I grew up fixing and building stuff with my dad, he was a weekend warrior, but the man could do just about anything from plumbing a bathroom to rebuilding car engines. He taught me the most valuable lesson in doing anything with your hands: Don't be afraid of it and always have respect for it.
After college I began work as a carpenter on Nantucket Island for the custom home builder Thom Boyes. My favorite Thom quote:
"Jimmy, make it pretty for the people."
Back then a Nantucket builder lived on the island year-round and did it all, from framing to roofing, garages to kitchens, rough to finish. Thom truly did it all and was generous in sharing what he knew. After my years on the island I moved back to Maine and focused on Kitchens, Baths, and Built-ins.
As the years passed my growing family life didn't mesh with the schedule of a self-employed carpenter and I strayed from carpentry as a profession yet never stopped doing the work, I rebuilt whatever home we bought, typically gutting the place to the studs and starting from scratch.
Away from carpentry I worked predominantly in furniture design and product development, first for L.L. Bean in Freeport Maine then Ballard Designs in Atlanta GA, and over the years a couple other gigs. I learned a lot about factory production, what is best done by hand and what is best done by machine, oodles of processes, materials and tooling all of which comes in handy if you build stuff. I experienced some amazing craftspeople. Woodworking skills are something you can grow by watching others then trial and error yourself. Woodworkers are very generous in sharing what they know, one of the things I like most about it, a great community the globe over.
After 30 corporate years I retired and returned to woodworking as a profession. The next few pages show what I have been up to.
My Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-mahoney-48366058
Project types
Woodworking
In addition to general carpentry I build pieces, cabinetry, and built-ins. This picture is of a bathroom I built with 100+yo reclaimed Butternut with 4 step finishing, it is off Saddleback Mountain in Rangeley Maine.
Carpentry
I build kitchens, baths, libraries, nooks, bars and pretty much whatever you can think of from specific elements to overall space renovations, to include tile and stonework. This picture is one of an entire home rebuild I did on the Cumberland River outside Nashville TN.
Vans and Boats
I build-out the interiors of Vans, Trailers, and Boat cabins. This picture is the latest van build in March 2025 and was really fun to do. The van owner is a competitive mountain biker, the fore area has wall-mounted bike racks. The bathroom in the rear has a urinal ... right? .... I did the work for
Shift Systems in Portland ME, great guys.
This and thats
I build pieces and furniture. This rack horn was shaped by hand to fit, and the piece is assembled using vintage brass slot screws I found by sorting through a bin of about 10 billion assorted screws at an antique shop. This saddle rack lives on a 100acre sport horse farm in Tennessee.
Project Photos
The next pages are of various projects, many of the pics were taken with my phone for my own use, never expecting to publish them, so please excuse any lack of image quality or their being of works in progress. Thank you.