People ask me a version of the same question almost every time they see a piece that mixes materials. Something like, “How did you even think to put those two things together?” It’s a fair question. Wood, steel, and stone don’t have much in common on the surface. They come from different worlds, they behave differently in the shop, and they don’t always want to cooperate with each other. But that’s exactly why I like working this way.
I call myself a mixed media artist for a reason. Most of my pieces start with wood, since that’s where I built my foundation as a craftsman, but I rarely stop there. Once you start bringing in steel, stone, or glass, you open up a much bigger design space. You’re no longer limited to what one material can do on its own.
Why Bother Mixing Materials at All
The honest answer is that it makes the piece more interesting, both to look at and to build. Every material has its own personality. Wood has grain, warmth, and movement. Steel can be sharp and industrial, or it can be treated to look aged and organic. Stone brings something raw and unshaped by humans into a piece that’s otherwise very deliberate.
When you put them together well, none of them fight for attention. They set each other off. The steel makes the wood grain look richer. The stone makes the joinery look more precise by comparison. That juxtaposition is really the whole point.
This is part of what I mean when I talk about furniture as art rather than just furniture. It’s one of the ideas I get into in my post on why Benham Design Concepts is worth considering as an alternative to the Denver Design Center, where I talk about pieces that combine materials in ways you won’t find on a showroom floor. A manufacturer working from a standard product line isn’t set up to do this kind of thing. It takes a level of custom fabrication that just doesn’t exist in that world.
Wood and Steel: The Porthole Entry Table
A good example of this is a hall table I built with a steel disc suspended between two wenge wood trestles. I treated the steel with a blend of chemicals to give it a patina, so instead of looking flat and modern, it develops these warm, coppery, aged tones. That disc sits inside a segmented ring made of wenge and padauk, and the whole thing is topped with a live edge mahogany slab with hand-cut bowtie inlays.
None of that happens by accident. The dark espresso tone of the wenge needed something to play off of, and the warm copper in the steel gave it that. You can see the full piece and read more about how it came together on the Porthole Entry Table page.
I’ve done something similar with a bar-height wine tasting table, where a copper-plated and patinated steel base supports a wenge top. Same idea, different application. The steel does the structural work and adds visual weight at the base, while the wood carries the warmth up top. You can see that one on the Bar-Height Wine Tasting Table page.
Wood and Stone: The Stone Meditation Bench
Stone is a different animal entirely, mostly because it’s hard to shape it the way you can shape wood or steel. You have to design around it instead of forcing it into your plan.
The clearest example of this in my portfolio is a meditation bench where one leg is a hollowed piece of local Colorado granite, ground down by hand to make it manageable. I hand-carved the mahogany seat so it fits around the stone instead of covering it up, which lets you actually see the granite from above. A walnut arch spans from the stone leg to the underside of the seat, all joined with hand-cut mortises and no nails or screws.
The idea for that piece actually came from a conversation with an architect friend about craning a boulder through a roof to build a fireplace around it. That got me thinking about how to bring something that raw and unshaped into a piece of furniture without losing the craftsmanship side of things. You can read the full story and see the detail shots on the Stone Meditation Bench page.
What Actually Goes Into Combining Materials Like This
If you’re curious about the practical side, here’s what I’m usually thinking about when I plan a mixed media piece:
Weight and structure. Stone and steel are heavy, and they need to be supported correctly. A lot of the engineering happens before I ever pick up a tool, figuring out how the wood will carry that weight without stressing the joinery.
Color and tone. I’m always looking at how the natural color of a stone or the patina on a piece of metal will sit next to the wood tone I’ve chosen. Sometimes they need to contrast, and sometimes they need to blend.
Finish compatibility. Wood finishes, metal patinas, and stone sealers all behave differently over time. I have to plan for how each material will age so the whole piece stays balanced years down the road, not just on delivery day.
Letting each material do what it does best. I don’t try to make steel look like wood or wood look like stone. Each one gets to keep its own character. That’s really what mixed media means to me.
Furniture That Starts Conversations
This is the kind of work that people tend to stop and ask about, whether it’s at a dinner party or just when a friend walks into the room for the first time. That’s a big part of why I build this way. A piece that combines wood, steel, and stone isn’t just furniture sitting in a room. It’s a piece with a story behind it, and usually a pretty good one.
If you’re working on a space that could use something like this, or you just want to talk through what’s possible, I’d be happy to talk through it with you.