Tim Carl LLC photos
Philip Beltrami owns and operates a St. Helena-based construction company and makes custom furniture using reclaimed wood.
A craftsman OUT OF TIME TIM CARL
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fourth-generation Napa Valley craftsman, Philip Beltrami doesn’t just make wooden furniture, he uncovers history. Part expert woodworker and part historian, over the years he has shifted away from construction to focus on crafting tables, 22 | INSIDE NAPA VALLEY
chests and other furniture pieces that are beautiful to look at while they also reveal layers of stories contained within the reclaimed wood itself. Like a true magician, Beltrami reanimates old wine barrels, ancient wooden wine tanks and discarded planks from barns and
demolished structures from some of the region’s first wineries. Look closely at any of his pieces and you will see intricate wood-grain patterns from trees cut down long ago, maybe a retained handdrilled dowel or two, perhaps the red stain from an ancient wine or barrel end cuts that look
saw-tooth jagged, even a few bungholes from where an enormous corked plugged an ancient wine barrel from years past. Beltrami’s furniture pieces are works of art. They are built by a man with deep roots to the region, often using tools left to him by old timers after they SUMMER/FALL 2021
