Marcy Pesner–Proud Owner

Marcy Pesner had a dream, the dream of bringing attractive and useful custom-built cabinetry of a unique design to every home in the Park Slope, Brooklyn area.. Raised in Montreal, Canada Marcy learned early on that the future is not in plastics as ‘The Graduate’ might believe, but in wood. Armed with degrees in printmaking from Skidmore College and Sculpture from Indiana University in Bloomington Marcy became the resident sculptor for Rockland County in Nyack, NY. She then moved to her current hometown of Park Slope where she worked as an architectural model-maker and then as the head of a model toy shop for ten years. Since the 1986 opening of “Beagle Tiles Woodworking” Marcy has had her hands full working with clients to customize the spaces they inhabit. During her 30 seconds or so of free time Marcy is a practitioner of the New Kadampa tradition of Buddhism and a full time mom to Bruce Almighty and Molly, her Chihuahua and Rat Terrier. Though she is currently in between Beagles, Marcy will never lose her love or respect for the breed that brought her Mother Maude [1973- 1988], Audrey [1988-2001], and Mildred [1992- 2001].


Sasha Porter–Design Maven / Cabinetmaker


Sasha Porter created for herself an undergraduate major of Architecture/ Social and Cultural Theory and has since, split her time between architectural publishing and design/building. Beagle & Potts’ resident woodworker/designer/master job planner Sasha has spent her 1 1/2 years here streamlining production and bringing unsurpassed efficiency to all that she does. When not building custom cabinets Sasha can be found riding the rails to her hometown of Portland, Oregon or with her rather handsome cat, Lil Buddy Underfoot aboard the 1943 Crash boat she is renovating into a sustainability experiment/ floating home on Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal.

Malcolm Logan–Renaissance man / Cabinetmaker

Malcolm Logan is a modern day renaissance man who never allows his rugged “Robert Redford-esque” good looks to get in the way of a job well done. Beagle & Potts Woodworking has been blessed with Malcolm’s expertise for 3 years of quality craftsmanship. Hailing from Glasgow, Scotland he has been building Buddhist temples for 29 years and maintains a quiet Buddhist charm throughout the toughest of cabinetry quandaries. Malcolm found his way to Park Slope, Brooklyn through the love of his adoring wife, Michelle, who is a writer and Buddhist teacher. Known around the shop for his love of tea and use of such phrases as ‘jolly good’ and ‘it’s a disaster’ Malcolm is also a master of plumbing, roofing, masonry, electrical work… etc. need we say more.


Shelley Curnow–Cabinetmaker / Bookeeping whiz

One dark and stormy night Shelley Curnow rapped on the Beagle & Potts door and demanded to be trained in the fine art of woodworking, and trained she has been. In her year at Beagle & Potts Woodworking Shelley has become an indispensable asset in the world of detail-oriented cabinetry. Bringing with her a love of dogs, and a background in Information Technology from her 4 pre-Beagle years at the F.B. Heron Foundation, Shelley has been renovating the quality of both our workshop and our office. In her personal time Shelley, her wife Deb, their new baby son Felix, and their rat terrier Tag A Long enjoy pub crawls along Carroll Gardens’ Smith St. and rocking out the Guitar Hero.


Meg Thompson Cabinetmaker/ Phenomenal Artist

Born and raised in Wyoming, Meg kept her watch on mountain time while attending the University of Montana on a Division 1 Basketball Scholarship. With a creative writing degree in hand Meg started and ran a successful tile and remodeling company before moving to New York City for the art. An avid surfer, come summer Meg can be found riding the waves in the surf capital of Queens, Far Rockaway. She completed a summer residency at SVA and currently rents space in an art studio in Gowanus for her creative endeavors. She resides on the Park Slope/Windsor Terrace border with her two cats Louie and L’il Bear. Her art website is slowelk.com.

