Matthew: My wife had been working in a dark corner of our living room. And she was like "You know what, it's not that inspiring to be in this corner. It's too dark." So we wanted to figure out how we can move her closer to the window [while balancing the workspace with the living room] and she's a multi-disciplinary artist, so she has tons of books, references, mediums, paints, all this stuff that we had . . . to store.

Matthew: So, we started doing some research—we found all these cool modular systems. But when we were looking into it, it's like we didn't really love the look of these vertical lines that would be on the wall. And a lot of these were super expensive, like $4,000 or $5,000 and [Belinda was] like, "What if we just build everything ourselves?" I was like, "Are you serious?" It's like, "All right, let's do it."

Ken: I love it. I love it.

Matthew: So we just jumped right in. I started building some concepts out in 3D. And I think when you and I first spoke, Ken, and I shared this, I was thinking about just doing some kind of IKEA hack where we get some IKEA shelves and then just putting some wood top on it and hanging a couple of shelves and some artwork.

Ken: Those look like our wall shelves.

Matthew: Yeah. That was the original. And then I think after a lot of back and forth with Belinda, she saw this and she's like, "You know what? I feel like I need more storage. I feel like I need more shelving. And do you mind if I take it over?" She got so inspired. It turned [into] a completely custom build.

Ken: I used to be a custom furniture maker, and most of my work was clients like you guys where there's some kind of space limitation where off-the-shelf stuff just doesn't work. So your wife has unique needs, and looking at your original goals with the nature of her [multidisciplinary, analog] work, you can't really buy that.

Ken: We love plywood with our products. Building cabinetry out of solid wood can be really problematic because the wood moves. Your project would have been insane in solid wood.

Matthew: So the next part of it before we started cutting everything, we just got a bunch of artist tape and we put it up on the wall. It's a technique I saw from a YouTuber named Rachel Metz. Even though we had [drawn] everything out in 3D, it's hard to still feel what it would be like in the actual physical space.

Ken: Yeah. And you avoided an epic mistake.

Matthew: Right. But, yeah, so we didn't have any power tools, but luckily my dad did. He came over one weekend and he brought over all of his power tools. I don't have a yard. I don't have a garage. I live in a condo. But I have this tiny patio, and it's just big enough to lay down the 4 by 8 sheets. I got lucky.

Matthew: After cutting things down, we refined everything using a table saw that my dad had … and there were a lot of imperfections. So we had to buy this cheap planer which is just a way to shave down some layers.

Ken: I've never done that actually. Wow. I'm impressed that you guys were able to do that with the hand plane and not like rip up the veneer. I can see like a nice shaving coming off there.

Matthew: Once we had all of our pieces cut, then we did buy this dowel jig so that we can combine all of our pieces together. We decided not really to go with any screws or anything that might be visible.

Matthew: And we wanted to hide the plywood edges. I know some people really embrace that like your guy's furniture, which I really like. But I think for this one, we wanted it to look like it was solid wood. So we did a bunch of veneer edging. And then for finishing, we use the Osmo poly oil.

Ken: That is the best.

Matthew: It was awesome. I know you guys had mentioned this … and once I started looking into it and then I started testing it on these pieces of wood you could see here before and then after, my gosh, it's gorgeous.

Ken: It really gives the best look. You know, like, I don't really believe in taking wood and then putting plastic on it, which is basically what spray finishes are. Sure protects it, but then it's not wood anymore. Did you find it satisfying after all that work? Like [finishing] the last step?

Matthew: Yeah. That was very satisfying. We did the the paper sanding technique that you taught me which is just getting a sheet of regular printer paper and then rubbing it down after, and it made it extra smooth.

Matthew: And then, we decided to mount everything using French cleats. French cleats are just basically an angled piece of wood that you mount on the wall and then you have the counter shape of that mounted on the furniture.

Ken: This is a great tip for the DIY viewers out there. The reason it's so much better for an install like this is imagine picking up this cabinet and you're trying to level. It weighs 100 pounds, maybe. And you're like, "Uh, [move it] a little bit, a little bit like this, or you drop it" or whatever. Instead, you level the French cleat and it's like just a piece of wood, super light, and you can just get it right and then you just put the cabinet on that.

Ken: Nice. Wow. That's some expert craftsmanship right there.

Matthew: That's all her. That's all her.

Ken: She's a professional artist, so it's worth it. And then, it slides in so you don't have to look at all that clutter. You know, honestly, that's great.

Matthew: Oh, yeah. She collects them.

Ken: Record holder!

Ken: And I really like how it's clean and modern, but there's still like a lot of warmth. And I think the minimalism of the design makes it so the objects you put on that really stand out. I've always liked that, you know, when you mix old and new. If it's just all modern, it's too cold.

Matthew: We wanted to put a bunch of plants in here. We wanted it to break everything up with these, like, nice organic shapes and just real life inside.

Ken: I love the vines because it kind of breaks up those horizontal lines. I like that brass planter too.

Matthew: Our accent colors outside of the natural wood was brass and black. So we just wanted to add that accent and be consistent with that throughout where we're not using too many materials, but just enough where there's a nice balance of primary, secondary, and tertiary material or color.

Ken: So you guys are cheating because you're not like true DIY because you're professional designers, just DIY on the fabrication. You're not like 100% DIY.

Matthew: Right now, she's working on an illustration where she has a lightbox that she's drawing over a sketch on, and then she has her computer to the right side and then a bunch of different material because it's a mixed media project.

Ken: I wanna circle back to why you guys decided to do this, you know. If you go back to, like, your pure motivation, and you got this kind of result where it's uplifting, but why does that matter to you, you know, as a creative?

Matthew: And that's okay for some people. Some people can stay focused. They can just show up and do the work. But I think her and I are quite similar where, you know, every couple of years or every couple of months, depending on where you're working, you just want to mix it up because that shock, working in a different space or, you know, changing one or two things, and it could be as little as changing a desk, it has a huge impact on how you perceive your approach to work.

It's like every time I clean my place, or every time I organize something it's like, "Oh, now nothing is in my way. Now, I can just do the work."

Ken: Well, this project, I mean, the technical difficulty, I'm, like, blown away. I can't believe you guys did this.

Matthew: The courage is all on her because for me, when I go into any project … I like to mitigate all the ways that could possibly go wrong. But then, you know, after a little bit of research, I'm like, "Okay, I feel confident. I'll go do this." And for her, once she sank her teeth in it, once she realized like, "Oh, this is my space, I can build it how I want to. Let me see what we can design. Let me see what's out there." So it was really her that pushed us both off of the cliff of jumping in and say, "Let's make it a big project."

Ken: Have you collaborated with her creatively before?

Matthew: Yeah, absolutely. Belinda and I met at work [in 2010], so we kind of can understand where the other person's going to think before they even arrive there. And so we just learned how to communicate and know that when we're stepping on the other person's toes and to back off and, you know, know when to release control, and then where to give it because both her and I care about different things.

Ken: I love it because when it works well, which is hard, but if it works well you get a kind of a combination of you two, manifesting itself in the space, and it's probably better than either of you on your own.