Perfect Imperfection

Shane Martin grew up in an Irish farmhouse, but outside, the limbs of a 100-year-old chestnut tree were his true primary residence.

“I was always building tree houses with any wood I could find on the farm,” he said.

These early years piqued an intense curiosity about wood. Martin, now 26 and the owner of Nostalgic Custom Furniture, would always look for ways — even with only old meager hand tools at his disposal — to work with wood, shape it and capture its natural appeal in any kind of design or construction. He’d supplement these hands-on studies with episodes of Norm Abram’s “The New Yankee Workshop,” quietly wishing he could have a woodshop like that someday.

His father, an entrepreneur, invested in homes that needed work, sometimes selling them quickly as a flip, other times living in them himself. He needed his son’s attention to detail and finish out trim and add artistic touches.

“He could frame a house, but he wasn’t a finisher. That’s where I came in,” Martin said.

After high school, Martin attended art and design school for two years, graduating with high praise. But his life would change in 2010 when he met his wife-to-be online and sold virtually all of his belongings to move to Las Vegas to be with her.

Martin was further inspired by the wealth of furniture design talent in America and, after attending a furniture show in 2012, he decided it was time for him to put all those years of wood tinkering and study to good use. He started Nostalgic in 2013, and requests for his work are growing.

Story shaper

Inside his Pecos Road showroom, not far from McCarran International Airport, Martin has several pieces on display, among them a railroad cart designed to be a coffee table.

The piece is modeled after carts used to transport items across a textile warehouse floor during the Industrial Revolution. Martin found old hardware like steel corners and working antique wheels in North Carolina to use on the piece. Even though the maple wood is brand new, Martin effectively aged and weathered it to mimic the timeline of the hardware.

“I call it perfect imperfections,” he said of the wood. “You want it to feel authentic, to feel old, like it already has a story … or you at least think it has a story.”

Also on display is a matching maple console table. He couldn’t find antique hardware for this one, so he built his own, giving the wheels and other steel an aged look as well.

“This one doesn’t have the historical value of the other one,” he said. “I still try to get pieces from antiques if I can. Sometimes they are just hard to find.”

Martin uses only hardwoods. It’s his way of creating something that looks like it already has a history, but that also can endure many decades of use.

“When I put it together, I feel like the strength is there, much more than something that’s man-made,” he added.

Flexibility, a brand

Martin’s custom pieces fall into a category known as rustic modern. While the designer clearly has a taste and yearning for the past, he also recognizes that he needs to be flexible in order to create pieces that can live in the present among modern interior design trends with plenty of straight lines.

A nightstand in a midcentury style made of poplar wood is one of his recent requests. A client for whom Martin built a headboard requested the piece. Its sleek straight lines embrace midcentury design, but Martin makes sure the natural wood peaks through.

“Not everyone wants that railroad cart table,” he said. “This piece is more modern. I have to accommodate that. … I’m trying to bring my style into it by highlighting the raw materials, even with a crisp, clean look.”

Ask him to repeat the same piece and that might be difficult, he admits. “That’s what sets me apart. I can’t make two things the same,” he said.

When not tending to custom requests, Martin makes his own pieces. He is building his brand, he says, as he studies different types of wood online and looks for new and interesting ways to use them in his furniture. He is known for making some odd requests from his local lumber supplier, Peterman’s Lumber.

“I was looking for a wood called ipe the other day,” he said. “It’s a beautiful wood with red in it that was used on the Coney Island Boardwalk.”

Martin has embraced Las Vegas’ entrepreneurial spirit and is grateful to be in America, where there is so much more opportunity for his work than back home in Ireland.

“Over there, the lifestyle doesn’t lend itself toward hiring people to do things like this. People decorate their own homes, mow their own lawns, that’s just the way it is. … There isn’t that luxury or celebrity market you have here,” he said.

But even with a bigger market for his work, the American penchant for what he calls “fast-food furniture” has him taking a more selective approach to building his clientele.

“The wood is my passion. I create pieces that highlight the raw material; it doesn’t overshadow it. … I tell people if you want something that looks fresh and clean, like it just came out of the box, I’m probably not the guy for you,” he said.

The future

As Martin shapes his brand, he insists mass production — even of pieces that may come highly requested — is not an option.

“I can’t ever see myself making something that is made overseas or mass produced, something cookie-cutter out of a machine. You lose those perfect imperfections,” he said.

He gets most of his work through referrals and from inquiries about photos of his work posted online on social media channels. He also approaches shop owners to ask about displaying pieces.

“Doing that is a lot fresher than an email or just hoping social media will work, or cold calling. I like just popping in, talking to a person, telling them a little bit of the story.”

For Martin, the goal is not to build a massive enterprise, but a big enough one so that he can keep crafting his very unique furniture stories. For more information, visit www.nostalgic-furniture.com or call 702-371-6812.