Two men from the South Valley furnish their homes with unique
treasures that they built by hand
n By Kelly Savio Staff Writer
In a gray world of mass-produced furniture, faux wood living room sets and homogenous dining tables, Paul Castellano and Allen Hayes are slashes of color.
The two men take part in the same craft as Jimmy Carter, Frank Lloyd Wright and Booker T. Washington: They have built much of their own furniture.
Moving Pieces
As a fifth grader in 1958, Paul made one of his first projects, a small wicker basket. From there, he graduated to making small boxes and trinkets and eventually model airplanes when he discovered he could make his own better than the ones he could buy in a store.
“I just got interested in making things – I started with simple things, and it went on from there,” said Paul, a Hollister resident. “Eventually, I decided to borrow a friend’s saw and I decided to make (my wife) a sewing cabinet. I just thought of a way to do it, I drew it out a little bit and then I just started chipping away. I liked it so much, I went out and bought my own saw.”
Vonnie, Paul’s wife, said she didn’t particularly like sewing, but because Paul went through all the trouble to make the cabinet to encourage her own craft, she would sew.
“He has a really inventive mind,” Vonnie said. “He can just see it in his head, and it’s so amazing to see the things he came up with.”
Paul, then an electronics technician by trade, went on to make a large cabinet, an entertainment center and a triangular curio cabinet that fits into a corner out of scraps of oak wood. He’s also made pulpits for two churches he has attended, a park-style bench, a light stand with a hand-carved floral design and a multitude of other small projects. Paul often eyeballed measurements, only taking exact measurements when absolutely necessary. He also refinished several pieces of furniture, frequently taking old pieces and improving their structure as he fixed them up. He never had formal training as a carpenter.
After perfecting his woodworking skills, Paul decided to branch out from functional to fun. He began making children’s toys, designing them to match his idea of what toys should be like rather than what was available commercially. He began making bulldozers, fire trucks, airplanes, trains, cars, rocket ships and other wooden toys. Paul went out of his way to give the toys as many moving and working parts as possible. Ladders came off the fire trucks, roofs came off trains, the helicopter rotors spun, and the buckets on the bulldozers lifted and moved.
“Toys were just fun to do,” Paul said. “I liked to think about what I could have move on the toys or how to fix it so that they worked smoothly. The ones that move the most were the most fun to make.”
Paul took the toys to craft fairs around the South Valley and Bay Area and sold the smaller ones for $20 to $30 and the larger ones, such as the trains, for $40 to $50.
“When I think back on it, on all the time and effort he put into those toys, I guess we didn’t sell them for what they were worth,” Vonnie said. “But in a way it was worth it because he really loved to make those toys. It was truly what made him happy.”
About 10 years ago, Paul was diagnosed with Joseph’s disease, a progressive and terminal neurological disease. It affected his coordination and Paul had to stop working with wood in the interest of safety.
“I was worried if I kept working with those saws, I’d end up missing a few digits,” Paul said, smiling and holding up his hand. “But, I miss it. I liked the smell of the wood, and I liked to take straight pieces of board and make them into something three-dimensional.”
Paul’s dream was to one day build his own log cabin in the woods. Vonnie said that though it’s unlikely he’ll ever have his cabin, she considers each piece that Paul has made a blessing and a permanent testament to his incredible talent.
By the Book
Like Paul, Allen Hayes also never had any formal training in furniture making or woodworking. With the exception of a few things a carpenter friend has shown him, Allen has learned everything out of books.
“I always liked to do hobbies and I was always interested in working with wood, but for a long time I didn’t have the space, and I had little boys who would take my tools and play with them and hide them,” said Allen who owns a business in Gilroy and lives in Prunedale. “But in recent years, we’ve moved and now I have my dream workshop in the garage. I still work full-time, so I fit my wood projects into my spare time in the evenings. It’s a really fun escape for me.”
Some of Allen’s original projects included remodeling a bathroom in his home. He bought some cabinet doors from a local big box chain, but then decided to make the rest himself. He matched the woods and design of the store-bought doors and created extra cabinet space.
Allen also took some old store-bought shelving units in his home and gave them facelifts by adding crown molding as accents and refinishing them.
Allen went on to make a craft and quilting table for his wife, Kathy, which included a drop leaf Allen learned to make from a book. He’s also designed shoe racks, curio cabinets with scalloped shelves and refinished a large antique Moroccan buffet by lining the upper edge with molding that matched the bottom edge and tiling the entire top’s surface.
“I like working with different kinds of woods,” Allen said. “I discovered this wood from Brazil called Jatoba, which is really beautiful.”
Allen has slowly been purchasing items over the past three years that help him make more advanced pieces. As he talks about his shapers, band saw, clamps, table saw and other tools, he runs his has hand over his workspace.
“I subscribe to five different wood working magazines, and when I get stuck, I either ask my friend, who’s a carpenter, or I get on the computer and post a question on a few blogs that I’ve found very helpful,” Allen said. “I’ve found that most people who share my interest in wood working have a common philosophy: ‘The sign of a good cabinet maker is one who covers up his mistakes so nobody can tell.’ And believe me, I make plenty of them.”
Allen uses his books and the projects people talk about on the blogs to get ideas for his own future projects. He also uses trade shows to learn about other equipment it may be helpful for him to have.
“When you can take a piece of wood and make it something beautiful, it’s really satisfying,” Allen said, smiling. “That’s why I enjoy doing this so much – I can escape into my own world. And it’s probably a good thing I’m getting better at it: My wife has a long list of projects for me to do.”
