At 4-years-old his grandma gave him a miniature set of real screwdrivers. “There wasn’t even a hammer or saw included. But I thought that they were real — that they weren’t just toy screwdrivers,” says Bryant Bajema of Colorado Fine Woodworks. “I thought, man, I could do anything with these!”  

 

And so began his life with wood. He was off and running, and at the age of 12 he picked up a copy of American WoodWorker and ordered every free catalog from every company offering one. “I looked through every single page and read recommendations, got free issues of every magazine that would give one, and even demo plans of projects, so I could just start to learn the terminology and how things are built,” he says. He even built himself a 6 ’x 8’ shed with a bandsaw, table saw, drill press and router. 

 

Bryant took his first ‘real job’ in woodworking, building cabinets for high-end custom kitchens, when he was 18. Fifteen years later, he’s worked in virtually every aspect of the industry — complete custom kitchens, wood floors, ceiling systems, wall systems, paneling, built-ins, bookcases, cabinet doors, custom interior doors and passage doors. “That has enabled me to really be able to do a wide range of projects for our clients,” he says.