Welcome!
My name is Cooper Henry.
I’ve always liked to think that when people ask kids what they want to be when they grow up, most of them are looking for ideas. I knew from the time I was very young that I wanted to be an engineer. Now I am an engineer, and I realize that young me was too specific; I didn’t need to be an engineer to do what I wanted, build things. So, in 2023, in the tiny one car garage of the house I was renting with friends, I launched Ethereal Woodwork to make that dream come true.
My mission with this business is to follow my passion for building and to share that with others. If I can inspire one other person to chase their dreams, it’s all worth it. And of course, along the way, I will strive to make the highest quality and most visually stunning pieces I can. When you work with me you aren’t buying a piece of furniture, you’re buying art with a function. I’ll leave the mass production tables to someone else. I’ll make the piece that isn’t simply the table you eat dinner at, but the center of the dinner conversation. At the end of the day, my customers need to have something that is truly ethereal, almost beyond imagination. As for me, “I will never think of myself as a master craftsman, because there is always more to learn… They will find me dead, in my shop, covered in sawdust, with a smile on my face!” because this is my passion and my obsession. Come be part of it, you won’t be disappointed.
And if you want to know a bit more about me feel free to keep reading.
While this business started in that garage, my journey as a craftsman did not. That journey started in the fall of 2014 when I walked into my high school in Central California for the first time. That room quickly became my favorite place on campus. There were so many days my main motivation to go to school at all was that woodshop class. By my senior year, I was ditching other classes to spend more time in the shop. Shoutout to Mr. Eastman for writing me excuse notes for my other classes and for helping me learn not only how to use the tools safely but also how to design and construct anything I could imagine.
High School me, when dreaming big was my only job.
I imagined a lot in that shop, from the desk I’m typing this at, to my first of many ornate jewelry boxes, to a curvy cabinet that fit into my English teacher’s VW Camper Bus (he paid me in stick shift driving lessons and excused absences from his class). The four years I spent in that shop laid the foundation for the obsession I now have for this craft. At the time, I didn’t realize just how much that time in the shop meant to me. So when I graduated and went off to college to be an engineer, learning to build “real” things and to make money doing it, I let my passion for woodworking take a back seat. I had a mini workbench and some basic hand tools that I used here and there. I even built a poker table out of construction lumber for my house in college, but I never invested time like I had in high school.
My mini work bench. I still use it for delicate tasks.
Then came graduation and my first real job in late 2022. I soon realized the mistake that eight-year-old me had made in deciding to be an engineer. There was never an opportunity to touch the things I put on paper, and there were a lot more regulatory hoops to jump through than I’d imagined. Just a few months later, I took what little savings I had and bought myself the tools I needed to start making things again. Fueled by an Alex Hormozi quote that goes, “I’ve never regretted failures, only the things I didn’t try.” I launched Ethereal Woodwork. The rest is history. Ever since, I have taken every spare minute I can find outside of my 9-5 as an engineer to pursue this passion for building.
I’ve learned a lot despite the speed bumps along the way. I’m a better craftsman now than I was when I started building almost 10 years ago. But more importantly than that, I’m having just as much fun today as I was back then. I would love for you to join me on this journey. Whether that means building you an heirloom quality box or gameboard, a stunning furniture piece that will outlive us both, or simply receiving an encouraging word, feel free to reach out through my contact page.
My first jewelry box build