See our Furniture Getting Started Plesums Home Page

Logo for Plesums Woodworking Plesums Family
Please click here if you are having trouble reaching us, or if we do not respond promptly.

Plesums Woodworking Site

Charlie Plesums builds custom furniture, using first rate materials and techniques, to meet your unique size, function, or style requirements. See the section about us for more about his background and over 50 years experience. Or just enjoy the examples of our work below.

With his engineering training, he has a special interest in design challenges - for example, jewelry storage built into a lingerie chest, or a bedroom entertainment center at the top of a chest of drawers, or a Murphy desk to go opposite a Murphy bed (where there isn't room for both a desk and a bed in the same room). This web site shows the prices to reproduce previous projects to give you an idea of what your piece may cost. We hope you will enjoy looking.

Site Contents

Just look at our work

About Us

Frequently Asked Questions about custom furniture

Remote Customers

Cost Factors

Getting Started

Choosing your wood

Bedroom Furniture
...Beds
...Dressers
...Nightstands
...Murphy Bed/Desk
...Media Center
...Lingerie Chest
...Special Needs Bed

Living Room
...Library
...Storage Cabinets
...Bookcases
...Desks
...Stand-up desk
...Media Center
...Bar - storage
...Coffee Tables
...End Tables
...Bible Stand
...Toy Chest
...Sofa Base
...Window Seat
...Pecan Table/Desk

Other items
...Accessories
...Humidor
...Adirondack chairs
...Planter
...Sauna mods
...Kitchen cart
...Saddle Stand
...Flag Case
...Memory box
...Bathroom

Items by others
...Rocking Chair
...Wine Cellar

Immediately available items

Furniture Repair

Cleaning and Maintenance

Services and Training

Woodworking Tips
...Finishing
...Lumber Sources
...Milling trees
...our shop
...other tips

Links

Our consulting life

SoloWoodworker web site

What's our style?

My physician (also a woodworker) described my work as Amish-like - well built, simple lines, minimal ornamentation, that always incorporates quality workmanship and materials (I take that as a great complement). As one designer described it, "The "modern" style that dates back as far as the 1920s," but I would add the influence of the earlier Shaker and of Arts and Crafts styles. If you prefer a different style, and if we have the skills and tools, we will be glad to build it for you, or will help you find someone who can build it.

IX Web Hosting at $3.95/month

We use IX WebHosting and have been very pleased with the quality and low cost of their web hosting service (but do have reservations about their e-mail). Please click here for more information, and to give us credit for referring you if you choose to go with them.

 
Locations of visitors to this page  
 

Examples of our work

This walnut lingerie chest has integrated jewelry, necklace, and scarf storage The six drawers have solid walnut drawer fronts, surfaced with shop-cut walnut veneer. The handles are turned walnut. The top of the cabinet is 4-way bookmatch shop cut walnut veneer. The top opens to reveal a mirror, jewelry box, and jewelry storage area under the trays. The top may be latched closed or locked through a hidden mechanism. When the top is open, the sides are released - the left side swings open to reveal scarf storage; the right side swings open to reveal necklace storage and a "full length" mirror on the inside of the door.

Plesums Lingerie and Jewelry chest from the 2006 Texas Furniture Maker's Show

This piece was accepted and displayed at the 2006 Texas Furniture Maker's ShowTM at the Kerrville Arts and Cultural Center.

Red Oak Library

This large red oak library was installed in a home in Austin. To use the wall - over 9 feet high - but leave the bookcases usable elsewhere, the three bookcases on the left are about 8 feet tall, on a storage drawer that adds another foot of height. The table at the right is the size of a full-size office desk. The bookcase above the table is almost 7 feet tall and 5 feet wide.

An interesting room was furnished for this client. Their study was also the second guest room. We built a queen size Murphy bed for one side of the room, with adjacent bookcases (that also had features of night stands). For the other side of the room, we built a large desk that folded into a cabinet, seen here, similar to the Murphy bed. The desk side also had storage cabinets that included file drawers for hanging folders, and bookshelves almost to the ceiling. All the units were natural (unstained) walnut.

