Strong and Sturdy
Before The Beekman was lovingly restored, it had been abandoned, left to weather the brutal elements atop the hill it has graced for more than two centuries.
The aging structure, with its grand rooms and firm place in the annals of the local lore, was far too much of a temptation for teenagers and vagabonds looking for a place to call their own. The walls were pocked with graffiti and the hallways littered with remnants of other people’s lives.
One day, earlier this year, one of said teenagers stopped by the farm and asked if The Table was still there. All she could remember about her time spent in the house was the massive table that stood in the dining room.
“No,” we said.
When we moved into The Beekman there wasn’t a stick of furniture, and we assumed that The Table had long since been turned into firewood by one of those former inhabitants as, from our visitor’s recollection, it was far too big to move.
Though in many modern homes the dining room is one of the most infrequently used (and is often absent all together), for The Beekman, it’s the most important piece of furniture in the house.
It must be big enough to hold the season’s harvest and serve up a celebratory meal.
It must have room for every visitor who stops by.
It must serve as a foundation for growing a business, for wrapping soaps, for slicing cheese and such
It must be sturdy enough to withstand angry fists pounding to emphasize a point and must not, repeat, MUST NOT back down when confronted with tiny fists grasping crayons.
It also must be comfortable because sometimes, whether from exhaustion or emotion, sometimes you just need a place to lay your head down and cry.
Josh turns 40 this year, and I could think of no better gift to give him than…a dining room table.
Master carpenter Jim Sharer of Cherry Valley, NY worked on the restoration of The Beekman, replicating pieces of molding that exactly matched those that had been hand-crafted centuries ago. There was no better craftsman to turn to. Working with a giant red oak tree felled on his own farm, planks were hewn and then assembled and then sanded and smoothed and stained by my own hands.
The result is a modern version of an old farm table, a 600lb, 7 ft by 8 ft ebonized monument to everything we hold dear.
Like our relationship, it is steadfast and stridently sufficient. Far too large to move, once in place there it shall stay, marking our custodial turn at The Beekman long after we are gone, long after the teenagers and the vagabonds have returned and until someone, someday decides to use it for firewood.
45 Comments
Good morning. As an early riser I have a regular routine: I pour my first cup of morning coffee, sit at the dining room table and enjoy the quiet of the new day. As the coffee begins to kick in and my eyes can once again focus, I flip open my laptop to check overnight email and make my morning stop here at Beekman.
This particular post is just wonderful. You captured the importance of the dining room table perfectly. I think most everyone has, at one time or another,used their dining room table in the ways you described.
What a beautiful gift. I can only imagine all the activity the hand-crafted table will support.
Time for a refill…
Hi, Kenn
Maybe I’ll have coffee at the new table this morning. No chairs yet. I’ll either sit on top of it or underneath it
Happy Birthday to Josh–may you both enjoy the table for many years to come–it is stunning! It will be a wonderful surprise to everyone who gets to see it.
What a wonderful gift. Both your writing and the table. Happy Birthday to Josh and all the best to the two of you.
I really love the simplicity of the table’s design, as well as its solidity. And you’ve created the perfect combination: a work space and a work of art. Every nick, scratch and gouge on my table reminds me of the wonderful holiday meals and buffets, lazy Sunday brunches, baby and wedding showers for friends and family and all the other events which invariably result in a few dings. Enjoy every lunch, dinner, breakfast, corn-husking, pea shelling, present wrapping, craft making, coffee sipping, buffet holding, pie cooling minute you spend there.
Thanks, John
That was quite poetic
Hi, Dr. Brent.
I have always loved farm tables because they are so large and solid and everyone who stops by the house can fit around and share in the bounty. I always imagine the stories they could tell…
What a glorious monument to your love and relationship and that you worked on it as well makes it even more of a treasure.
Happy 40th, Josh!
My dear Brent……
Table is wonderful, really and truly. HOWEVER, that
crocheted table cloth I am making for you both may
need some extra hands. Any of your web friends want
to contribute????? I am making 4 inch squares and joining
them…….easy pattern. I am more than willing to join AND complete the edging……………… Otherwise, I may not live to
finish it.
Maybe you’ll have to teach us to knit. It could become a winter project
That sounds like an amazing gift! But, how did you get the 600 lbs. table into your house, presuming of course you put it there?
Hi, Edith
Let me tell you. It wasn’t easy. The table was made so that the entire top can be removed as one piece. It took six men to move it into place! It’s not going anywhere!
The table is absolutely beautiful. I would go with chairs that are equally as massive and that are simple in design. A chair that invites you to sit and then keeps you around the table to enjoy the simple pleasures of being at a table.
Thanks, Linda
If you see something that might work, send us a photo
I like the fact that you want to live with your table…the furnishing of a home should be used everyday, the scars of everyday life should be embraced as character, each one will tell a story that can be retold…the time Josh scratched it with a knife while trying get the candle wax off–luckily you don’t have any dogs to chew on the legs…
Hi, Bill
In that situation, the first cut is the deepest
just don’t get into a fight about it or do…in ten years you will laugh about it..
very, very true
The table is beautiful. We had a kitchen table that my oldest son made in High School – it was 5′ by 7′ – not quite as large as yours nor as beautiful – but if it could talk, there would be some wild stories. As you say laughter, tears, crafts, games, etc. There were 9 of us around that table for every supper and sometimes the kids next door would finagle an invitation. I’m sure you’ll enjoy “the table” as much as we did ours. Belated Happy birthday to Josh and I’ll make sure his mother keeps at that tablecloth – by the way, its crocheted not knitted.
