Lookingbill used alder to craft a hutch for a home office. Here, he applied intricate carvings and a natural wax finish.

Working under the company name Dos Perros, the craftsman designs and builds custom furniture “you would take with you if you move,” he suggests. “I don’t do anything built-in. I leave that to the cabinetmakers.” Lookingbill’s furniture features solid-wood construction with mortise-and-tenon joinery and a five-step hand-finish process. Pieces often are detailed with chip-carved designs that he models after traditional Spanish Colonial patterns.

Lookingbill’s work graces homes from California to Connecticut, thanks partly to the Kay el Bar guest ranch in Wickenburg, where he was head wrangler for 18 years. “The owners had a lot of my furniture there,” he notes. “Guests would see my work and commission pieces for their homes.” When the Kay el Bar was sold in 1996, Lookingbill figured the time was right to make furniture full time.

Over the years, this Master of the Southwest has seen many trends come and go in furniture making. He avoids all of them. “I try to stick with timeless designs that will always be in style,” he explains.

Years ago a client confirmed Lookingbill’s natural inclination for building timeless pieces. The craftsman remembers, “I was delivering furniture to a woman here in Wickenburg, and she said, ‘Oh, the kids are going to fight over this when I’m dead.’ I took that as a great compliment.”