Crafted with care: 60nobscot custom crafts distinctive wood furniture

Ray Bachand’s handcrafted furnishings command attention. What’s striking about his benchmade pieces—whether it’s a coffee table, media cabinet, sliding barn door or a serving board—is the craftsmanship and clear attention to detail. Nuanced wood grain patterns, live edges, traditional joinery, and carefully selected finishes all make for truly custom, one-of-a-kind furniture.

“I’m doing things differently than a lot of other woodworkers,” says Bachand, owner of 60nobscot Custom Furniture. “If it’s something sitting in someone’s house, they can truly say that there’s nothing else like it. That’s a big deal for me to make truly unique pieces, tailor made for where they’re going.”

Bachand started his furniture-making business in 2001, naming it “60nobscot” as a nod to the address of his 1840s farmhouse in Sudbury where he first opened his shop. In April 2017 he relocated 60nobscot to Marstons Mills, where he now works out of his studio on Rascally Rabbit Road. Before finding success as a woodworker, Bachand played as a musician for a number of years on the West Coast. He then ran a music software company in San Francisco, which he sold before moving to Sudbury in 1998 to teach in the business department at Berklee College of Music. At the same time he was teaching music, Bachand began teaching himself how to make furniture. Furniture, he says, eventually won out over music, and he left Berklee to pursue 60nobscot.

“People ask me if I miss music, and I really don’t because I’m getting a lot of the same juices flowing from making furniture,” he explains. “I never liked the performance part of music. I always enjoyed rehearsing and studio work—developing music—and making furniture is more like that; it’s just a raw, creative thing.”

Bachand prides himself on his “one of a kind, one at a time” approach to his work. He estimates that it takes him as much time to do finishes—like clear coats and stains—on a piece as it does to build it, often from such woods as walnut, mahogany or butternut. “A lot of times it’s the defects in the wood that become spectacular,” Bachand says, “and that takes time to do it right and make it look natural. When it’s done right it’s beautiful; it adds a lot of character.”

To Bachand, it’s all about bringing clients’ visions to life—and getting them to understand that the process to do so shouldn’t be intimidating. “They can come to me with as much detail or no detail, and we’ll work through it and figure it out together,” he says. “A lot of times, after my first meetings with clients they’ll leave with this big feeling of relief that it’s not so hard and doable financially.”

60nobscot Custom Furniture • 508-735-5936 • shop.capecodlife.com