PROJECTS
Knysna Woodworkers had to make enough tables that could seat 600 people in one sitting.
Tables with a wooden,
magical touch
In 2018, Knysna Woodworkers was asked to make wooden tables
for the Featherbed Company in Knysna, Western Cape.
By Knysna Woodworkers | Photos by Hylton Herd Photography
T
he Featherbed Nature Reserve, including the existing
restaurants, was burnt to the ground during the
devastating Knysna fires in 2017 and it was decided
not only to rebuild, but to revamp and upgrade completely
to forge the way forward as a world class venue.
The brief from the client was to make more than 60 rustic
tables for their new restaurants at Featherbed. The three
restaurants required four- to 16-seater tables to seat up to
600 people in one sitting. This commission was soon
extended to include benches, cabinets and other decorative
features and the project commenced in April 2018 and took
about seven months to complete.
The Knysna Woodworkers team had to make the tables
from scratch using logs which were supplied. “It wasn’t just
[ready-made] planks that we were buying,” explains Johan
18 JUNE / JULY 2019 //
Nel, owner of Knysna Woodworkers. The tables were made
from raw indigenous logs of yellowwood, stinkwood, hard
pear, ironwood and white pear.
“From the logs, I still had to cut each slab, and from there
make up each design,” Nel says. Nel himself was responsible
for each design taking all of the clients’ needs into
consideration. In addition, they also had to include resin
casting (with a variety of stones), flower boxes, steel and
glass tops.
DESIGNING UNIQUE TABLES
Each table was to be totally unique. The client supplied
pictures of different tables to give an idea of the style and
design of what they wanted to achieve for their restaurant.
See more on page 20
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