The person you’re trusting with the family dresser.

I’m Dermot McCaul.

I make small, useful things out of wood that already means something: keepsake boxes, tea boxes, cutting boards, serving trays, picture frames. The wood comes from inheritances, old family furniture, and sometimes a tree that had to come down but didn’t deserve to be forgotten.

The idea is simple. When someone you love leaves you a piece of furniture you can’t use, you shouldn’t have to choose between a full garage and letting it go. The wood can become something you’ll actually reach for, and the memory comes with it.

I’m a retired mechanical engineer. I grew up in Southwest Philadelphia and I work out of a basement shop in Doylestown, with woodworking classes at Bucks County Community College behind me and a lathe that has seen a lot of use.

This started with my wife’s grandmother’s dresser. It came to us when she passed, and like a lot of people we had no room for it and it was in no state to use, but my wife could not bring herself to let it go. The drawers were cherry, and they were made a great deal better than furniture is made now. Those drawers became a tea box she opens every day. She did not have to throw away a memory to get her space back.

I don’t much like making the same thing twice, and I have no interest in turning out trinkets for craft fairs. It stops being repetition when there’s a story in it. So what I’m really after, before anything gets cut, is the story: what you’re trying to keep, or who you’re trying to keep it for.