ON DISPLAY AT CHRISTOPHER MARTIN GALLERY DALLAS

Built by NICK CATREAU

I spent years in tech— a six-figure career on paper— but the part of the day I couldn't stop thinking about was the garage and the pile of wood waiting at home.

It started in 2021 with charcuterie boards, grew into custom orders, and by 2023 into full dining and conference commissions. I left my tech career behind to build something real with my hands, create work that lets me be present for my family, and bring my fiancée along on sourcing trips around the world.

I travel to source our wood myself— walking the mills, reading the grain, and hand-selecting every slab that earns a place in the studio. It's why our inventory looks like no one else's! We have one of the largest collections of Parota slabs in the country: 145+ one-of-a-kind pieces in stock.

Parota grows to wondrous sizes in both length and width— exactly what lets us build statement pieces most shops can't— and our supply is fully FSC certified, so it never comes at the forest's expense.

A live edge slab is a thick cross-section of hardwood cut from a log and finished to retain the tree’s natural outer edge— the organic, irregular silhouette that no two pieces share. The live edge is what makes each slab one-of-one: same species, same forest, no identical grain, no identical outline.

What separates our inventory from what you’ll find at a big-box or online retailer: every slab in our Dallas yard has been sourced directly from Pacific Northwest and Texas Gulf Coast mills, moisture-tested on arrival, and air-dried in our conditioned studio until equilibrium moisture content is achieved. No kiln-rushing, no warping surprises after delivery.

We carry slabs primarily for fabrication into finished pieces — dining tables, desks, kitchen islands, bar tops — but the starting point for every project is the slab itself, chosen by you, in person.

I personally trained every person in this shop. We spend all day together, building things we're proud of. The people here aren't just employees to me, they're family. That's deliberate. I left a corporate world to build something with more heart in it, and that shows up in the work. When your piece is in our hands, it's being made by people who genuinely care how it turns out— not a faceless production line.

Kovara Studio
9120 Premier Row | Dallas, TX 75247