DANIEL TYLER GOODEN / L’Observateur / April 29, 2000

Walking into J & M Cabinets in Lutcher, Mike Parnell’s showroom looks almost bare. Lining the white walls are cabinets and half finished entertainmentcenters. Pinned to the wall above them are pictures and xerox-copies ofdifferent wood furnishings, and an old style mantlepiece.

Everything is covered with a thin layer of dust, drifting in from the workshop in the back.

When Mike steps into the showroom, it’s easy to see the man is a craftsman.

His clothes are covered in the same dust as the rest of his shop, and his hands are stained deep, white paint worked into his fingers.

“I’m sorry I don’t have anything to show you, as soon as we build anything it’s out the door,” said Mike with a smile and a firm handshake.

He stepped back through the door into his shop. The back room is filled withtable saws, drills, jig saws, sanders, planers and other woodworking machinery. The piles of various wood scraps and sawdust fill the air with thesharp scent of heated and worked wood.

“Hey,” he hollers over the noise “let’s set up the entertainment center.”Two men start moving, setting a long shelf that stands about eight feet in the air, onto a dolly to move it into the front room.

Over the course of a few minutes, various vertical shelves and drawers are set together and attached into one solid oak center. The shelves towerabove the workmen, trimmed at the top, the unfinished oak weighing hundreds of pounds.

“We do a lot of these,” Mike explains. “All of them custom built how ever acustomer wants them.” This piece is due to be sanded, varnished anddelivered by the next day. The buyer will pay somewhere between $2,000 and$4,000, and will be exactly what he or she is after. Mike’s specialty though iscabinets. With a lot of cabinets being built out of particle board, J & M’s hardwood construction is what have kept them in business so long, said Mike.

“We build everything out of solid wood. It’s all going to last forever,” headded.

It’s easy to see that Mike enjoys his work, bringing a piece into existence from raw hard wood. He wrestles with the entertainment center until itstands exactly how he wants it.

“If anything in the piece ever cracks, sometimes there’s a bit of bad wood, I’ll replace it free,” Mike said, sure of his product and the work his men put into it.

When questioned about the picture of the ancient mantle piece tacked to the wall, Mike replies, “I can build that. If it can be bought, I can build it.”After 10 years of owning J & M Cabinets, he and his men can build anything.

They match any design, color of varnish or style that is desired, he explains.

Often customers simply bring in a picture of what they want. Mike producesthe requested design and specifications on a 3-D computerized image, giving the customer a chance to look at what their buying before it’s even built.

Everything coming out of his shop is custom. “We very rarely do work ofhousing contractors. They usually need something fast and cheap.” We’drather build what someone would want, said Mike.

Mike learned his trade from his father Clarence Parnell, who was a local carpenter all his life. “I started working with him when I was 10 and neverstopped,” said Mike. Though his father has now passed on, Mike continues onwith his work.

Mike now has three guys working for him, continually creating and moving the solid wood creations out of the shop and into local homes.

Mike loves the work he does, one can see that just by the cabinets and other furnishings he produces. “I like seeing the satisfaction of somebody who getstheir finished piece and it’s exactly how they wanted it,” Mike said. He alsoenjoys creating something that didn’t exist before, he added.

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