Editorial LeadPortland, Oregon, USA

Silas Calder

Silas Calder is the DIY & Woodworking Editor for The Nestiora, writing about carpentry, timber and structural work in the order it actually has to be done.

Title:: Lead DIY & Woodworking Editor
Location:: Portland, Oregon, USA
Expertise:: Custom cabinetry, timber framing, power tool safety, structural home repairs, and accessible woodworking.

“A good build starts long before the first cut. Measure twice, plan your safety gear, and the rest is just following the blueprint.”

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Highlights

Writes on carpentry, timber framing, built-ins and structural repair
Focuses on sequence — what has to happen before what, and why
Flags the cuts and calls that cannot be undone later
Prefers honest tool and material costs over contractor mystique

Experience

Silas writes from the trades side of home improvement rather than the design side. His guides are organised the way a build is: what has to be decided first, what can be changed later, and which step quietly determines the cost of the three that follow.

At The Nestiora he covers carpentry, timber framing, built-ins and structural repair, with an emphasis on workshop safety, tool ergonomics and durable joinery. He is more interested in telling a reader which job to leave to a professional than in pretending every project is a weekend away.

Background

Silas came up through residential carpentry rather than a design studio, which is why his guides start with sequence and safety instead of styling. He writes about the order operations have to happen in, the cuts that cannot be undone, and the places homeowners reliably get stuck.

Areas of Expertise

Custom CabinetryTimber FramingPower Tool SafetyHardwood Floor RestorationStructural Home RepairsTrim Carpentry

About The Nestiora

The Nestiora is an independent home journal dedicated to thoughtful decor, accessible woodworking, and slow gardening. We believe that trustworthy home advice comes from real experience in real rooms—not stylized showroom sets staged for a single photograph.

Learn more about our team and our editorial process, and our commitment to ensuring we provide you with the most trustworthy advice verified by certified experts on our Home Improvement Review Board and Gardening & Plant Care Review Board.

Guides & Articles by Silas Calder

33 Guides Published

Black A-frame cabin with a steep roof standing among tall redwood trees

Home Exterior

Timber Fails Slowly, Then All at Once

A cabin is a maintenance contract disguised as a woodland getaway. Timber walls need stain on schedule, metal above, and clear air on all sides. These seven exteriors show the contract working, with real costs and cycles.

8 min read24 Sept 2026

Cedar shingle colonial house with a flag and a clipped boxwood hedge along the front

Home Exterior

Cedar Is Neutral, So the Garden Decides

Grey cedar is a neutral, so planting, door, and drive decide whether the house sings. These twelve cottages show what to paint, plant, and lay in front of shingle. Nothing here asks you to touch the cladding itself.

12 min read24 Sept 2026

Black glazed front door with a matching black frame set in white shingle siding

Home Exterior

Your Black Front Door Needs a Black Frame

A black door in a white frame reads as a hole in the wall, which is why so many look cheaper than the paint cost. Painting the casing, the stops and the edges in the same black turns the whole opening into one deliberate shape. Then choose a satin exterior finish, because flat chalks and gloss shows every flaw.

16 min read20 Sept 2026

Cream townhouse with dark brown louvered shutters, shutter dogs and matching window boxes

Home Exterior

Most Black Shutters Are Not Actually Black

The shutters people save are usually dark brown or bronze rather than true black, which is why copying them in jet black looks harsh. Off-blacks hold depth against cream and brick. Fit hinges and shutter dogs, or they read as panels screwed to the wall.

12 min read20 Sept 2026

Pale grey-blue Dutch door set deep under an arched portico on a cream clapboard house

Home Exterior

Pale Blue Doors Need a Sheltered Opening

Soft grey-blues are the least durable colours on a door and fade visibly on an exposed south-facing one. Under a deep portico the same colour lasts for years. Match the blue to the wall too, because a shade that sits on cream fights red brick.

18 min read20 Sept 2026

White farmhouse using board and batten on the gable volumes and clapboard on the link between them

Home Exterior

Board and Batten Reads Barn, Clapboard Reads House

Vertical board and batten reads agricultural; horizontal clapboard reads domestic. Using each on different volumes makes one large building read as a collection of smaller ones. Both need a ventilated cavity behind them, and that is the detail people skip.

12 min read20 Sept 2026

Covered porch with a brick paver floor, vaulted boarded ceiling and hanging lanterns

Home Exterior

Use Pavers, Not Bricks, On a Porch Floor

Facing bricks are made for walls and are not frost-rated for ground contact, so they spall within a few winters when laid underfoot. Clay pavers look almost identical and are made for the job. Lay them to a fall away from the house, on a proper sub-base, or the porch will move whatever the brick is.

13 min read20 Sept 2026

Red brick Georgian farmhouse with white sash windows and a brick herringbone path

Home Exterior

The Repointing Mistake That Ruins Old Brick

Cement pointing on soft old brick traps moisture and blows the face off the bricks, which is expensive and permanent. Lime mortar lets the wall dry and is the single most important decision on any pre-war brick house. Everything visual, from joinery colour to the path, follows the brick rather than the other way round.

12 min read20 Sept 2026

Colonial saltbox clad in cedar shingles weathering unevenly to silver and tan

Home Exterior

Shake or Shingle? You Are Comparing the Wrong Thing

Shakes are split and rough; shingles are sawn and flat, and the choice mostly changes how the wall reads from the street. The expensive decision is the finish, because natural weathering is uneven and permanent while stain commits you to recoating forever. Decide the finish before you order the cedar.

17 min read20 Sept 2026

Cedar shingle house with crisp white window trim and rake boards against weathering shingle

Home Exterior

Cedar Shingle Has No Edges Without the Trim

Shingle is soft and irregular, so a house clad in it reads as shapeless unless crisp joinery gives it corners and openings. The trim does the drawing; the shingle fills in. Fine sections and a deliberate corner detail decide whether it looks built or bought.

12 min read20 Sept 2026

Silas Calder

Highlights

Experience

Background

Areas of Expertise

About The Nestiora