Hi, Ruth
We can only hope that our table will have wild stories to tell, too
Happy birthday to Josh! The table looks gorgeous! what did you guys do with the glass(?) table in the kitchen – is it still there?
Hi, Tony
The glass table is still in the kitchen (I’m sitting at right now). However, it only seats 6, and we like to have bigger dinner parties than that!
how lovely. i also loved how the table lingered in the teenager’s memory. we are wanting to create a harvest table for the outdoors a big gorgeous square instead of a rectangular would perfect for guessed to all be part of one conversation!
That sounds lovely. I love gracious outdoor tables. We have a spot in a grove of young sugar maples that I would love to create an outdoor entertaining area
Happy Birthday Josh!
My sister-in-laws and I used to make all of the Christmas and birthday gifts and they blessed the souls of both the giver and receiver! What a great feeling and sense of belonging it creates. Your table is a beautiful table as it will be used, but a real token of true love and affection as a gift.
HI guys,
A beautiful table…. I have a far narrower table (but with leaf 10′ long)… it has a beautiful cherry top, and I’m afraid to get a scratch on it…. my kitchen peninsula counter gets all the wear and tear it seems!
It must be great to have a table as wide as yours (to hold all the food). My table, usually ends up with no food, and I serve buffet style…as the center is too narrow!
Anyway, just wondering what the dimensions of your dining room are?
What type of chairs are you looking for? Perhaps mismatched farm chairs would be great…something Martha did in her Maine kitchen, with a variety of different stools?
Take care!
Gary
Lake Geneva
Hi, Gary
We ARE thinking about mismatched chairs. It’s VERY hard to find 14 matching chairs!
Happy birthday to Josh! Wow – great table…. I would love to see mismatched wooden chairs…maybe one side could be a bench. Can’t wait to see that picture that I know you will have at Thanksgiving. I have a similar (rectangle though) table on my outside patio – 4 kinds of metal chairs and a crack down the middle. We love it!
Hi, Nancy
That sounds beautiful!
Happy Birthday Josh. Brent, having a beautiful, sturdy table such as yours is of utmost importance when playing a game of Spoons. Growing up, my 5 siblings and I would play “Spoons”. It is a card game where you grab spoons from the center of the table upon reaching a perfect hand of cards. There was always one less spoon than number of players (think musical chairs). If you didn’t grab a spoon when the time was right, you were out. Said spoons would get sent flying and there were many swan dives, wrestling matches and an occasional bite to the knuckles to gain a spoon. Not a game for the weak of heart! Fondly, I remember my mother’s dining room table for the delicious food and the hours of laughter.
Betty
You will have to join us for an inaugural game of spoons as soon as we get some chairs
LOL. I would be happy to do so.
Of course, given your speciality, we may also have to have a quilting bee
Quilting bee, herb lecture, spoons, I’m flexible! With a family who played spoons, you probably better understand the “crazy” of the crazy quilting I do.
My round table of chestnut has three leaves which makes it a gigantic oval. 300 small children can sit around it! But, for adults, I have 4 matching chairs, a piano bench, a dresser bench, a little bitty step ladder, a rocking chair( which anybody can sit on if they want to rake the food into their mouth at chin level!). Anybody left over sits on the sofa with one of those trays which slides under the furniture! It is FUN!!!! LOVELY table you have there! I once housesat for a caterer who had a big square table she worked on in her kitchen, like a huge cutting board, but you couldn’t get your knees under it, had to sit sideways. Once or twice a month, she would pour oil on that thing and work it into the wood. Happy Saturday!
PS: When I turned 40,in the last century, !!!, my friends at Harcourt, Brace and J gave me a Gorilla Gram. Everybody screamed before they realized she wasn’t real!!! Then we went out after work and drank! Great bunch of folk there!
Somehow I knew that the dining room table would bring out more stories than any other piece of furniture I could write about
I always think of the table as the “house’s anchor”. Many happy celebrations center around it, many storms ridden out at it.
I love that it will serve you and Josh in this way – and I hope when you mentally review a time-lapse visual of your lives, you can look back and see the many people that gathered around it and know that you’ve lived the most enriched life together.
Thanks, Will
That is EXACTLY our intention
I stumbled on your website and had to comment – I am a recent transplant to a rural area to create a life of simplicity and sustainability for myself and family – not something I ever thought I would do but have been very inspired by people and events in my life. Much of my most powerful inspiration comes from my youth when I would visit my grandfather who was an iconic country physician in Sharon Springs when I was young – he lived on a farm just outside of Cooperstown, and my most precious possession is the farm table he made for his 8 children (oldest of whom is my mother) that now sits in my farmhouse. What a wonderful choice of a gift… and I believe your website is a gift to me that will inspire me further in my journey.
Michelle
Hi, Michelle
Thanks for finding us and for sharing your memory. Please drip by often. We’ll save a seat at the table.
Hi Brent,
The table looks great, I am very impressed, you know thats good comming from your city contractor.
Bob Tobin
BC INTERIORS
Hi, Bob
Thanks! See, I learned a lot from you! I hear you are working on a nice project right now. Can’t wait to see the results of that.
I don’t think this would fit into the apartment in the city
Hi Dr. Brent;
I just met you in NY and bought some of your wonderful soap.
You seemed like such a unique and nice guy so I looked up your web site and I found it interesting – just like you.
Your choice of a new career and life style is one that I am sure will bring you much joy. I’m sure it took a great leap of faith to do. Good luck.
I am glad that I met you.
Terri
Thanks, Terri
I am amazed at how many wonderful people I met while working the counter at Henri Bendel! Have a wonderful holiday