Lighthouse Wood Working Sets Up Shop in Eastie

By John Lynds

Inside a small woodworking shop off McClellan Highway Lucas Jablonski is putting the finishing touches on the latest piece of furniture. The piece is a thirteen-foot long table made of reclaimed wood that has been carefully assembled and finished.

“This is probably 200 year old wood that I got from a barn that was on a tobacco farm in Pennsylvania,” said Jablonski. “So I’m using reclaimed oak, slow growth oak that is very different from farmed oak that is used to make commercial furniture.”

The grain and knots in the wood are different from a table you’d see in a furniture store showroom and the piece has a very unique look.

“The barn was 100 years old and the wood they used to built it were just from trees that were around and available that were another 100 years old,” he said. “So there’s culture and history behind this wood. In the end it’s super durable and super dense and there’s a story behind it. It’s really a time piece that can be passed down.”

The table is shipping off to a biotech startup in Cambridge along with some other custom made furniture Jablonski has create inside the 175 McClellan Hwy. shop.

Jablonski and his lifelong friend, Daniel Noe, recently opened Lighthouse Woodworking in East Boston and business continues to get steadier and steadier.

“We’ve been doing everything we can to get our name out there,” said Noe. “We are really trying to be part of the community here in East Boston. We both love the area and want to be part of it.”

Jablonski grew up in Detroit and later lived in Denver with his family. He worked in Denver with his father for several years in the family business that specialized in custom cabinetry. Jablonski and Noe’s fathers were friends and the two families spent time vacationing with one another. Noe then lived in Eastie during middle school before the family moved to Stoughton. Then after Jablonski and Noe married their wives the two friends moved to Eastie, set up shop and began getting to work on the new endeavor.

“The entrepreneurial spirit just sort of bit us when we moved here,” said Jablonski. “With my background in woodworking and Daniel’s background in marketing we just said ‘let’s do this’.”

Lighthouse Woodworking specializes in handcrafted custom made furniture. From dinning tables and chairs to bedroom sets, everything Lighthouse produces is made to order at the Eastie shop.

“We are focusing on custom furniture like tables, chairs, bar tops as well as other furniture like beds, dressers and nigh stands,” said Jablonski. “Everything is based on what the customer wants from size, type of wood and look, to the finish.”

When I customer orders a piece from Lighthouse they can watch their furniture being built from start to finish.

“Lucas does a good job of posting photos online about the pieces he’s working on,” said Noe. “So customers can really see the process from start to finish.”

Noe said a lot of business has been generated by word of mouth.

“We’ve had a presence a community events like the Makers Market,” said Noe. “Business is coming along and we are working really hard to make this a success. It’s now a full-time gig so things are going good. People are starting to come from all over. In fact we got a bedroom set order that will be made out of mahogany from the last Makers Market.”

In the end Jablonski and Noe said they want to be industry game changers.

“We want to be our own brand and our own style,” said Jablonski. “So when you walk into a home in East Boston you’ll now the dinning room table or another piece of furniture is from us.”

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