He was made for lovin’ this

Rock star Paul Stanley had a string of hits as co-founder and lead singer of the classic rock band KISS, but it was a custom furniture maker that made a hit with him.  

While looking for a custom-built dining table last year, Stanley had been following a number of custom shops online. He finally reached out to Black Forest Wood Co., a family-run custom furniture maker in Calgary, Alberta. Black Forest general manager Dylan Thomas went back and forth with Stanley via phone, email and social media for several months discussing wood samples and design ideas for the large table, before settling on a select slab of Claro walnut burl.  

Then, a few weeks ago, Thomas and his crew at Black Forest hand-delivered the finished table to Stanley’s Beverly Hills home. 

The rock star was thrilled with the table, and who wouldn’t be? The table is massive, about 5’ wide and 15’ long, made with two separate lengths of Claro walnut in a “river” design, a beautiful meandering strip of mirror-shiny black epoxy down the center bringing it all together.  

According to Black Forest, the table took about 300 man-hours of labor to complete, and it’s easy to see why when you consider what went into it. The piece ended up weighing about a thousand pounds, requiring more than a dozen guys to carry it into Stanley’s home and set it up. That wasn’t just because of the dense nature of Claro walnut, either — completing the tabletop also required about 37 gallons of epoxy.   

Stanley couldn’t have been happier with his purchase. While the sales price hasn’t been made public, Black Forest has made and sold solid similar large tables for up to $30,000 and more.  

Wondering what goes into a project like this? Black Forest has posted a video where you can see the process that went into creating the table, as well as watch the elated Stanley take delivery and unwrap it.