This is My Story

I started Kokontis & Company  in 1992, but have been working in wood all my life. I grew up on a small Iowa farm where there were plenty of chances to play  around with a skill saw and some scrap 2x6’s.  My first 4-H project was a bench – it wobbled and was ugly. I was only 10, but old enough to be embarrassed.

Since then I’ve continued to work in wood in a range of  jobs  with a common theme of making something – theatre sets, store fixtures, trade show booths, contract furniture, museum exhibits, wedding centerpieces, and finally, in the last two decades,  furniture and cabinets for real people’s homes.

Training in the Theater (on both sides of the lights) has given me a unique perspective on woodworking: the urge to give each piece or project a well defined character, with each component feeding into and out of a through line of action (to borrow from Stanislavski).

My training in woodworking has been hands-on, trial by error, with the give and take between fellow woodworkers. And you can learn a lot from just a tool catalogue (oh, so that’s what that’s for!)  Formal craft schools have their place, but they do seem to produce a certain amount of preening orthodoxy.  For me, and I suppose for most of us, the test of a piece is: does it work, will it last, is it beautiful?

The “Company “ part of Kokontis & Company is all the employees, apprentices, friends of the shop, suppliers, contractors and subs that come and go though time and the course of work. We rely on the power of collaboration – co – labor – ation – working together, and that attitude always extends to customers with patient listening and a spirit of partnership.

Tom Kokontis