Deb Winsor Master Carpenter, Boatbuilder and Certified Restoration Specialist
Deb started her residential carpentry career on Nantucket in 1983 which led to 15 years in wooden boat restoration. Boat work taught her to work neatly, not drop tools, and be thankful for square corners and 8 foot ceilings. She has an MS in Historic Preservation from Columbia University. She restored a 1720 farmhouse in Orient Point and a 1903 townhouse in Lefferts Manor, Brooklyn which she shares with her partner Peggy, son Jack, dog Betty and 2 cats. She is an avid 4 season hiker and home canner.
Margaret Nolan-Office Manager Extraordinaire

When not trying to control the chaos of Beagle, Margaret can be found at home with husband Edgar, their three children, 2 dogs, 3 cats and 2 birds. Christened with the nickname "Radar" by Marcy for always being one step ahead, she has acclimated to her surroundings at Beagle quite well. She enjoys being part of the most creative, innovative, remarkable team of woodworkers there is. In her little spare time, she partakes in basketball, softball, soccer, swimming, biking or whatever the kids are doing at the time.

Paul Takeuchi - Resident Super-genius

Revered for his writing, sensational photography work and his Mac prowess, Paul is more than a little easy on the eyes. A bicycle enthusiast,Dad, and novelist we're still trying to figure out what Paul can't do. He is amazing to work with and has been Beagling with us for 8 years now.


Andres Villalon
A recent graduate of Wesleyan College, Andres is a kind and generous person to work with. In addition to being fully versed in African Dance, Andres has been known to pick up the occasional Jembe and rock!! Currently he is coordinating a Buddhist temple building project in Florida. When he was at Beagle, he was responsible for raising the bar, planning wise and construction wise. We really miss him at Beagle.

Rob Pettit- Design Connoisseur

The newest Beagle, Rob is quickly went through his puppy stages. An accomplished artist, originally from the wilds of Albany, he and his girlfriend Sasha have settled into life in Brooklyn. Having survived the initial hazing ceremony unscathed, he has established himself amongst the rest of the Beagles and is invaluable for his SketchUp skills, never ending enthusiasm and optimistic outlook.

Guy Leopold Brilliant accountant, inspirational, unique individual
Guy is invaluable to Beagle for keeping us in a good place financially and for his indomitable spirit. Leaving home at the ripe age of 12, he was raised (literally) at Serendipity’s on E 60th in NYC. He worked his way up from busboy to controller while enjoying their famous Frozen Hot Chocolates. He completed part of his College Education at Marymount Manhattan College (one of 2 visiting males to the all female school). He and Brian (his partner of 20 years) live in Huntington, NY where his accounting business is located (www.guyleopold.com). When not solving multiple financial crises, he enjoys snuggling with Brian and their cats Thomas, Spanky, and Darla. He also enjoys traveling the world, cooking and sharing his wonderful message of love, joy and enjoying the moment. One hour with Guy and your views of the world and your own situation are transformed completely, a real eye opening and heartwarming experience.


