Keenan Spiegel has been interested in tinkering for as long as he can remember. “From a very young age, I liked seeing how things worked,” the founder/owner of Westport Woodworks says. “If my family was getting rid of a TV, I would take it apart.” His curiosity was stoked by his father, a residential carpenter, who taught Keenan a respect for tools and how to envision and frame houses.
“By the time I was four or five, I was on-site with him, being around construction. I remember getting my first saw and my first screw gun,” he says. “My dad would have scrap wood around and I’d build downhill racers.”
Keenan didn’t intend to follow in his father’s footsteps: he headed off to Marist College, majoring in business management and working at two investment banks before the pandemic hit. During Covid, Keenan turned his attention to his fixer-upper home and his growing family that now includes three sons, ages 6, 3, and 20 months, and his 20-month-old daughter (yes, the youngest two are twins). Working from home allowed him to retreat to his garage, indulging in his old love of woodworking. At first, he was building custom furniture and cabinetry for his home and friends. As the creativity flowed, he designed 14-foot-high honeycombed bookshelves and innovative storage solutions to hug circular walls for a growing list of clients, who appreciated his skill.
While he loved it, the schedule was intense: he’d get up at 3 a.m. to tinker on his projects, take a 6:30 a.m. break for breakfast with the kids, and then juggle a full day at Morgan Stanley. “At some point,” he says, “I realized I was never going back to investment banking.” And his latest “baby,” Westport Woodworks, was born.
With four little ones clamoring for space around the house, Keenan crafted a kid-sized Adirondack chair he built for clients and advertised on his website. The seat took off, appearing in a segment on NBC’s “Today Show,” and giving Keenan inspiration for a new business focus.
“I like to be creative, and I like to foster that in my kids,” he says.
Sometimes that means letting children’s imaginations run wild—like when his kids convinced him to design what became a 20-foot-long pirate-ship-slash-sandbox, or when he gets to work on his favorite side gig – fulfilling fantasies for children through the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Yes, many seriously ill children ask to meet a celebrity or travel to Disney World, but Keenan says plenty of kids ask for something closer to home— say, a unique backyard play area. In fact, just two hours after Keenan inquired about volunteer opportunities with Make-a-Wish, he was in contact with a girl who wanted a clubhouse at her house in Darien. Ever the overachiever, Keenan created a 400-square-foot dream home with working electricity and an art studio.
While building it, he invited his kids along to see the progress and help out, much as his dad had let him tag along. “They were learning what it meant to give back and help someone,” he says.
Since then, Keenan has designed and constructed a two-story backyard concession stand and announcer’s box for a Stratford three-year-old with cancer so he can enjoy baseball games with his five siblings. The first floor is shaped like a baseball, topped by a 14-foot-wide baseball cap with a seven-foot brim that opens where the boy can see and call the action.
The 35-foot pirate ship at the Make-a-Wish headquarters in Trumbull is also a Westport Woodworks creation. "I tend to go a little crazy with these things,” says Keenan with a laugh. “We are so grateful to Keenan for using his incredible talents to bring wishes to life for our wish kids,” says Kristen Moran, director of marketing and communications at Make-a-Wish Foundation. “He helps give children hope and joy when they need it most.”
In addition to his volunteer building, Keenan has honed his skills for homeowners across Connecticut. He designed a Litchfield geodome for stargazing and an endless stream of mudroom built-ins, pantries, kitchen islands, custom closets, vanities, and outdoor decks.
He loves envisioning how his clients will enjoy the pieces for years to come. One example: a kitchen island that he says will be “a place so many developmental things happen for this family. You can do anything for a paycheck, but this is helping other families spend quality time and make memories.”
The best part, he says, is it allows him to pass down skills and the thrill of creation to his own children.
“When they’re making s’mores and they pull up a chair that they built, they’re always proud,” he says. “When you build something with your kids, they sit on it, use it, and interact with it. There’s no greater sense of self-fulfillment.”
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“At some point,” says Keenan, “I realized I was never going back to investment banking.”