Lifestyle & Home Goods

The reliable ones are the pieces that get used the first week: the walnut coasters that come from the bar at our Brooklyn cafe, a serving tray in wood, leather, and brass, or a small shelf that gives the new place its first thing on a wall. For the plant person, a propagation shelf roots cuttings on the wall. And for New Yorkers, present or former, the subway clock is the one that gets talked about.

A working clock that shows real time arrival countdowns for actual MTA trains. You pick the lines and stations when you order, and the display keeps up with service alerts. The housing is a solid wood frame we build in Brooklyn, in mahogany or oak, made to stand on a table or mount on a wall. Hang it by the door and leave when your train is eight minutes out. See the clock.

Yes, full grain leather, the top cut of the hide, over a cushion filled with pellet beads that settles onto your lap. The board is solid mahogany and oak. The writing version has a pen groove and wrist lip; the laptop version comes with or without a front lip to keep the machine from sliding. Both come in dark or light brown leather, in two sizes, built in Brooklyn.

The same shop that cuts the shelves also builds the NYC subway clock, leather cushion lap desks, a serving tray with brass handles, walnut drink coasters, a mug shelf, and coat and hat racks in maple and oak. Different products, same boards, same bench.

In Brooklyn, in the same woodshop as the shelves, by the same people. The coasters do double duty at Nook, our cafe, before the design ever ships; the lap desks are the ones we use ourselves. Materials are solid hardwood, full grain leather, and brass, chosen because they wear in rather than out.