the cherry bedroom piece

so how did we get from the sketch above ..

 to the piece we installed last tuesday ?  well, ill tell you, it didnt happen overnight.  click the photos to enlarge them ..

we started with this photo that was actually taken, i am surprised to note, on the 5th of february, 2013.

from that photo i made the collage above in photoshop, and though i cant find them now, i sketched four different concepts, from which i made the four slightly different cad drawings below.

and the winner is ...

  this one .. that was all fine and good to go and we had a deposit and we ordered the wood, and then ... another more time sensitive opportunity presented itself to us

at that time, my bedroom clients were in the process of raising their coastal connecticutt house that had been flooded by hurricane sandy 7 feet and doing a total remodel of that property, so they allowed to do a quick painted kitchen at another local house, and before we knew it that quick painted kitchen became about 5 months work.  so, in late october, we finally got around to using the cherry we bought back in march and got this project underway.  the original intent was a kind of shaker piece with minimalist details, but as we went on we had some consultations and added some detailing based loosely on this sideboard and a some of the other pieces we had created for the clients in the past.

 so on we went, adding details to the verticals of the face frames, an edge inlay on the main counter, borders on the drawer faces, custom cast drawer pulls, and paneled case ends.  that all took a minute.

ready for finish below

 until we finally arrived at last monday, the photo below, and the day before the installation when all the finished parts had to be finally glued and applied to the cases, final assembled and then 

disassembled yet again, and loaded into the van and the truck and carried up a flight of steps 

to be installed at the clients home.

 we had done a preinstallation level check and the room was remarkably level plumb square and true and we were able to move through the installation and clean up in a remarkably short amount of time.  all in, all done ... great project ... incredibly patient clients ... glad to have our shop back ...

Read more

a walnut table with leaves

 with aits rich walnut stain and finish .. shoot! i forgot to dust it before the photos.

3/25  .. on its way to vegas now

click the photos to enlarge them ...

 this table started with an inquiry from a client about a mid-century modern style table.

she sent us the photo above from an antique dealers website and asked us to 

size it to suit the needs of her and her family and stain it a rich chocolaty brown.

which led to the cad drawing above and the stack of nice wide walnut from irion lumber below.

we didnt think we wanted our base frames so close to the edge of the table as

in the original photo, so we made a couple sample panels from mdf ..

looking for that goldilocks moment .. just right, above

too small on the left, too big on the right ..

and because, in the end, we decided on three leaves, we had to add the frame you see

above to support the moin runners and stabilize the base.  if you look closely (click

the photo to enlarge it), you can also see we added some arced rails that are not visible

when the top is on but stiffen the base elements considerably when the table is opened.  

not a lot of structure to this design, but its going to be fine.  no dancing out on the ends ...

all good in this photo, except for the apron. trevor has got it in the finish room now with all the stain

and the first coat of finish on it today .. wont be long now ...

Read more