Michael Barba, a furnituremaker and cabinetmaker in Doylestown, PA, dreamed of becoming a poet when he was studying English literature in college. Today, he expresses his visions in wood, not words.

Using traditional joinery and construction methods, he works in fine wood like cherry, claro walnut and mahogany -- all polished to a rich, luminous finish. His eclectic designs include an updated version of a 1790s lady's writing desk, Arts & Crafts-inspired computer tables and a functional replica of Thomas Jefferson's lap desk.

If designing furniture is considered poetry, Barba's business also includes at least as much "prose:" making and installing built-in units for clients. Together, the furniture making and built-in business make M. Barba, Cabinetmaker, a successful one-man shop.

Examples of some of Barba's reproduction pieces include this cherry and claro walnut hutch, 4-foot by 7-foot, featuring glass shelves and interior lighting, and a tambour desk in cherry and claro walnut, featuring a 33-inch by 43-inch work area.

Barba is entirely self-taught. Catching the bug for furniture and antiques in his mid-20s, he tried making the furniture he admired, using woodworking books for guidance. He honed his skills as a hobbyist for 10 years and, along the way, discovered he has a good eye for design and proportion.

"I made things for friends. They paid for materials and had me over for dinner," he says. That work was without pressure, and he could make mistakes and learn from them, he says.

He quit his job with the peace group and set himself up as a professional woodworker in 1987. At age 38, he was embarking on a precarious new career, building handmade furniture. Barba did have an advantage: no overhead, since his family home, a converted Pennsylvania barn on a rolling green Bucks County hilltop, has plenty of space in the lower level for a workshop.

Barba's furniture falls into two categories. One is furniture built "in the spirit of the 18th century." The second is more contemporary furniture whose design is often inspired by the Arts & Crafts movement, a revolt against Victorian excesses.

The first category includes both reproductions of 18th-century and early 19th-century furniture and original pieces that use the designs of that era as a stepping-off point. He says that one of his heroes is Sheridan Hepplewhite, a leading Federalist furnituremaker active from about 1780 to 1820.

Among Barba's most distinctive pieces is a 1790s-style lady's writing desk. He did not copy anything exactly. "No one ever built something just like this before," he says. Made of fine-grain mahogany with cocobolo wood accents, the desk features a writing area that folds open to reveal storage areas. The shelf unit accents vertical lines to balance the horizontal bulk of the desk. Though the basic design is from England, by way of France, Barba looked to the Virginia Tidewater region for his inspiration for the legs and feet.

Another near-replica is a jewelry box patterned after an early-18th-century spice box from Chester County, PA. Made of solid cherry, the box has 11 drawers, with 10 arrayed in a circle around the central drawer. The back is paneled, and the box is dovetailed together, a detail that shows behind the built-up moulding around the top. The door panel of bookmatched claro black walnut offers a striking contrast with the light cherry.

But the piece that has brought Barba the most notice, including articles in Computerworld, Bostonia and US Airways' in-flight magazine, Attach+¬, is a slightly updated version of Thomas Jefferson's lap desk, upon which the 33-year-old Virginian wrote the Declaration of Independence. Barba was inspired by seeing a near-replica at Monticello in 1993. He began building it with no more than a postcard as a guide. Later, he got a book that gave him more accurate information.

"Jefferson is a philosophical hero of mine. It was neat to get into his head and build something he designed," he says. Barba also figured the item's authenticity and historical significance would make it very marketable.

The mahogany desk is a box that measures just 4 inches by 10 inches by 14 inches when folded for traveling. It includes a drawer for writing supplies and a foldout writing surface. When the drawer is locked, the desk can be carried by the brass handle.

Barba took pains to build it the same way Jefferson's cabinetmaker built it, including hand-cut drawer dovetails. Like the original, it features a writing surface covered in fine wool felt. The main difference is that Barba's design omits the inkwells.

"The desk has a touch of Jefferson's genius," Barba says. And, he adds, it qualifies as "the original laptop." He has sold about a dozen copies at $495 apiece.

