed end use.) Furniture-grade plywood tends to have:
- Few or no visible knots
- A flat panel
- More internal layers
- A thicker exterior veneer
Solid wood
Solid wood is much sought after, and the most timeless way to build furniture — after all, engineered materials have only been around a relatively short time. Solid wood is cut from a tree and left unaltered from its original state, so each board is unique, like a fingerprint. No two pieces are the same, which makes furniture built from solid wood a unique creation: even two pieces of the same design will each be different, thanks to the variances in the wood itself.
That same fact creates real challenges for the woodworker. Each board has to be examined carefully for proper machining and correct orientation in the piece. Solid wood expands and contracts with changes in temperature and humidity, and those movements have to be accounted for in the design. The boards also have to be dried properly before use — through kiln-drying or air-drying — to prevent internal stresses from tearing the wood apart as moisture leaves it. All of this has to be considered before the furniture is ever built. Ultimately, solid wood is the most challenging and most rewarding way to build — and it will last generations.
Good building practices
We use wood-to-wood joinery whenever possible, because it's always the strongest joint. Mechanical fasteners like nails and screws are often used in our pieces too, but never to replace a joint where wood-to-wood joinery would be stronger.
Knowing which joint works best in which application is part of the design. The mortise-and-tenon joint, for example, is most often used where two perpendicular sections meet — it creates the strongest joint there. Other joints can be used in that spot, but they won't be as dependable, and likely won't last as long.
The woodworker must consider the final application of the furniture.
Nearly all joints are glued in place so they don't move once set. A wood-to-wood joint that's glued together is stronger than the wood fibers alone — if it ever breaks, the wood rarely breaks along the glued joint. But not all glues are created equally, and again, the final application matters. Will the piece live in a bathroom with a lot of moisture? Then a waterproof glue should be used, or the joint could loosen in a humid environment and fail prematurely. This is one of the many benefits of custom-built furniture: a store-bought piece may not work in your application, because the factory has to make assumptions about how you'll use it.
Whether a piece is built from engineered materials or solid wood, it's important to know the limits of the material. A wider piece needs thicker material, and that shapes both design and function. Is the furniture going to hold a lot of weight? Then it needs the proper joints and support. And when building with solid wood, any imperfection in the grain — a knot or mixed grain — can create a weak point, so selecting the best lumber is key.
These are just a few of the things we consider when designing a piece of furniture. Ready to start your project?
Built by hand in Knoxville
A licensed Tennessee contractor building custom furniture the way it used to be made.
A licensed Tennessee Home Improvement Contractor serving Knoxville and the surrounding area, Dovetail Woodworks was founded by Erin Watson in 2001 out of a desire to create furniture the way it used to be made — furniture that could be handed down to the next generation. By employing tried-and-true woodworking techniques, our furniture is designed to last. We use “wood-to-wood” joinery like dovetails and mortise-and-tenon — both used by ancient cultures — whenever possible, to ensure the strongest, most reliable joints.
Details matter
The human finger can feel a difference of one one-thousandth of an inch between two surfaces. Our goal is to create seamless joints that are indistinguishable when touched. Why does that matter? Because we believe each piece should be more than utilitarian — it should be aesthetically pleasing as well. Once finished, a piece should feel as if it were created from a single block of wood. We take pride in our attention to detail, so you can take pride in your furniture.
Erin Watson
“There is always opportunity to learn and improve.”
Erin learned woodworking from a number of sources — his father and grandfather, as well as books and media — and his pursuit of perfection means he's constantly learning.
Erin is a follower of Jesus Christ and seeks to live his life in accordance with Colossians 3:17: “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
A graduate of Tennessee Technological University, Erin holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. After eight years as a compounder in the rubber and tire industry, he founded Dovetail Woodworks to pursue his passion for woodworking.
Erin lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, with his wife and two daughters.
Have a piece in mind?
Tell us what you're picturing and we'll help you design and build something made to last.