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With roots as a cabinet maker, apprenticed to my father at a young age, I set to work in the early days of Peg and Awl making work benches and tables for Margaux in her book binding and jewelry studio. At that time my woodshop was in the basement of our city row home. The six foot tall ceilings and the narrow steps leading up to the kitchen made it quite difficult to build anything of size. It was within these constraints that the first Peg and Awl puzzle table and the seeds of the full Peg and Awl furniture line were sewn.

Through the past ten years we have made a variety of objects, and the lessons learned from cabinetry and joinery informed many of our designs. We have built products out of wood, canvas, metal, leather and paper, but making furniture was never far from my mind; it was as if I was waiting for the right time. I would see a table here and a chair there in our travels to historic homesteads, and I would always jot down details. Slowly the collection took on shape and when it came time to bring the ideas and concepts to life, the stacks of memories and cataloged jottings flowed out like a story I’ve always known. The Steinbeck Furniture Collection was born.

With simple lines and balanced proportions, each piece allows the locally and sustainably harvested American hardwood to shine. Form and function do not compete, yet through the minimalist design and time-tested craftsmanship that harkens back to the furniture makers of the Arts and Crafts Movement, each piece speaks with one tongue to the honesty and harmony of the sourcing of materials, the makers making, and the settling in to their new homes.

The Hawley Table

The Steinbeck Desk

The Kino Coffee Table

The Joad Chair

The Eden Bed Frame

The Travelers Bench

The Cannery Side Table

The Peg and Awl House: A Living Showroom

With the launch of the Steinbeck Furniture Collection, we also have turned the house where Peg and Awl started into a living showroom. Available to rent through Airbnb, the house is open for guests to stay and experience the furniture and the Peg and Awl lifestyle, to eat at the tables and sit in the chairs and sleep in the beds that were first conjured in that very same house with the low basement ceiling and the narrow staircase.