About Us: RASMUSSEN COLLECTION & 515 CUSTOMIZED WOODWORKS
We build furniture for the Finish you deserve!
Pleasant Hill Wood Shop Expansion 2021 includes spray booth area for improved "factory type finish application" of high quality, durability and moisture resistance surfaces including many new special finish techniques designed for your piece
New Wood-Metal Hall/Entry/Side Table Line
Approx 1.5" tops, L42" X W11" X H30" - includes 7 mission style black powder coated steel features, or 6 + 1 decorative - Modern Grey, distressed white, black, Urban Bronze, or many others - We accept all customer orders for any size you might need in your space.
We Love Custom Orders!
We build console table units, any size, large or small kitchen/dining tables/benches from hardwoods including Ash, Oak, Maple or you choose the wood that is your preference. Choose your Color/Finish - we use paints, stains, blended colors or special finish techniques.
About Us
Mike Rasmussen
Mike reinvented himself more than 6 years ago focusing on building hand-crafted tables in order to apply his finishing expertise that he had perfected and developed over 40+ years that evolved from his experience and ownership of a paint company. Mike built his reputation providing high-quality finishing services for new home builders – annually finishing over 100 homes. Over this period of time as the market shifted to lower quality requirements, Mike downsized that business to focus on other opportunities. Mike still does some painting of new homes today but decided because of his reputation for high quality finishing and painting, he would instead focus on providing those finishes to hand-crafted furniture that he would build and start to sell at local shows.
He started putting together his wood shop, buying a 13-inch planer, jointer, table and radial saws, wood clamps, and many other tools necessary to build small hall/entry tables so he could finish them with high quality colors and surfaces. At his first local craft show, in 2015, at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, his 12 tables sold out by the noon on the second day, but that got his attention and that of many customers who took his business cards. He started getting custom orders not only for hall/entry tables, but then he branched out with kitchen/dining/coffee tables, Console units and many other pieces. Since 2015, he has built dozens of large tables, with all types of surface finish techniques that customers throughout the 515-area code continue to enjoy today.
Brad & Theresa Durkin
They moved from Michigan to Iowa back in 2019 in preparation for future retirement. Theresa was born and raised in the Des Moines area, eventually moved away to better establish her career with a large telecommunications company. By chance she met Brad in the fall of 1999 while he was on a business trip to the San Francisco area for a large global supplier company supporting the surface finishing industry. But that crossing of their paths created sparks, and more importantly the opportunity for Theresa to move to SE Michigan area in May of 2000 where they both worked. In 2019 they relocated to the Pleasant Hill/Altoona Iowa area. Brad loves Iowa and that midwest lifestyle.
Theresa has always enjoyed design, being focused on all the elements of home design for the construction of two homes, the first in Michigan, and then the current home in Altoona Iowa. Her keen eye for how things should look and be presented help the effort to create pieces that have the widest appeal to the market. Theresa has a knack for predicting the next “trend” for color or design. Since a teenager, Brad has always enjoyed woodworking, and comes from a family of carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and hands-on craftsmen. Brad’s grandfather was a well- known finish carpenter throughout central Oklahoma, and often watched him work and learned some skills while visiting his woodshop, and still today uses his grandfather's 1950's sears craftsman belt driven table saw!
Working Alliance
Today, with our working alliance, 515 Customized Woodworks LLC has been investing in new equipment, recently adding a 7 square foot capable CNC (computer numerical control) Wood Carving machine, a 22” oscillating drum sander, and have our eyes on incorporating a 20-inch planer for the Pleasant Hill Wood Shop. In the upgrade of the shop space, Mike is creating a new spray booth area for the improved application of the high-quality lacquers and other coatings and surface finishes used on our furniture
The Future is the Finish
Mike, over the past 13 years, specifically has seen a market opportunity because many crafters and hobbyists can build furniture, but he would see the finishing of the piece was an afterthought, often with low quality staining, painting or other finish application to the wood. Just in 2021, Mike built a monster table, with six 5” X 5” farmhouse style lathed legs, 10 foot long table more than 1.75 inch thick, 42-inch wide solid oak table top for a customer with his high quality finishing. The woodshop today is in Pleasant Hill and is currently being expanded under the 515 CUSTOMIZED WOODWORKS LLC company name in a working alliance with Mike. Currently we have over 1200 square feet of shop space for building & finishing furniture.