Custom cabinetry, woodworking and woodturning by Keith Larrett
There are just a couple of days left for my Kickstarter campaign. If you would like the opportunity to get one of my Birdhouse Christmas Ornaments, click on the link below. To those who have already pledged, thank you for the support. I really appreciate it!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/syzygywoodworks/birdhouse-christmas-ornaments
This project was for a small but important area, the entrance area to my client’s home.
As you can see from the before and after pictures it really changed and completed the entrance area.
Inset doors with push to close hinges. Finished with custom tinted waterborne lacquer.
The cabinets were challenging to build due to their unusual shape. Lots of math made my head hurt 😀
I’ve launched a Kickstarter project!
I’ve been following Kickstarter for a number of years now and have often thought it would be neat to launch a project on Kickstarter. Well, once a year they run a Make 100 where the creator community of Kickstarter brings 100 of any work into the world and invite backers to support their one-of-a-kind—or at least one of 100—ideas. This year I decided to participate.
My plan is to make 100 of my Birdhouse Christmas Ornaments and offer them as rewards in order to secure funding via pledges. I plan on using the funding to purchase accessories for my ShopBot Tools, Inc CNC router. I want to purchase an extension for the machine which will allow me to do vertical milling and an indexer which will function similar to a lathe on the machine.
If you would like to support this project click on the link and it will take you to my Kickstarter page. It would also be great if you could help spread the word by sharing this post on your Facebook page.
I’ll be sure to keep you posted on my progress. Thanks very much!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/syzygywoodworks/birdhouse-christmas-ornaments?ref=ahljrl
I worked hard last month to get this project finished and installed before my client’s guests arrived for the holidays.
I was pleased with how well it turned out. The cabinets and floating shelves changed the look of the living room completely, while at the same time they looked like they were an integral part of the room.
Wall to wall cabinets and floating shelves. The speaker mesh and grill on the cabinet doors accommodate a large speaker in the cabinets. Inset doors with soft close hinges. Solid maple drawer boxes with full extension under-mount self-close guides. The floating shelves have dimmable LED lights on the underside which are controlled by a remote. Finally, a stem glass holder under one of the floating shelves will complement the dry bar area that the cabinet is designated for.
I got this project finished and installed for my client in time for the arrival of Thanksgiving guests.
The bunk beds were custom built to fit in this space. It was a tight fit that made good use of the space. The design also had to take into account a set of train tracks that enter the room at ceiling level and run around the room before exiting through another wall.
You can just imagine a young childs delight as they lay on the top bunk with a train passing by on the tracks overhead!
There is a video of the train in motion at the bottom of this post.
Yesterday was a big day with the delivery and set-up of this beautiful dining table. Everything went well and my client is delighted with the addition of this piece of furniture to his new home. I was thrilled with how good the table looked in the room. From the colors to the style and scale of the piece it just looked like it belonged where it was placed.
The table is made from solid oak and measures 13′ 6″ long x 42″ wide. It will comfortably seat 14 people, 16 if you don’t mind less elbow room. To maximize the seating my client requested only two sets of legs, so the span between the legs is ten feet and is supported by a single laminated beam. A long threaded rod runs through the center of the beam and ties the two sets of legs to the beam.
Some more fun facts about the table:
My client has a trailer repair business. The tabletop was made from the solid oak laminations that are used for the floor of 18 wheel trailers. The laminations come in sections 12″ wide by 24′ feet long by 1 1/4″ thick. I used a number of these to construct the tabletop. Using this material formed a good connection between my client’s business and his new home.
Oak weighs approximately 48 lbs/cubic foot. By my calculations, the tabletop weighs 325 lbs and the base weighs 235 lbs giving a total weight for the table of 560 lbs.
The table is on the second floor of the home and the only way into the room was through the double doors opening onto a balcony with railing. This was done without the use of any modern technology or machinery. A mobile set of stairs, a pickup truck, a step ladder, eight guys and some will power that far exceeded that of 325 lbs of oak and the tabletop was lifted into position in less than five minutes. Further proof that we often tend to overthink problems. Not that I can ever be accused of overthinking things 🙂
All of my projects seem to present a unique set of challenges and this project was no exception. From design to engineering to the logistics of dealing with a piece of this scale this project challenged me in many ways. I’m really pleased with how it all came together. It’s nice to think of all the warm memories, good food, wine and conversation this table will be a part of for many years to come.
“How do you eat an elephant?”
“One bite at a time”
When I was first asked to build this dining table I realized the only way I was going to get it done was by tackling it “one bite at a time”. I’m nearing the end of the project and that has proven to be true as the project has been a sequence of solving one problem after another.
Eight feet is a pretty standard, although not small, dimension in woodworking. At 13′ 6″ x 42″ this dining table exceeds that by a lot. It’s amazing how things get exponentially more complicated and difficult the bigger the project. Further complicating things, my client did not want any legs in the center of the table, so there would be a span of 10 feet between the supports.
I’ve had to build the table in three different workshops. The bases I’ve built in my workshop. A friend and fellow woodworker, Andrei Zborovski of Avrora Inc. helped me build the 10-foot support beam using his veneer press. Finally, the good folks next door Furniture Medic very kindly lent me some space in their workshop to build and assemble the tabletop. I could not have done this project without the help of these two businesses and feel very fortunate to have had their help.
As so often seems to happen, my client is truly wonderful and his enthusiasm and can-do attitude have been a huge help with this project. I’ve said it before and it still holds true, I’ve been so fortunate with all the amazing clients I’ve had over the years.
The picture shows the stain being applied to the tabletop. (Woodworker is shown for scale.) I’m hoping to deliver the dining table towards the end of next week. Which raises another problem. The room it goes into is on the second floor and the only way to get the table into the room is through the window. As I said earlier, it’s a case of solving one problem after another. Wish me luck!
I was excited about this project from the first inquiry. A large bookcase with a library ladder! How cool is that?
Ten feet wide by just under ten feet tall this bookcase will provide space for a library of books and decorative items. The ladder provides both functionality and a conversation piece.
Built for a client of designer Lori Taylor at Trends Home Decor Inc.
Finished with Target Coatings, Inc.EM6500 waterborne pigmented lacquer.
All moldings were made in-house on my Williams & Hussey Machine molding machine.
The Quiet Glide Rolling Ladder is from Van Dyke’s Restorers
Fireplace surround with shelves for stereo equipment.
I built and installed this piece earlier this summer. My clients had done a lot of work remodeling the interior of their home and this fireplace was the final piece of the puzzle. The work they had done really opened up the interior of the house and the fireplace along with hanging the television above the mantle, framed by the large windows overlooking a canal gave a great focal point to this room.