With his more contemporary pieces, Barba sometimes starts with designs by renowned furnituremakers like Simon Watts and Ernest Gimson. Other designs are wholly original.

To let his creativity flow unimpeded, he says he works out a new design in his mind, putting down only the sketchiest details on paper. Having a too-detailed plan limits his creativity, he believes.

"The biggest thrill is working on my own design and seeing that made solid," he says. "The most fun I ever had was with a computer desk. I did it all out of a simple sketch. It was really satisfying because it all came out my head."

But he keeps it all in perspective. "I really believe that craft is craft and art is art. There's no comparing fine art with furniture making," he says.

The ash and cherry desk features rounded-over edges with an art deco look, but the revealed joinery shows the Arts & Crafts influence. Barba preserved the ash's grain and whiteness with a water-based finish. The drawer bottoms are made of high-grade plywood for stability and NK slides ensure that the drawers will never stick or wear down.

Another original design is a coffee table in the Arts & Crafts mode. The legs are simply slabs with a cresting wave cutout. They are joined to the tabletop with mortise and revealed tenons. While Barba has fashioned these tables in mahogany or claro walnut, he says they can be made out of any wood and in almost any size.

Sometimes the design ideas start with the customer. For instance, Barba built a dining set based on a customer's vague notions. "I fleshed out the ideas not really knowing whether it would work," he says. The result was a highly distinctive set made of cherry stained a deep mahogany-red.

Another contemporary piece is a hutch out of cherry and claro walnut. An original design, it features glass shelves and interior lighting. He's asking $5,995 for the massive hutch.

When he first started, Barba built furniture on spec. Today, he works on commission only.

One of Barba's most popular reproduction pieces is an updated version of Thomas Jefferson's lap desk, shown here partly opened for use a book stand for reading. The top also folds open to reveal a felt-covered writing surface. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence upon the original.

Barba's built-ins are mostly wall units. The less-expensive ones are made of unfinished poplar. He crafts his higher-end built-ins out of cherry finished with oil and varnish.

A typical wall unit consists of cabinets and shelves built around a fireplace or computer desk. He usually installs the units, typically 13 feet to 15 feet long, in the client's living room or den, occasionally a bedroom.

Barba's prices start at around $2,500 for a basic set of ready-to-paint poplar cabinets and shelves. Poplar is denser than pine, cheaper and doesn't gum up his equipment, he says. A finished cherry unit typically sells for about $6,000.

His customers are mostly "well-heeled middle-aged folks and up-and-coming younger people," he says. Built-ins are usually more profitable than furniture because his clients often haggle with him on furniture prices, but don't with built-ins.

Additionally, Barba says furniture prices are constrained by competition from high-end furniture stores. "You can't go to the local store to get a customized built-in," he says.

People would be better off spending their money on furniture, but many customers don't see it that way, he says. "One of the big mysteries of the market to me is the money people put into cabinetry," he says. "They might leave the house five years from now and never see it again. But with a piece of well-made furniture that will last forever and that they can hand down to their kids, they will 'nickel-and-dime' you."

While Barba takes pride in his built-in workmanship, he does not need to be as fussy as with fine furniture. For instance, he does not usually use old-fashioned joinery, except occasionally in old houses. "One reason that I can make built-ins cheaper than furniture is that the joinery is banged in with screws and nails and rabbeted ends. It doesn't need strength, because it is up against the wall," he says.

Barba tries to make all components in his shop and do the assembly on site. But with more complex jobs, he has to cut extensively on site. For instance, his biggest built-in job was a paneled cherry room with a wet bar, cabinets to hide a big-screen TV, plus other shelves and cabinets. The wall unit had a compound crown moulding of four pieces, including dentil moulding.

More recently, Barba was working on a garret bedroom with "weird angles" that made the job more challenging. The project included a computer desk, storage space, counters, a built-in bureau and a window seat that had to be fitted into the unusual space.

Crafting built-ins is more physically demanding, and that's another reason that Barba, who just turned 50, wants to eventually shift to full-time furniture making, he says.