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OGRAPHY BY

I

t wasn t long ago
when a decorato
suggested that
Dr. David and-
Cathy Cantor spend
small fortune on a
Chippendale enter
tainment center to
complete their rend=
vated family room.
Nah, said David as he glanced at a photo of the
piece, I'll make it for a fraction of the price.
"My wife encourages me," Cantor says. "She
is very supportive because she sees that it keeps
me busy and it saves money."
The reason for Cathy Cantor's confidence in
her husband is easy to surmise; the cabinet is the
latest in a long line of elegant creations Cantor
completed since he first picked up a hammer and
saw seven years ago to make shelves for their
West Bloomfield home. Since that time, Cantor
has created showroom-quality pieces with glass-
smooth finishes such as identical side tables, elab-
orately carved desks, a marble-topped demi-lune
bathroom vanity, stout dressers and elegant
benches for the family room, bathroom and bed-
rooms of his home.
Aside from a select few pieces of trim and the

.

CHRISTOPHER IVEY

Ware, Cantor
sculpted the pieces
from hefty blocks of
cherry and mahogany
from Armstrong
Millworks in Highland,
Michigan. The rough
pieces are dragged into
his magnificent base-
ment wood shop.
There, surrounded by walls he constructed and
raised by himself, Cantor can spend up to 16
hours a weekend in the shop outfitted with a
number of squat professional wood-shaping
machines like a band saw and a router that were
purchased from Marsh Power Tools in Livonia.
"I am like a kid in a
candy store whenever I go in
there," Cantor says, sheep-
ishly admitting that the
workers there know him by
name.
The "kid" got his first
taste of sweetness shortly
after turning 40. An obstetri-
cian and gynecologist by
training, Cantor has always
been interested in sports

requiring hand-eye coordination like tennis and
golf in addition to hands-on hobbies like playing
guitar. He began woodworking after finding inspi-
ration in another Jewish carpenter, Norm Abrams
of the television show New Yankee Workshop.
"I am a surgeon and all week long I work with
my hands. I enjoy it," he says. "I still like to work
with my hands when I am away from the office or
the hospital. I find this is a good way of express-
ing my creativity."
Since his first foray into the craft, he improved
to the point where he can waltz through a furni-
ture store and replicate a piece by memory. The
work not only won praise from family members
who are the direct beneficiaries of his talent but
also from pals who, happy to have a friend in the
furniture business, have
lugged the heavy pieces
up the basement stairs.
"They are all quick to
help out but they also
remind me that they
want pieces, too," he
says, laughing.

—Jill Davidson Sklar

STYLE A•F "rltr iN • FEBRUARY 2001 • 1 5