The Bisons
Ash shelves for a nook that deserved better
Jill lives in a cozy yet stylish home. Her space is open and inviting, with plenty of room to breathe. It’s adorned with a curated selection of items, making the minimalistic aesthetic feel expansive and filling.
The previous owner had converted a corner of her family room into a makeshift home office during the pandemic, leaving a small hole in the wall. Jill turned to me and said, “Juan, we need some shelves to go in there. I want a natural wood look, something that matches my floor. I want the panels to be substantial but keep it simple and natural.”
As I glanced around the room, my eyes fell upon the bison skull hanging on the wall, and I felt a sense of appreciation for the unique charm of her home. I immediately fell in love with this project.
Jill had a very clear idea of what she wanted. She knew the thickness of the shelves should be about 2 inches. She wanted a light wood that had personality but didn’t look rustic. We decided on four shelves with about 12 inches of space between them — enough to store beautiful objects while being small enough to work as a library if needed.
We wanted the shelves to be flush with the wall. Often, playing with different depths creates beautiful light and shadow games. For these shelves, there was enough contrast between the wall color and the wood that all we needed was softness and continuity. Minimalism in terms of architectural build-up — as little visible support as possible.
We decided that the best wood would be ash. It matched the floor — also ash — and it would give us both the pattern and the strength. Prized for its durability and shock resistance, ash has been used for everything from spear shafts in ancient times to baseball bats and furniture today. It was perfect for what we wanted.
Each shelf was 20×40×2 inches, and because ash is dense, they were heavy. So we used ash itself as the supports on the sides and in the back. The build started by milling the boards. The wood we got was as raw as it gets but in fairly good condition.
Once I had planed them to thickness, I glued the panels together. Everything went smoothly — the boards were properly dried, and they behaved quite nicely. The panels came back flat and almost ready for oiling and waxing.
The first day at Jill’s, I installed the lateral supports. The main objective was that they were perfectly leveled. I was anticipating the drywall being too brittle, but it behaved, and the supports were strong.
On the second day, with the supports in place, I built a template on plywood that I would use to cut the panels. Luckily, the template worked for all the shelves. I left them oversized on the front edge so I could cut that edge at Jill’s house, ensuring they would be perfectly flush with the walls.
The final two days of work were great. I started with a second coat of wax that made the whole thing shinier and deeper. And then when I caulked the holes and painted the walls, the shelves were flush and smooth just as we had planned with Jill.
This is the first thing she sees when she enters home from a hard day of work, and I am happy that it is this mini-gallery of beauty.
Named after the skull that watched me patiently while I worked. Hopefully, like the skull, these shelves will last for generations.
To celebrate our collaboration and knowing that Jill loves to have people over and host them, I made her some presents to elevate her cocktail mixing game.
A hexagonal ash coaster branded with the bison skull, a turned muddler, and a recipe card for a Muddled Mint Julep. Every project deserves a closing ritual — something small, personal, and slightly unnecessary that says the work mattered beyond the invoice.
