Woodworker Luis Peña keeps a mood board in his studio to help spark inspiration.
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ArtisansExplore The Artistry Of This San Francisco Woodworker
Luis Peña in his workshop.
Luis Peña lives a passionate life. The San Francisco-based Texas native has brought his endless enthusiasm to every facet of his career evolution—from graphic design to film to, now, custom furniture. While professional woodworking may be a more recent turn, his fascination with the craft was born long ago. Watching his father build cabinetry in the garage, Peña realized that it wasn’t necessary to purchase objects for your home. “I was 6 or 7 years old, and it was huge to discover you could make your own things,” he says. “That was a defining moment in my life.”
Years later, when he and his now-wife, Kristen, moved in together, he began making pieces for their home. “I just started building,” he says. “First thing I made was a bed. I put in flooring. I made a table. I made another bed.” After a while, their residence was filled with Peña’s handmade furniture. But it was Kristen’s own career transition to interior design that inspired Peña’s trajectory from hobbyist to professional. “I started seeing the artisans she was working with and the furniture she was designing,” he says. “It encouraged me to get to that level.”
He joined a co-op of other woodworkers—he’s dubbed their group the Whiskey and Wood Society—and established an approach to projects from which he’s never deviated. “I always start with emotion,” Peña says. “What do I want to communicate?” Love, comfort and nostalgia are common themes, with architecture and historical furniture often serving as inspiration. He collects images both online and from his own travels, posting them on a mood board in his studio. “I’ll do a deep-dive search for imagery,” he says, but makes it clear he doesn’t copy other furniture. “If I’m designing a dining table, I don’t search for dining tables. I’ll look for shapes.”
Peña’s former career in graphic design might make one think that he’d immediately start with renderings. But the artist in him turns to a journal first to sketch. From there he moves on to working in Illustrator and SketchUp. “I make it 3D,” he says. “Then I render it all the way so I can see how it will look in real life, because shadow is a huge thing.”
What Peña loves best about his work is the true fun with which it comes. “I’m just happy and playful,” he says. “And making furniture is playful. It’s like Legos. It’s the same thing as when I was in kindergarten.”
PHOTOS: KRISTEN LOKEN
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