Ten years ago, a downed tree across a mountain road became a fireplace mantle. It never really stopped being about second chances after that.
Second Chance Slabs is run by a retired Kansas City general contractor who spent 33 years with one company — starting with a tool belt as a carpenter and finishing as vice president and project manager, building national accounts with hundreds of stores across the United States.
Woodworking is the family thread. His father was an engineer whose retirement became woodworking. His son runs We Woodworks in Chicago. And his wife Nancy — an interior designer — has the final say on every layout and every color before a drop of epoxy is poured.
“I thought it'd be cool to go out, find a piece of wood — a log, a tree, whatever — and convert it into exactly what I wanted.”On the first mantle, cut from a fallen tree and hauled home on a snow sled
A tree down across the last road in Breckenridge, measured and cut on the spot, sledded out, and quartered at home. The first piece of wood given a second chance.
Retirement freed the hours. Study of the best in the craft — then the first walnut coffee table, a sold-out river rock sofa table, and a 150-hour dining table.
Pending commissions include a 12-foot conference table and a 28-foot, two-piece boardroom set — with a dedicated shop on the horizon.
Every slab in the shop was once a standing tree. Some fell in storms, some came down with age, some were headed for firewood. We think the story shouldn't end there.
Framed, poured, flattened, and sanded through eight grits, that same tree becomes the table where a family eats for generations — an heirloom with a first life in the forest and a second one in your home.
Every commission starts with a conversation about the piece you're imagining.
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