For six years, Pika Furniture Studio has provided custom wood furniture pieces to customers in the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond. The shop, located at 826 CO-133 Suite E in Carbondale, is run by Corey Summers and Jason Caudill. The business began as a passion project between the two in a way that Caudill described as fate.
“Eight years ago, I moved into the condo next to [Summers] here in Carbondale. We went to school together at Basalt, reconnected and started talking about woodworking. We ended up on this crazy job, doing this crazy ceiling that nobody else wanted to touch. We took a break, and we were talking about how we’re gonna collaborate and start some sort of business together.”
Summers’ father operated Summer Mouldings, so he grew up in the world of woodworking. Caudill’s father was a general contractor, and he was always surrounded by things being built. Summers’ father eventually retired and moved to where Pika currently sits. During the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple business partners pulled out. Caudill walked into the space, and the journey alongside his co-owner began.
“Corey asked me if I wanted to jump into the middle of things. At first, I said, ‘Hell no,’ because it was half-assembled and I had just gotten a place in Missouri Heights. We then started working together and realized we worked really well together,” Caudill stated. “I abandoned my idea of having this small garage shop making furniture, and we started Pika together.”
According to Caudill, the journey has been rewarding, but it has also included challenges like breaking into the world of custom furniture without slipping into mass production of specific pieces, plus logistics, financials and staying ahead of the market curve while honoring the craft that goes into each custom piece.
“We’ve been fighting an uphill battle for the past six years trying to figure out how to make it so that we can do the real fine-craft woodworking,” Caudill said. “We’ve taken on the challenge of diving deeper into solid wood furniture, and it’s an art form that you never master. You always feel like you come up short and have more to learn. That’s where we’ve invested our time and energy, trying to get these complex jobs that nobody else wants to do and then figuring it out.”
A passage on Pika Furniture Studio’s website states that when someone commissions a piece of furniture from the shop, they are participating in the creation of a legacy. This comes in part from the crew’s sustainable wood materials sourced from family-owned sawmills throughout the country. In this studio, every custom piece is a journey in and of itself.
“Every project is different, even if you’re making the same thing twice, because every piece of wood is different,” Caudill explained. He likened woodworking to working with clay due to the variability of materials. While primarily serving upvalley clients, Caudill shared that the community they have built in Carbondale, with the help of shop parties for folks interested in learning about the studio, is something he and his crew are proud of.
“With the people that work here, I think we’ve created something pretty bulletproof that everybody’s passionate about. That’s been a special thing. We push hard on everybody at different points because we’re trying to do this ridiculous thing where we’re trying to do, like, the most high [quality] woodworking that there is out there. It’s hard when it’s your friends, but it’s been cool to watch everybody receive that well and then reciprocate by doing their best.”
To order a custom piece or or more information, visit www.pikafurniture.com or follow @pika_furniture_studio on Instagram