Picture of the closed desk

Toy Chest 2182

We had fun building a cherry "Grandpa's toy chest" - one that could double as a bench seat in the living room when the grandparents entertained adults, and could hold the toys when the grandparents entertained the little angels. It can also function as a blanket chest.

This cigar humidor was made of Bubinga, African Rosewood, lined with Spanish Cedar.

Humidor

The drawers at the bottom, outside of the conditioned space, are for lighting and trimming accessories.

 Humidor

Bedroom Set 1453

We built a complete bedroom set for our son, out of solid walnut, stained dark at his request. It included a bed with four storage drawers underneath the bed, night tables, triple dresser with mirror, and a large chest of drawers.

The bedroom set included this dresser and the mirror, which can be separate or attached to the dresser.

Mirror for the bedroom set

 Dresser 1476

Cherry Coffee Table

A solid cherry coffee table was built for a client. Since Cherry starts a very light tan color, and gradually darkens, this unit was dyed to give it a head start - about the color it would have achieved naturally in about 6 months.

Sometimes we like working on smaller accessories between larger projects, such as this Memory Box (the modern equivalent of a scrap book), to hold papers and other remembrances of a birth, wedding, or other special events, or this memorial flag case.

Memory Box 2230

Flag Case 2315

Personal service

We love the opportunity and challenge of building things to meet your special requirements, especially those that include unusual features (Charlie's engineering degree still shows) - we would be glad to chat about your needs. You may call (512-349-0740) or e-mail (Charlie@Plesums.com) days, nights, or weekends - we work from our home, so you will have our personal attention. Despite the large amount of woodworking equipment, including an imported European combination machine the size (and cost) of a car, our shop is still in our garage. We do not have a showroom... most of our furniture is custom made for a particular customer and has been delivered... but we do have a few items in our home that we would be glad to show you. We are not a licensed contractor, so generally do not build kitchen cabinets or other items that must be installed or built into your home.

Area served

We are located at 5702 Puccoon Cove in the Great Hills area near the Arboretum in Northwest Austin Texas, 78759. We travel to the Dallas area periodically to visit our son. Most of our customers are local, so if it fits in our minivan, travel/shipping is lost in the roundoff. We welcome customers from anywhere. Shipping small items is easy, but if you are interested in larger item and are remote, please check these issues.

Are we expensive?

No, but if you are looking for bargain furniture, it is not us! The large scale overseas factories using man-made or composite materials and automated machinery can do a better job, cheaper, than we, whether sold by WalMart, Ikea, or Crate and Barrel. If you want inexpensive furniture, enjoy our ideas and suggestions, but please don't ask us to try to compete with these low-cost vendors.

If you want good quality furniture, we are competitive with quality "store-bought" furniture (but see our notes on what we have found in some presumably "good" furniture stores). If you need a custom size or special feature in your furniture, we excel, because every piece we build is custom made to your specifications. (We are amused when people ask what size it comes in... the answer is "whatever size you want.")

One of our customers said they were "looking for a Toyota, not a Lexus." I know woodworkers who are clearly "Lexus" (and are more expensive than we are). I can't say how our furniture is less than theirs, but our focus is on value for the customer rather than absolute perfection... I like the "Toyota" analogy. And our work should not be compared to a "Yugo."

If you are considering having us build something for you, see our page on getting started

Competitive Bids

We do not want to do competitive "bids" to build furniture (or "bids" for comparison with commercially available options). We want to build furniture, not write proposals, and have ample work from people who understand our costs, based on the examples on this web site, referrals, and personal discussions. Most of our customers have come back for two to five (or more) items, so we must be doing something right.

Designs and Dimensions

For each group of furniture, in addition to the construction details for individual pieces, we have also included sizes, facts, and figures we have collected from countless sources. These can be your starting point, as they are ours, if we are going to build something for you.

If you are a woodworker who is planning to build your own furniture, we hope you find the data we have collected to be useful. If you use our data, we only ask that you share your experiences and any lessons learned with us.

Back to the home page at www.plesums.com

Send e-mail comments to Charlie@Plesums.com

Entire site ©2003-2008 by Charles A. Plesums, Austin, Texas USA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.