Costa Rica came about during COVID because I couldn’t go anywhere else. In my mind, I knew there was a wood source down there. So I researched it, found a guy, and flew down in 2021. You couldn’t go anywhere else at that time. And I get the itch very quickly. Instead of 24 hours to Asia, it’s a five-hour flight. Mountains, volcanoes, the Caribbean side, the Pacific side. Cool Latin culture. And incredible tropical hardwoods made by real artisans.
Guanacaste, cocobolo, purple heart — woods that don’t exist in North America.
From managed forests and reclaimed sources.
"Sustainability is important on everything we do. Reclaimed, repurposed, architectural salvage, reusing of the old, creating the new. The trees we're buying were sustainably cut. In India, they claim if they cut a tree, they plant two. Whether that's true or not, that's what they say. But when you really focus on reclaimed, repurposed, and sustainably grown woods — no way to prove I'm not doing that because I definitely am trying at every turn."
"My first contact's brother passed in a tragic motorcycle accident. I lent him money on the spot so he could go home to see his brother to rest. He paid me back — I didn't make him pay it all back. Real relationships. That's what this is."
Costa Rica is one of the wettest places on earth. Colorado is high mountain desert — the exact opposite. Wood has to be properly kiln-dried before it can come here. We learned that the hard way when a shipment arrived too wet and we had to sand, dry, and refinish 125 tabletops ourselves. Now we work with suppliers who do it right.