Generations of Exceptional
Craftsmanship
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Kenneth’s Family Wood Shop is named after my grandfather Kenneth Coberley. He lived a very simple, ordinary life in what used to be the rural outskirts of Conroe, Texas but is quickly becoming the suburban outskirts of Houston. He and my grandmother, Joanne, raised their three beautiful daughters in a mobile home, down a country lane, next to a small lake-the same mobile home where my cousins and I would spend our summers fishing in the lake, exploring the woods, and learning to drive on the riding lawn mower. It is also where Kenneth-or Papa as I called him-built his wood shop behind the house.
His wood shop is where he built the cabinets for the home I grew up in and the mantle above the fireplace. When I left home for college, joining the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University, he made me a shoe shine box to take with me to ensure I kept my low quarters (uniform shoes) polished right. In 2012, I joined the U.S. Air Force and left home again. Whenever I came home, I always made a point to stop in with Papa so we could swap stories and compare my experience with his Army stint back in the day.
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My time in the Air Force has taken me around America’s Midwest and to some of the coldest places in the U.S., far from southern Texas where I grew up and could count the number of times I saw snow on one hand. But through all the frozen winters, I always had the warmth of my family and those ties back home.
The Air Force has provided me with some unique and exciting experiences that would be impossible to have anywhere else. But one thing that always stuck in my mind growing up was watching Papa work. Wherever he was or whatever he was building, all he would need is a tapemeasure. Whether it was a spot for new cabinets or he wanted to put a new roof on the back deck, he would take a few measurements and form his plan. Everything he needed to do would mapped out in his mind, it was like a superpower. I was endlessly fascinated and it was a superpower that I wanted to inherit.
Obviously, you can’t just inherit an ability like that. It takes time and experience-a lot of time and experience. It took me a while to decide that woodworking is in fact what I want to do with my time. I have been blessed by God with a career in the Air Force that has enabled me to do so much in this life and it continues to do so. But these hands were made to build and in the spring of 2020, the call to craftsmanship became unmistakable.
That spring, I decided that I wanted a new desk for my office and I wasn’t going to buy it; I was going to make it. It was a simple design: a solid butcher-block countertop and metal table legs. I bought a circular saw, a sander, a straightedge, and-of course-a tape measure to go with the drill and screwdrivers I already had in my toolbox. I built my desk, set it up in my office, and immediately had the thought, “I should sell this and build another. And I should keep building and selling things.”
So I bought a few more tools, built a workbench in my garage, and started making things and selling them. The more I did it the more I loved it. Unlike other flash-in-the-pan hobbies I had tried in the past (fitness guru, mountain climbing, hunting, and motorcycles), this was here to stay. I started a business and there was only one obvious choice for who to name it after.
Kenneth Coberley, Papa, passed away in 2016. He was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, uncle, and friend. He was a quiet and reserved man and he always showed up when we needed him. Without knowing it, he sowed many seeds that will continue to bear fruit long after I are gone. I hope to carry on his legacy now in my family: generations of exceptional craftsmanship.
Questions or Requests? Email us at:
kennethsfamilywoodshop@gmail.com