Last week I traveled across the state to the west coast of Florida to install a project.
While there I got the opportunity to revisit a pair of vanities I had built and installed for the same client a month prior. It was wonderful to see the vanities in the completed bathrooms. I don’t often get the opportunity to do so. It was good to see them again and to see how nice they looked in the finished rooms.
The vanities are built from quarter-sawn white oak, both solid and veneer. The feet were hand-turned on my lathe. Inset doors with beaded trim.
When I was still installing cabinets in new construction a number of years ago, I would often look at the niche openings that seemed to be in every living room and think to myself, “I wonder if someone could make a living building stuff to fill those holes?”
Well, here we are.
This TV area with lots of storage was custom built to fill a particularly large niche opening. The panel behind the TV was decorated with faux tin tile and I turned handles from some wood supplied by my customer that had sentimental value. I think the wood was cholla cactus, but I could be mistaken.
Lots of storage, lots of display area, a nice surround for the TV. A perfect transformation from what was just a large hole to a beautiful, functional piece.
I spend a lot of my spare time, you know, the hours between 3 am and 6 am, at the computer drawing up designs. These renderings are an important part of my process for a number of reasons.
First, it allows my client to see that I understand what they are looking for in the layout and design.
Secondly, it shows the piece in a virtual room drawn to reflect the actual room the piece will be installed.
Third, once drawn, changes and revisions are so much easier and cheaper to implement in the software compared to once the cutting starts in the workshop.
Fourth, the visual representation gives both myself and my client an idea as to how the various parts work together from both a practical and design view and how the proportions of each part relate to each other.
Lastly, it allows me to figure out the engineering behind the design. How, the parts will all fit together, what is possible given the limitations of my experience and the tools and equipment available to me, as well as which of those limits can be pushed.
That said, here are some renderings of projects I’ve built as well as some upcoming projects.
A large furniture store, no prizes for guessing which one, was having trouble keeping some inventory in stock due to Covid. While working on a project for a client, they asked if I could also build a cubby organizer and a desktop to their design. I really like the flowing curves and shape of the desk.
This project started out as more and more of my projects do lately. My client sent me an inspiration image asking if I could build something similar. I replied yes and then set about figuring out how I was going to do it. A couple of revisions later we finalized the design and all that needed to be done was bring it into reality.
The vanities are six feet wide with no shortage of drawer space. They are made from quarter sawn white oak veneer and solid wood. The veneer pattern across the drawer fronts is “slip and spin” and the grain flows across the drawer fronts both horizontally and vertically. Miter joints on the cabinet stiles ensure the grain wraps around from the front to the side panels.
The drawer fronts have an integrated pull so the grain pattern is not interrupted with any metal pulls or knobs. The drawer guides are under-mount full extension soft close. The center drawer box is u-shaped to allow for the drain pipe and the two middle drawer boxes are reduced depth to allow room for the supply lines to the sink.
Last but not least, the cabinets are finished with a clear coat of Target Coatings waterborne conversion varnish with a flat sheen.
I delivered this bookcase last week. Built from quarter sawn white oak the design is a combination of two images my client sent to me.
The back of the bookcase is a shiplap. My first time doing shiplap and I really like the effect. I got the idea for the pulls a number of years ago and have been waiting for the opportunity to include them in a project.
I built and installed a TV/Fireplace Surround similar to this just over a year ago. My client was visiting a friend and saw the piece. She called me and asked if I could build her the same piece for her new home. We changed the size of the piece slightly, the stone/tile selection, and mantle color to suit her living room better, and this is the result, installed earlier this week.
I don’t often get to build the same design twice, but I’m really glad for this opportunity. I’ve always liked this design and was very pleased with how it came out and how great it looks in her living room.
This is a pair of 60″ vanities I recently finished. They are made from rift sawn white oak and feature reeded doors with beaded molding. The drawer boxes are solid maple with self-close, full-extension, under-mount drawer guides. The door hinges are soft close. I worked with my client through five revisions of the design and it was fascinating to see how the design developed and improved with subtle changes from one version to the next. The cabinets will be finished by another and after that, I will install them in my client’s newly remodeled home
Easily the most challenging doors I’ve built! There were many steps in the process of making these doors and each one had to be done with a high degree of accuracy. Rift sawn white oak was first resawn into 3 1/4″ wide x 5/16″ thick strips. These were then laminated to form a sandwich with 1/4″ MDF in the center. The strips were then cut to exactly 3″ wide and run through my molding machine to profile the reeding. Lastly, the strips were glued together into a panel, cut to size and the beaded molding applied.
A very challenging build and incredibly satisfying to see the completed vanities.
Over 12 feet wide and nearly ten feet tall, this wall media unit is one of my biggest projects to date. It is built from quartersawn sycamore and book-matched figured sycamore veneer. The walnut countertop, baseboard, and pulls add some contrast to the beautiful sycamore.
One of the challenges of this project was accommodating all the audio equipment and speakers as well as ensuring access between the various cabinets to run all the wiring. I was pretty nervous about this all coming together during the installation of the unit, but fortunately, my client knew exactly how everything needed to be wired and took care of it while we were installing the cabinets. Amazingly enough, everything worked on the first try as well, a rarity in my experience with entertainment centers!
The unit features inset doors with soft close hinges, solid maple drawer boxes with self-close full extension under-mount drawer guides, custom walnut pulls, glass display shelves, LED lighting, and cove crown molding made in house.
