Timber Frame Kits

As of March 2023, this timber frame kit has been discontinued. We originally introduced this and other timber frame kits in March 2020, motivated by the idea that if one of our crew becomes ill, or if we have to close the shop temporarily, our crew can load their pickups with wood and tools and make the kits at home. We just wanted to keep everyone working.

Three years on, our North Carolina crew is busier than ever and we’ve made the decision to concentrate on what we do best: custom timber framing projects. If a custom timber frame home, barn, great room, entryway, or other structure sounds like something you’d like to explore, we encourage you to view our work and see some of the projects we’re particularly proud of.

Reclaimed Wood Dining Table

family life unfolds in the kitchen

If you think back to the really great times you’ve had with friends and family, I’ll bet they centered around the dining table. After all, the heart of the home is the kitchen, and the heart of the kitchen is the table. For 27 years in the kitchen of our 1700s-era Colonial in Salem, Massachusetts, we had a big, old farmhouse table. It wasn’t as terrific as this one, but it witnessed everything from our son’s first birthday celebration through the filling out of his college applications. It bore the patina of age (and some graffiti carved on the underside!), and that patina spoke of the history of our family–Christmas and Chanukah, Easter and birthdays, celebrations of our friends’ children’s weddings, memorials for departed friends. 

A really great farmhouse table is with you for decades, if not generations. It’s a member of the family.  When we downsized, we gave ours to a dear friend, who really, really wanted it. So you see, it’s still in the family, and even today she still treasures it. 

Our Farmhouse Table is simple and strong, and honest to the essential integrity of the wood it’s made from. You have a choice of two noble species: Eastern white pine from the forests surrounding us here in North Carolina, or reclaimed Douglas fir, from a building that was dismantled and the Doug fir logs left to rot–until we rescued them. These tables are simple and robust, with the wood itself making the design statement. Lovely dovetail connections between leg and top are the icing on the cake.

The table you see here is a big one—12 feet long! But since we build them to order, we can do a custom length to fit your kitchen, dining room, or Dining Pavilion. We finish them with Heritage Natural Finishes, a 100% natural oil finish made by a friend of ours. It’s FDA-certified food safe and nontoxic, and it really is the best finish for wood I’ve come across. It protects the wood while letting it breathe, and you can replenish it yourself as your reclaimed wood table is used.

Need clarification on timber framing terms in your kit? Our Timber Frame Glossary offers straightforward explanations of the terms you’ll encounter.

As of March 2023, this timber frame kit has been discontinued. We originally introduced this and other timber frame kits in March 2020, motivated by the idea that if one of our crew becomes ill, or if we have to close the shop temporarily, our crew can load their pickups with wood and tools and make the kits at home. We just wanted to keep everyone working.

Three years on, our crew is busier than ever and we’ve made the decision to concentrate on what we do best: custom timber framing projects. If a custom timber frame home, barn, great room, entryway, or other structure sounds like something you’d like to explore, we encourage you to view our work and see some of the projects we’re particularly proud of.

Timber Frame Gazebo Kit

integrated with the outdoors

The word gazebo is thought to have been introduced to the English language by William Halfpenny, an English architect and builder, in 1755. (Ref: Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste, 1775). The term is a play on the verb “to gaze,” and while ours is a bit simpler than Halfpenny’s pictured here, it does serve the same lovely purpose: providing shelter for being outside and viewing the landscape in any weather.

We built this particular gazebo kit for a client who wanted a full outdoor living/dining room with a fireplace, lighting, and a flat screen TV for movies and football games. They use it all the time, and it’s no wonder given the harmonious feeling the space imparts.  

American home design places a premium on raw square footage; it seems to be axiomatic here that bigger is better. But successful design is as much about the space between the rooms as it is about the rooms themselves. Architects and designers call these “transition spaces.” One of the reasons the Gazebo was so successful is that it (like all of our kits) is detached from the main house, and that requires a deliberate transition to the space. You don’t just wander in there, you go there intentionally, and that changes the way you enjoy the space. 

And then there’s the strong appeal and tactile experience of just “being in” the structure—the aroma of the Western red cedar timbers, the whiff of smoke from the crackling fire. It all takes you back to your grounding spot as a human being.

This timber frame gazebo kit, like all our kits, is a departure point. It could be used as an alternative design to our Outdoor Kitchen, a screened porch, a covered grill area, or a tiki bar for the adults to hang out in while the kids are in the house playing video games! If this were my gazebo, I’d be out there all the time! 

Want to understand the technical terms behind timber frame kits? Check out our Timber Frame Glossary for clear definitions and explanations.

As of March 2023, this timber frame kit has been discontinued. We originally introduced this and other timber frame kits in March 2020, motivated by the idea that if one of our crew becomes ill, or if we have to close the shop temporarily, our crew can load their pickups with wood and tools and make the kits at home. We just wanted to keep everyone working.

