Woodworker crafts salvage into furniture

  • Matt Crego with wood he will carve into furniture.
    Matt Crego with wood he will carve into furniture.
  • A carved bench with a whale theme.
    A carved bench with a whale theme.
  • A carved bench and table.
    A carved bench and table.

An Atlantic Beach man is carving out his vision one piece of cedar at a time. Matt Crego transforms raw wood into unique, one-of-a-kind furniture pieces. His Crego Creations preserve not only the character of the wood, but the history of the wood itself.
Crego salvaged timber from the iconic staircase at Freebird Live, which was adorned with memorabilia honoring the Lynyrd Skynyrd legacy, to build new memories. He also found inspiration in the debris field left in the wake of Hurricane Matthew in 2016 that helped boost his business to a new level. When pieces of the pier washed ashore, people were racing to salvage pieces of local history. Crego saw it as an opportunity to preserve the fallen pier, turning storm debris into beautiful pieces.
“The memorabilia furniture is really cool to me. They took the stairs out of Freebird when they tore it down, so I’ve been making some benches,” said Crego. “If people have a tree come down in a storm that maybe they planted 20 years ago, we can cut that tree up and make something they can have forever. It’s through the roof what we can do for people, so it’s really cool.”
Crego was inspired to learn how to make the chainsaw carvings from his friend “Scuba Steve” Cohen who turned to woodworking after suffering a dive accident in 2011. Cohen rescued logs from the St. Johns River and Crego refined his skills on the cuttings. Among his first projects was a pair of grandfather clocks with salvaged wood and clock parts from a local craft store. He also constructed a bench that sits in front of Ohana’s in Atlantic Beach.
“That was the beginning of it,” he said of his first project almost 12 years ago.
Since then, Crego constructed the new oyster bar at Singleton’s and recently installed new outdoor tables at Poe’s Tavern in Atlantic Beach. He added pieces at Ocean 60 and all three locations of Two Dudes Seafood. It’s not limited to restaurants. Titan Up Fitness Gyms contracted Crego to build out all the amenities for the gyms.
“I thought this was really cool and something different. So, I started to look around for my own cedar logs and just started progressing more and more. They were my inspiration to start the whole thing. Anything that someone wants, any idea that they throw out there, we can do it,” he said of his beach-inspired wall carvings, benches, tables and more.
Travels to countries like Costa Rica, where people built their furniture from locally sourced materials, also influenced his work.
“Surfing and traveling, just seeing how they built their furniture all out of the trees, I was definitely influenced by that,” said Crego.
He established a contact with a mill, giving Crego access to the massive cuts of cedar he needed for more large-scale projects.
“What I like to work with the most is the red cedar, which we have locally here,” said Crego of the wood that’s known as the red aromatic cedar. “It has the prettiest color to it.”
Crego has a small handful of creative friends to help with detailing and painting.
“It’s something that I don’t have to do myself. I can sub that part out and it helps somebody else out and they’re helping me at the same time, so it works out really well.”
Woodworking in the Florida summer can be tricky. Crego has enough storage to keep some of the  smaller pieces, wall carvings and current projects under cover, but weathering the heat and the afternoon storms is all part of the job.
“Some of it I keep dry, like the projects I’m working on,” he said. “When the wood gets wet, I just have to wait for it to dry. What can you do?”
As he continues to build his brand, Crego plans to hold more pop-up sales throughout the Beaches. The last sale in front of Singleton’s sold a couple pieces and got some local attention “which was pretty nice,” said Crego, who also showcases his work on social media and Instagram at Crego_Creations. He is gearing up to open a storefront along Mayport Road a block south of Hannah Park, and is grateful for the chance to leave his mark in his community.
 Said Crego, “I have pieces in about 15 places just at the beach alone. I haven’t really ventured much outside of the beach, but if someone wanted some pieces in Riverside or something, I would totally be glad to do it. But if I don’t have to leave, I won’t ever leave, which is really nice. I’m not complaining.”