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A rendering of a live-edge waterfall dining table on a black steel tree base, with wood chairs, in an open-plan family room in daylight.

Furniture drawn for your room. Built once, by hand, for you.

Begin a commission See the work

Live edge waterfall, shown in a rendered room

I’m Rob Showalter. I design and build one-of-a-kind furniture, custom tables, sculptural table bases and Architectural Wall Art in Geneva, Illinois, outside Chicago, and deliver and install nationwide. If a furniture store has exactly what you want, I’m probably not the person you need.

What I make

Designed and built to commission

What I’ve built

Signature pieces

None of these is a model to order by name. They are here to show the range of the work. Yours starts from your room, and we design it together.

Begin a commission More of the work

Drawn before a board is cut

Before you approve anything, you see the design, proportions, materials and finish. For tables, Architectural Wall Art, sculptural bases and other custom furniture, that includes a drawing of the actual piece, a SketchUp model with AI-assisted visualizations, and a physical sample board.

The approval is real rather than hopeful.

SketchUp model of a round table: a solid top on a pedestal of vertical boards set in a cross, standing on a round plinth.

01DrawnThe model, in SketchUp

The same table built in walnut: a round top on a pedestal of vertical boards set in a cross, on a round walnut plinth, on a hardwood floor.

02BuiltThe finished table, installed

One commission, drawn and then built: a round walnut top on a pedestal of boards set in a cross, standing on a round plinth.
  1. 01

    The drawing

    Developed for the project and drawn to your dimensions. When slabs are used, the actual slabs are laid out in the drawing before anything is cut.

  2. 02

    SketchUp + AI visualization

    A SketchUp model showing the shape, proportions and details, along with AI-assisted visualizations to help you see the piece in a finished space.

  3. 03

    The sample board

    A sample of the wood species, color and finish, to judge in the light of the room it is going into.

How a commission gets made

How a commission gets made

From the drawing to the room

  1. Rough hardwood slabs stacked on edge in the studio, waiting to be selected.
    01

    Design

    We choose the wood together, then I draw the piece to your dimensions and create a SketchUp model and AI-assisted visualizations based on the drawing. When slabs are used, the actual slabs are laid out in the drawing before anything is cut.

  2. A plunge saw running along its guide rail down the length of a board on the bench.
    02

    Build

    Joinery, glue-ups, shaping and hand fitting in my Geneva, Illinois studio, with photographs and video along the way.

  3. Gloved hands drawing a coat of sealer down the surface of a finished walnut river top.
    03

    Finish

    Color, sheen and feel, decided on physical samples and matched to the flooring, cabinetry, paint, fabric or finish already in the room.

  4. A long pale hardwood dining table on thick square legs, black chairs along it and floor-to-ceiling windows behind, installed in a client’s home at dusk.
    04

    Deliver and install

    Across Chicagoland, I generally handle delivery and installation personally. Beyond it, pieces travel white glove and are installed in your space.

The studio

I design every piece myself and lead every build in my studio in Geneva, Illinois. You talk to me from the first conversation to the installation, and nobody else takes the project over along the way. I accept a limited number of commissions at a time so that stays true.

Every piece is priced individually based on its size, the materials selected and the work the design asks for. Most commissions fall in the $6,000 to $20,000 range.

More about the maker

Rob Showalter leaning on a long river table with a black steel base.
Studio
Geneva, Illinois
Designed and led by
Rob Showalter, from the first call to the installation
Delivery
Delivered and installed; generally handled personally across Chicagoland, white glove nationwide
Studio visits
By appointment
Delivered to
47 of 48 continental states
For designers
Working from your drawings and samples

Tell me about the room.

The space, the size, the materials you’re drawn to and how the piece will be used. I can usually give you a rough price on the first call, and the drawing follows.

Begin a commission

To the trade (630) 492-1417