Syzygy Woodworks

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.

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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.

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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.

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If you’ve been following my stories, you would have seen that the project I’m working on is built from sycamore with accents of walnut. Outside of woodturning, this is the first opportunity I’ve had to work with sycamore. I’m hoping it won’t be the last! There are certain woods that are just a joy to work with. They machine well and are beautiful once finished. For me, cherry, maple, walnut, and alder are all domestic woods that fall into this category. I’m going to add sycamore to the list now.

The panels are book-matched figured sycamore veneer and the solid wood is quarter sawn sycamore. The rendering shows the wall media unit I’m working on. About 12′ wide by 9 1/2′ high.

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Renderings have always been an integral part of my process. It’s important to show my client that I understand what they are looking for and to show them what the finished product will look like when built.

I’ve mainly used my cabinet software, eCabinets, to do this and it has served me well. After installing a project I’ve often been told that it looks just like the rendering.

However, it has limitations. The vanity shown here is a good example as it has custom doors and feet that I can’t show in Cabinets. In cases like this I often turn to SketchUp.
I’ve dabbled with SketchUp over the years, using the free version. A couple of years ago they switched the free version to an online model and I found it slow and cumbersome. As I’m finding myself using SketchUp more frequently I purchased a subscription to the Pro version, a desktop model.

Along with this came Layout which allows me to import the SketchUp model and prepare a presentation for my client. I’m far from being a guru with either program, but I’m getting to a place where I feel I can communicate to my client what the project will look like and how it will reflect their vision of the project.

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The sloped ceiling in this attic space made for a challenging project. Enough math to make my head hurt. By making sloped tops for the upper cabinets I was able to maximize the storage space.

The entire room along with an adjacent bathroom was remodeled, my part was just the cabinetry. The vanity cabinet I built had an interesting design specified, a reverse frame, with the drawer at the bottom of the cabinet.

The area was originally intended as a study space in a kid’s room, however, it has been temporarily taken over by the homeowner as he is working from home due to the lockdown.

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I got a branding iron with my logo. This is the first project I’ve used it on I still need to fine-tune using it, but I’m pleased with the results so far.

A pair of corner cabinets built from solid alder. A challenging project as I am more accustomed to cabinetry compared to furniture, but I was very pleased with how they came out.
These were built for a client who I have done a number of jobs over the last couple of years.

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A countertop for a window bench seat and an open shelf wall end cabinet.  Two small jobs I picked up while providing an estimate for a TV/fireplace surround.  Both replacement pieces from a recent kitchen remodel by another company that my client was not happy with.

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Work in progress shots of a pair of hutch style corner cabinets I am working on. Although these have been considerably more work than I was anticipating, I’m thrilled with how they are coming along.

They are built from alder, a beautiful wood which I really enjoy working with. I just have to make the crown molding and baseboard, and then I will dismantle the cabinets to stain and finish them.

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