Three years on, our crew is busier than ever and we’ve made the decision to concentrate on what we do best: custom timber framing projects. If a custom timber frame home, barn, great room, entryway, or other structure sounds like something you’d like to explore, we encourage you to view our work and see some of the projects we’re particularly proud of.

Dining Pavilion

patio shade structures for al fresco living

One of the most memorable meals of my life was enjoyed with our friends George and Johanne, creators of the Providence, Rhode Island, restaurant Al Forno, at their home in Provence, France. George, sadly no longer with us, was a great designer and craftsman–in wood, stone, and food–and he’d created an outdoor dining courtyard that was a master work of simplicity. A wood-fired grill of stacked stones stood in a pea stone patio; alongside was a big wooden table, much like our Farmhouse Table, surrounded by salvaged chairs. All this was framed and enclosed by olive trees and an overhead trellis of grape vines. We sat in the warm evening Provençal air scented with olives, rosemary, and lavender, gazing out across the vineyards and foothills leading up to Mont Ventoux. The meal was simple, yet exquisite, made all the more so by the excellent company and the elemental naturalness of everything surrounding us.

Our Dining Pavilion reminds me of that evening. Unfortunately we’re not able to include the Provençal air or views of Mount Ventoux in this kit, but I guarantee you’ll feel the “elemental naturalness” transmitted through the big timbers that compose the frame. Think back to the great meals you’ve had. I bet they were all enjoyed with friends and family, and many were outdoors in a place where you felt at ease and most like yourself. This covered patio shade structure will become that place in your home.

This timber-framed Dining Pavilion is 8 x 12′. We designed and built it for the same clients who commissioned the Japanese tea house. At first they left it open, without a roof, but soon found they used it almost as much as they used the Garden Shed. So, to extend al fresco meals out there to rainy days and misty nights they inserted weatherproof panels of UV-resistant sailcloth that keep out the rain, but still show off the frame both inside and out. The client’s only regret with their Dining Pavilion is, like their Garden Shed, they didn’t make it bigger!

Want to better understand the components in your timber frame kit? Our Timber Frame Glossary can help clarify key terms and concepts.

As of March 2023, this timber frame kit has been discontinued. We originally introduced this and other timber frame kits in March 2020, motivated by the idea that if one of our crew becomes ill, or if we have to close the shop temporarily, our crew can load their pickups with wood and tools and make the kits at home. We just wanted to keep everyone working.

Three years on, our crew is busier than ever and we’ve made the decision to concentrate on what we do best: custom timber framing projects. If a custom timber frame home, barn, great room, entryway, or other structure sounds like something you’d like to explore, we encourage you to view our work and see some of the projects we’re particularly proud of.

Japanese Tea House Kit

Zen-inspired simplicity + versatility

The scale and symmetry of this little timber frame make it extremely versatile, as the name suggests. We originally designed and built it as a very refined Japensese shed for a family in Charlotte, North Carolina. Larger and a bit more complicated than the timber frame firewood storage shed, this is a storage space, plus! In the wings on either side are two large lockers: One side holds the big tools — lawnmower, string trimmer, wheelbarrow, and the like; the other offers hanging storage for rakes, shovels, and spades, as well as shelves for small tools, fertilizer, lawn seed, and gardening supplies. When you’re done gardening for the day, the swing gives you a cool perch to survey your domain and rest your weary bones. 

My wife Evy saw this picture and sighed, “Ahh …. I would love one of those!” And then, without missing a beat, reminded me, “You know, I’ve got an important birthday coming up later this year.” My wife’s vision for this structure combines both of its potential uses: a fully enclosed garden shed/she shed, with tools and supplies, shelves for garden books, seed catalogs, and so on. But she’d also work in a chaise lounge for relaxing and a small round table and chair set to invite her girlfriends over for tea or wine. (Notice I am not on the invite list.) 

I personally would be tempted to use it as a Japanese tea house gazebo. The core design of this structure embodies the Zen-inspired aesthetic principles of “simplicity” and “rusticity,” which I love, and it’s built with what I consider one of the most noble of woods, Western red cedar. I’d build it pretty much the way you see here, but enclosed with glass for year-round use. I’d surround it with a ground level deck so you could move from the inside to the outside. And yes, I’d build a traditional tsukubai, a Japanese bamboo spout fountain. The splash of the falling water is meant to wash away the sounds of the outside world, and boy does it. Years ago, I created a tsukubai, and it was magical. I never built the Tea House to go with it, though. Maybe it’s time!

Need clarification on timber framing terms in your kit? Our Timber Frame Glossary offers straightforward explanations of the terms you’ll encounter.