Classic Designs by Matthew Burak DBA TableLegs.com, based in St. Johnsbury, VT, manufactures turned hardwood components and attachment systems and hardwood table legs, bases, tops, and complete tables. Purchasing about 200,000 board feet of hardwoods annually the company specializes in Red and White Oak, Cherry, Hard and Soft Maple, Sapele, pine and Walnut (5/4 through 12/4).
TableLegs.com was initially established as a mail-order table leg business in 1996, by Matthew Burak. The business has grown into a complete manufacturing facility. The customer base is anyone from the DIY industry to direct B2B marketing.
Business Leaders
Matthew Burak said, “We are a team of Vermonters who design and craft quality wood and metal components for furniture, cabinetry, and architecture, along with fine finished and unfinished furniture. We discovered our passion for quality woodworking here in the Northeast Kingdom, and now offer our expertise in the form of highly refined solutions for the next generation of woodworkers, hobbyists, and DIYers. Our focus on well-balanced proportions, premium-grade materials, and exceptional attention to detail sets us apart. We are passionate about our work.”
Key personnel include President and Owner, Matthew Burak; Chief Executive Officer Kate Davis; and Production Manager Matthew Liberty.
“We’re proud to be a small but creative manufacturing company,” Burak continued. “When someone orders from us, their purchase supports local jobs by our skilled craftspeople with more than 20 local families.”
Shown here is a 3×9 foot Mahogany table.
At TableLegs.com, design is key. “Our designs come in many sizes and we can customize any variation,” Burak explained. “Every variation of leg size requires a new custom-scaled leg design. We do this to achieve the best overall balance in the design, the way the customer envisions it. The proportional changes of increasing or decreasing the size of woodturning have to be mirrored with equal-percentage change in every detail. That process might sound mathematical, but math only gets you close. Getting the math right is just the beginning. After you calculate the correct math, good design requires a trained eye to see what has changed and to correct it where needed.”
Burak said the process is a labor of love. “I’ve never designed a single product that I felt couldn’t be improved. The process of designing requires examining every detail and defining the relationship of all the parts that make up the whole. In my line of work, there is always more to offer.”
Depicted here is the company’s CEO, Kate Davis.
TableLegs.com is a multi-generational business, with Burak’s daughter Kate Davis, the CEO, ably managing all aspects of the company. Burak said, “Our dedicated staff represents more than 20 local Vermont families. Our culture is one of constant improvement, and we invest extensively in ongoing training. Our employees are highly respected craftsmen with years of experience.
“Quality assurance is in our culture,” Burak continued. As a designer and maker of fine furniture for over 50 years, he built his business reputation on the principles of uncompromising designs created from exceptional materials. From receipt of the order through the final packaging, Burak and his daughter Kate make it crystal clear that customer service is the number one job for all employees. “Our institutional knowledge and customer satisfaction define who we are,” Kate added.
This picture shows the fluting of a table leg made of Soft Maple.
Kate explained, “Starting by sourcing the best North American hardwoods, we select for uniformity of width, color, and grain characteristics. Where lamination is required for larger designs, the thickest lumber available is used to minimize glue joints. Superior raw materials, although costing more, are the foundation of our quality.”
Burak described the early days of TableLegs.com. “Standing in a hotel lobby years ago, I began to study a particularly attractive antique leg under a serving table,” he said. “After some time, I stood up and found a number of people also bent over looking under the table trying to figure out what had me so engaged. Once I saw the group around me, I stood up and said, “That’s a gorgeous leg!”
PASSION FOR CRAFTSMANSHIP
“For me, the learning never ends. How does one achieve excellence in design? The unconditional elements are loving what you do and putting in your time. Ever since I was a small boy, I’ve had a passion for building and antiquities. Today, drop me off in any town and I’ll inevitably find my way to the oldest neighborhoods and the antique district. You never know when or where the next learning opportunity will present itself.”
Shown here, are solid wood, wide board tabletops made from premium Walnut, Maple and Sapele.
Burak’s passion for the architecture and furnishings of colonial America was so strong that, in 1979, he uprooted his family from Bellingham, WA and moved to rural Vermont. He explained, “We settled into a poorly remodeled 1780’s cape-style farmhouse in the hilltop town of Danville, VT. I thrived on the demands of the house restoration project and of my reproduction furniture business. Late one evening, sitting weary but content at the supper table in the half-done kitchen, I found myself admiring the simple beauty of the newel post at the base of the stairs. I said to myself, ‘That would make a nice table leg.’ The very next morning, I profiled the 5-inch newel and turned a prototype table leg. Because of the influence of the ‘lightness’ of Federal period furniture on my design sense, I decreased the turning from a 5-inch diameter to a mere 2 and ¼-inch.”
He continued, “I was very pleased with the outcome, and made a Cherry dining table using this newly drawn leg design. I put the table on the showroom floor among the Queen Anne, William & Mary and Hepplewhite furniture I had made. The new table, which I called “Country Sheraton”, prompted only favorable criticism, and lots of furniture orders as well.”
In this image, a TableLegs team member holds a square turned morris column.
Tables featuring the Country Sheraton leg quickly became best sellers and Burak shortened the design for end stand legs. Those sold well so he increased the diameter of the leg to 2 ¾-inch for use on larger tables. Burak said, “Those sold well, too. Everyone loved the relaxed but historical look of this leg. It was and still is, a transitional style that blends with a wide variety of décor. One day, a good customer returned to the showroom, asking if I would design a coffee table for her period-style sitting room. She knew that there were no coffee tables in Colonial America. But she and I decided we could make a coffee table look more period by giving it a box stretcher, like the foot rail around an old tavern table. I shortened the shaft of the Country Sheraton design to make room for a stretcher block and linked the four legs with a foot rail. It was a great look, and over the years, I sold many coffee tables using the same LC-SHET-18-S1 coffee table leg, too.”
In this image, the founder of TableLegs and designer, Matt Burak, leans over to examine the legs of a table.
As the years rolled by, and the trend of giving cabinetry the ‘furniture look’ took hold, Burak said he used the old newel post design again, this time creating kitchen island legs with fluted and reeded shafts for a more formal furniture look. “My team and I have created more than 500 individual designs that in some way contain the DNA from that 200-year-old newel post. Just think, from that first Newel post, a whole wood-turning company now exists, serving businesses and people all over the world.”
To learn more about the company, go to www.tablelegs.com.
