DALLAS GARA

Four years ago Dallas Gara and wife Colleen bought a mid-century-modern bungalow. Purchasing their dream home was satisfying, but it did raise some issues. For instance, one look around the 1,534 square feet was enough to convince the couple that they needed furniture. Gara had been handy as a kid, building skateboard ramps among other things, but his decision to build his own furniture was somewhat out of left field. “I had no tools,” Gara says. But he did have something more important: his new home included a two-car garage. “The first thing I bought was a 10-inch Makita chop saw,” Gara recalls. It was the first of many purchases. Gara built beds, a dining table and chairs, and kitchen cabinets. Soon friends began requesting custom-built pieces, and word spread. His hobby took on a different dimension two years ago when he attended a course in Ontario to learn how to build a rocking chair. “For two years I was just making stuff, watching YouTube videos to learn some tricks,” Gara says. “Then I took the rocking-chair course and learned a lot more about joinery and finishes. That really put me over the edge.” One measure of that can be seen on Instagram, where @garawood has a little over 37,000 followers. Now, the geophysicist spends eight hours a day downtown during the week, popping into the “Gara Wood” workshop as time allows. He also travels around the country in search of “figured” wood, that is, wood with a unique appearance that gives a piece of furniture character. “When it takes two months to build a rocking chair, you don’t want to use just plain pine,” Gara says.