01
New commissions
Tables, desks, benches, dressers, shelving, cutting surfaces, and wall pieces — designed around a room and built mainly in North American hardwoods. Cherry, hard maple, black walnut, white ash.
From
rough slab
to cherished
heirloom
Kensington Woodworks is the workshop of Joshua Groboski — a one-person studio in Kensington, Maryland, shaping new furniture and restoring old pieces for homes and restaurants across the DC metro.
§ I
The workshop
I have been a software developer for more than two decades. In 2020 I made my first cutting board, then a desk, then a dresser. What I kept finding in the shop was the opposite of what I'd been doing at a keyboard: the work was slow, the material pushed back, and the result had a weight you could feel. Unlike software, the work I produce in the shop is meant to last for many years.
Kensington Woodworks is where I make things to last. Other than my Board Butter, I don't keep inventory. Every piece is a commission — drawn with you, built for a particular room and a particular life, and when it is done, there is not another one like it anywhere.
I also take on restorations — old tables, desks, bar tops, and chairs that deserve another fifty years. I've worked on pieces for private homes and for restaurants around the DC metro area, and I'm happiest when the piece I am handed has a story.
— Joshua Groboski
§ II
What I make, and what I mend
02
Furniture restoration
Bringing pieces back — refinishing, repairing joinery, rebuilding what can't be saved, and leaving what should be left alone. Work done for private homes and restaurants across the DC metro.
§ III
Selected plates
A partial record of pieces made in the shop. Each one was commissioned for a specific person, a specific room. Nothing here is for sale — it is here to show what is possible.
Bar Top in Walnut, Pre-Install
White Oak Dresser
Cellar Table in Blackened Ash
Booth Table, Round Walnut
An Heirloom for the Lynott Family
A Run of Convertible Round Tops, Drying
A Loft, Built In
River in Walnut & Ink
A Flight, in Three Glasses
Dining Table, From Below
End-Grain Block, Walnut
Restored, and Marked
Board Butter
A food-safe finish I make by hand — beeswax and mineral oil, nothing else. It feeds the grain, seals the surface, and smells the way a woodshop should. A tin is included with every large board and butcher block that leaves the shop.
You can also buy it on its own.
Buy a tin →Working primarily in black walnut, hard maple, cherry, and white ash — North American hardwoods chosen one board at a time. Most pieces are finished with oils and hard waxes. The wood is meant to be touched, used, and to darken and warm over the years it lives with you.
§ IV
How a piece gets made
-
I.
Conversation
We start with a conversation — about the piece, the room, how you live, what you love. No commitment. Most inquiries begin with an email and a few photos of the space.
-
II.
Design
I draft the piece, select the wood, and share dimensioned drawings and material samples for your approval. Nothing begins until you are certain.
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III.
Build
Joinery is cut by hand where it matters. Boards are flattened, glued, shaped and finished in the shop in Kensington. I'll send photos along the way if you'd like them.
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IV.
Delivery
I deliver and install personally within the DC metro, and ship further by crated freight. Every piece leaves the shop with a care card, a signed tag, and instructions for the next fifty years.
§ V
Begin an inquiry