Beagle & Potts—A Little History

Beagle Tiles opened its doors in 1986 when Marcy Pesner, a native from Montreal, Canada armed with Fine Arts degrees from Skidmore College and Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, decided she had done enough work as an architectural and special effects model maker in Manhattan. Driven by her passion for building with wood from the age of 5, Marcy enjoyed many years as a woodworking hobbyist before opening up her own shop.” When I was growing up, we had a carpenter/cabinetmaker named Felix Lenners from Luxembourg working on many projects in our house. I would watch him for hours, amazed at what he could produce with an 8” table saw in our garage and a few hand tools. My parents bought me my first tool kit when I was really young and it was put to use immediately”.
“I started Beagle Tiles with a friend from my former model making studio, Alison,and I together we started building custom cabinets and developing wooden wall tiles; a decorative wood wall tile based on ceramic tiles, different sizes and ,shapes and dyed any color. The tiles are used as wainscotting, inlays in tables and cabinet doors, crown moldings and inlays in valances on desk-wall units. Alison moved on, and so I hired a set builder I had met from my model making days to work for me and teach me all there was to know about cabinetmaking. And he did.”
Business was steady until the ” market correction” of 1990, when Marcy had to take an interim job (…for 10 years) as head of the model making studio at Remco Toys. During this time,maintained a woodshop to work on weekend projects and a gut renovation of her apartment in Park Slope, Brooklyn. In 2000 the toy company moved to California and Marcy went on to develop Beagle Tiles full time, at first by herself and now, with 6 more employees.
“Somewhere in 2002 I wanted to recreate the business hiring people with little or no experience, but who had a love for woodworking and an eagerness to be trained in it. While at times difficult because of mistakes, slow production, and not wanting to turn away any jobs, we slowly evolved into a very streamlined working team with separate duties for office work, bookkeeping, designing, client intake and development, building, finishing, and installing. We’ve examined each of the areas and as a group decided what would be the best direction to take. That has been a huge lesson for me in giving up control, delegating and getting out of the way. When you have bright and talented people working for and with you, listening to them and implementing their suggestions is crucial”.
Since 2000 Beagle has put all their energy into building up our kitchen design, building and installing home office and entertainment units, storage for children’s’ rooms and multipurpose rooms. And when the client requests, Marcy will incorporate Beagle Tiles trim work or wainscoting. Two months ago we changed our name to Beagle and Pots Woodworking so that potential clients would identify us as a woodworking company and not just a tile company.
Beagle and Pots is located in the Park Slope/ Gowanus section of Brooklyn New York. Nestled in a neighborhood filled with artists and light manufacturing, Beagle maintains a bustling with energy, but low tech 1100 square foot shop. The tools are very basic but prized; a 30 year old Rockwell 10” table saw with an Exactor sliding extension, a 6” Jet jointer, a 12” Makita planer, 2 drillpresses, a 12” tabletop Delta disc sander, a small Ryobi bandsaw, A Baldor 14 spindle boring machine, a Tormek sharpener and a Hoffman dovetail routing machine a Lamello biscuit joiner and lots of handtools. “I have always wanted to maintain a bare essentials shop. I’ve seen so many woodworkers over the years follow what’s new and expensive with promises of labor savings efficiencies, only to go out of business later, having to sell that equipment while still paying it off. As long as we keep improving on our standard practices and outsourcing of materials (reclaimed lumber, plyboo, green plywood and mdf)) and parts (doors and solid maple dovetailed drawers) there will be more time for client development and detailed, custom work.”
Almost all of the work is designed by Marcy and is client driven and occasionally she will collaborate with architects or designers when the work looks exciting. She enjoys working with the clients directly, going through all the design decisions involving, color, wood species, hardware, working around obstructions, using new materials and lighting. The design/planning stage is the most important and so a lot of time is spent making it work out just so. Beagle’s 5 pages of clients’ glowing references are a testament to the quality control that is foremost in every Beagle job. For example, “ We cannot say enough good things about everyone Marcy works with at Beagle Tiles. Everyone who worked on installing our cabinets was professional, meticulous and consistently invested in our satisfaction. In fact, the attention to detail during planning, installation and after completion has really put Beagle Tiles in a league of their own when we compare them to other companies doing work on our home” S. Best, Park Slope. This is but one of many testimonials attesting to the quality of Marcy’s work.
