Two Brothers, a Wall of Pop Bottles

Growing up, Joe and his brother John collected old pop bottles together. Nehi, Hires, Dad's Root Beer, Royal Crown, Bubble Up. Years later, a Mattel newsletter ran a story about the two of them and that collection. Joe wanted to turn the story and the bottles into something the brothers could hang on the wall.

He brought us a sketch and an idea: the article in the center, the bottles around it, each one lit. Our job was to turn that idea into a piece of furniture that would last.

We built the casework in cherry and backed every niche with bird's-eye maple, picked for the way its figure shimmers under the light. The niches are staggered on purpose, tall and short, wide and narrow, so no two rows line up and every bottle gets its own spot. Each one glows on its own, and the framed article sits in the middle, holding the whole story together.

We built two, one for Joe and one for John, and delivered them in Agoura Hills in the summer of 2015.

That fall Joe wrote to us: "My brother John was so touched, he said it was the best gift he has ever received in his entire life."

That's why we do this. A client brings the memory, and we bring the craft to give it a place on the wall for the next fifty years.

Conejo Woodworks