Robert Russell Designs
Solid walnut
Elevation
Shown in a rendered room
Walnut slab dining tables, live edge or straight
Tables cut from solid American black walnut, live edge or straight edge, in the figure and color walnut darkens into. Benches are made to match.
Elevation · Solid slab
01
- Form
- Solid slab
- Material
- Solid walnut
- Made
- Geneva, Illinois
- Finish
- Hard wax through to high-gloss flood coat
- Delivery
- White glove, placed in the room
Drawn from the boards it will be built from, and sized to your room. Every piece on this page is a one-off.
In this collection
4 photographed
Every table here is cut from solid American black walnut, kiln-dried and selected board by board for the commission. The edge can stay live or be cut straight, and the base can be any form I build, from a plain leg to a sculpted trestle.
Walnut is one of the two species I’m asked for most. Its color and sheen are settled on physical samples rather than on a screen, and benches are built to match.
Before you ask
- Can I see the table before it is built?
- That is the whole way I work. When slabs are used, I cut each slab out in Photoshop, size it against the measurements marked on it, and lay your top out to your dimensions. Then a SketchUp model shows the shape, proportions and details, along with AI-assisted visualizations to help you see the table in a finished space, before a board is cut. The drawing lands within a few percent of the finished table.
- Can I see the wood and the finish first?
- Yes. A sample board is made and shipped to you, so you can hold the species, the resin and the finish in your own room before anything is cut.
- How is a commission priced?
- Every piece is priced from its dimensions, its species and its base, so there is no list. Tell me the room and the budget you have in mind and I will tell you what is possible inside it. Size, species and base all move.
- How does it get to me?
- Across Chicagoland, I generally handle delivery and installation personally. Everywhere else, pieces travel white glove and are placed in the room. My work has gone to 47 of the 48 continental states.
- Who actually builds it?
- I design every piece myself and lead the build in my studio in Geneva, Illinois, from the drawing to the finish. You deal with me from the first call to the installation. There is no salesperson or account rep in between, and nobody the project is handed off to.
- Do you make anything besides tables?
- Bespoke and wall pieces, yes, and I am taking more of that work.