All kitchen cabinets are frameless and constructed from 3/4” pre-finished maple veneered plywood with 1/2” backs. All hinges are 32mm Salice and Mepla soft close. All drawer slides are Fulterer full extension and Blum soft close slides on special drawers.”I’m a big fan of using tried and true hardware and not switching vendors, unless they’ve got something really special. It’s no fun reinventing the wheel in the middle of a job and it’s expensive” says Marcy .For their frame and panel doors, Beagle uses Walzcraft in Wisconsin (What a find!!) and for their solid maple dovetailed drawers, Marcy is very loyal to Eagle Woodworking in Massachusetts who she credits with quality, quick turn around and always has a human being answering the phone. “Small woodworking shops comprise a talentedl community of dedicated craftspeople committed to building beautiful, functioning objects for their clients and making a living in the process. How many people do you know love what they do and that it only gets better over time? I feel so blessed. At the end of every job there is an immense satisfaction knowing that we’ve provided good service and made a beautiful product. I’ve come close to closing a few times having been trained as an artist and not a business person, but then the phone rings and it’s an old client wanting just that special piece. I have learned to ask when I don’t know and pulled many an all nighter to make a deadline.”
One of the things Beagle prides itself on is its finishing. While Marcy does use a (non HVLP) gravity spray gun and compressor, most of the finishing is done by hand using Basic Coating’s top of the line, catalyzed resin/ water based sealer and finish using foam brushes. Color matching is achieved by tinting the sealer coat with Tints All dyes and then adding dyes to the finishing coats to create deep, rich glazed coats. The finished surfaces are then polished with 0000 steel wool and paste wax. “ A lot of sprayed on water based finishes look very plastic. We’ve been using Basic Coating’s Streetshoe line for over 20 years. I won’t even try anything else because the results are astonishing, easy to use, incredibly forgiving and a tough, tough finish.”
One of the 2 biggest areas of improvement have been in hiring an office person, a must have for growth and client development, and downloading Google’s FREE Sketch up program for CAD drawings. “We were all set to take a college CAD course which was expensive with a long learning curve and then purchasing the software, also not cheap. And then a friend showed me a CAD drawing of his apartment layout complete with brick walls, wall thicknesses , cabinetry and roof parapet. It took him very little time to achieve results after he did the free Sketch up tutorial. We have been using it ever since and it just gets better. We now can make our own visual library of wood textures and species samples. All we have to do is photograph something and it becomes a plug-in. Totally amazing, totally free!!!’
Another distinguishing feature of Beagle and Pots are their install kits on wheels. Constructed from 1/2” pre-finished Baltic birch. All primary install tools are catalogued and attached, sample display style with either Velcro or stretch elastic for easy removal. There are 5 kits each measuring approximately 24” x 30” that open up into 2 boxes joined in the middle by a piano hinge. Each box has a specific purpose be it measuring tools, adhering tools, finishing tools, clean up tools and power tools. “We just spent too much time on the job site digging into buckets looking for tools. Now we see them at a glance and we put them back at the rest of the day. We are constantly looking for ways to make things easier. Find a problem, solve it”
Beagle does not advertise. It gets very glowing reviews on 2 Brooklyn neighborhood internet resource directories and has many repeat clients who pass on the good word to their friends. In order to maintain quality and “a low stress level” Marcy stewards one job through the shop at a time. “Each job, every client gets my undivided attention. We work very closely with them and when we screw up, we admit it, fix it and absorb the cost. Our clients appreciate the honesty. You know it’s a funny thing about running a business successfully. 1) Have great people working for you and appreciate them, 2) Treat your clients with honesty and respect 3) Pick up the phone (when it rings) and speak directly to clients. Do not hide from your clients. They know it. Fix all problems as they come up in the shop. Do not put them off for the install. It will only bite you in the butt in cost and time. 4) Appreciate clients’ concerns. They’re paying us to make a mess in their homes. Appreciate that, clean up thoroughly at the end of the day and take your garbage away daily. Providing good service and.exceeding clients’ expectations doesn’t take much if your heart is in the right place”.
Last year Beagle and Pots doubled its revenue from the previous year. This was in part due to contacts Marcy made with 2 fellow CMA members, Rob Levy of Hudson River Woodworking and Ed Negron of Ed Negron Fine Woodworking who answered critical questions and dispensed invaluable advice. The loneliness of the small, isolated cabinetmaker was quickly dispelled. Marcy’s vision for the future? Developing a woodworking school for people who want to increase their confidence around tools and how to fix things around the home. “A lot of clients have expressed an interest in learning woodworking and I love teaching, so we’re setting up 1 day intensive workshops where, at the end of the day, they will walk out of the shop with something they have made. From there we can work with students on individual products they might have. “ And our second goal is keeping the work fresh at Beagle.
Marcy can be reached at 917.687.3023, 718.330-0921 and her website is beagleandpotts.com and she welcomes all kinds of questions from struggling cabinetmakers looking to move to the next level with their business.