Wood N Arts Gallery

Wood ~N~ Arts is part gallery, part woodshop, and part shared studio, set on Highway 1 in downtown Gualala next door to Surf Market. Owner and designer Kevin Heston has spent more than 20 years building furniture and art from wood, guided by a simple idea: work predominantly with native lumber salvaged from dead trees or trees cleared from construction sites, and turn it into pieces meant to be handed down for generations.

What sets it apart from the coast's fine-art galleries is that it centers craft and making. Kevin's woodshop sits in the back, and you can often catch him at work on weekends. Other makers share the rear studio — Marla Skibbin's glass kiln and Ilene Jarman's succulent studio — while the front gallery mixes wood pieces with painting, glass, and fiber from local and guest California artists.

Wood ~N~ Arts is built for custom and commissioned work as much as walk-in browsing. Kevin and the resident makers design and build to order — tables, benches, and signs sized and finished to your specs, with choices of leg style, drawers, shelving, and finishes from paints and stains to waxed and distressed looks. Bring an idea in (Kevin@woodnarts.com) and design it together.

The studio also doubles as a teaching space: Kevin offers room to artists who want to run workshops and classes, so programming varies through the year — ask what's coming up when you visit.