At Dark Horse, we’re rewarded for our work all the time, in a couple of ways. First and foremost, we make a living through the projects we build, which is no small thing, of course.

Second – and I think the Dark Horse staff would agree with me on this – we’re rewarded by the satisfaction we have at the end of a project. You can’t beat the feeling you get from seeing an idea transformed into a tangible piece of furniture or set of cabinetry. It’s doubly satisfying for us because we pride ourselves on the details – including a lot of the things the new owner will never notice.

But it’s also pretty exciting when we’re rewarded by being singled out by our peers. This year, the Cabinet Makers Association honored Dark Horse with two major national awards. The Dark Horse team and I believe that the recognition validates the time and attention to detail that go into every one of our projects.

We won a first-place Wood Diamond award in the Kitchen Euro Over $25K category for our Friar Tuck project, which featured rift-sawn oak veneer and required extensive grain-matching. The biggest challenge by far in the project was getting the grain on the veneer to line up all the way around the 18-foot island.

Other details: In the upper drawers that the clients were going to use for utensils, we built a secondary tray that is pulled open when the main drawer is opened. This tray is attached with rare-earth magnets that can easily be pushed out of the way to access less frequently used items.

Our second CMA award was a first-place Wood Diamond in the Kitchen Face Frame Over $25K category for the Lanbrook project. This house had extreme height changes in both the floor and ceiling as well as walls that were not plumb – to an extreme degree (probably the worst I’ve ever worked on).

The island is one of the components I’m most proud of. The floor in the area of the island was off-kilter more than one inch from right to left – forcing us to build parts of it onsite and then return to the shop to complete it. This painstaking process helped ensure that everything would be level and the unevenness would be as invisible as possible when we installed the island.

We’re proud to have been recognized, but we’re equally grateful to our clients. Without people who value craftsmanship enough to give their business to Dark Horse instead of making a visit to the instant-gratification furniture showrooms and discounters, we wouldn’t have a livelihood, much less an award.

Thank you.

~ Chris and the Dark Horse team