Take off your shoes....

This week I've started a new commission for a combination shoe storage/household organization cabinet. It will be placed near the client's garage entry door, and combines a shoe storage box with an upholstered seat, and a cabinet for briefcases, mail, and the like. Its made of mahogany, maple and wenge. In the coming weeks I'll post in-progress photos to show how its made. Here's the concept drawing...

Coming to a bookstore near you ....

Coming this summer I will have a piece in a new Lark Publishing book titled "500 Cabinets". This is the latest in Lark's "500" series of books. Formerly, I have had my original designs appear in their "500 Tables" and "500 Chairs" books. My work can also be seen in Taunton Press's "Design Book Eight", which came out last year.

A Place for Everything....

This past week I finally finished the closet system I designed as part of our master bath remodel. I have to credit our friend Shannon Kaye, of DIY Network fame, with the inspiration for this. We started out with a basic builder's closet that had been covered by a full width curtain (which replaced the '70s mirrored sliding doors it started with). But as part of a reconfiguration for remodeling the master bath, the closet was moved a couple of feet and reduced in width by a foot. The big dilemma was what to do with the eight foot tall closet to give complete access without having to put back another set of massive doors. When Shannon was here giving us paint color advice we were talking about it and she suggested we make more of a multi-function built-in rather than a traditional style closet. That turned out to be just the creative spark we needed. The real key to making this design work is the wardrobe pull-down hardware from Halefe - it allows hanger rods to be placed far up at the top of the space which would normally be way out of reach, and then swing down for easy access. That allowed room for lots of drawer space underneath. Other features include a pull-out ironing board (also from Hafele) and slide-out pants hanging rod which was built on site.

"Before".....

The completed design ...

Some of the features ..... slide out pant hanger (L), pullout ironing board (M), and wardrobe pull-down (R).

The Finished Bench

Well, after a few coats of oil/varnish mixture and some good furniture wax, the bench looks pretty good. Now it goes to the client to help them welcome guests as they enter their home. I hope they like it.

The bench is progressing ...

.... quite nicely. Here's the base assembled and waiting for finishing.

Happily, after a lot more searching around than I expected to have to do, I found a great board set for the seat at Northwest Timber in Oregon. After refining the shape of the MDF seat template, it was used to shape the seat blank.

A Welcoming Bench for an Entryway

Last week I was able to get started on an entry bench for a couple I met at the Marin Arts Festival last summer.

Here's the design .... it has tapered, curved mahogany legs, an organically shaped wenge stretcher, and a slightly curved figured maple seat.

The shape of the legs is achieved by a technique called coopering. In coopering, the edges of the billets (i.e., sticks) that make up the leg are beveled an both sides before they are edge glued, which results in a curved surface. In this case, to get the fan effect, the billets are both beveled and tapered. To make milling easier I made a dedicated table saw jig that cuts both the taper and the bevel at the same time.

The coopering involved two steps - after the billets were beveled and tapered, a dadoe was plowed along the length of each edge so that when edge-joined a space for splines was created. The splines help maintain alignment and add glue surface for strength.

The curved stretcher was laminated from 1/8" thick solid wenge over a plywood bending form.

Here are the three parts of the base before fairing and final shaping.

Santa Cruz Woodworkers Exhibition

Just in time for tonight's First Friday Art Tour, today the Santa Cruz Woodworkers freshened up our display of handmade custom fine furniture and woodwork in downtown Santa Cruz, CA. The exhibit is in the windows of a newly built, but not yet occupied, commercial building at the corner of Pacific Avenue and Church Street in the heart of Santa Cruz's downtown shopping district. The exhibit has been up since early December and will continue through January, and possibly beyond. If you're in the Santa Cruz area, please take some time to stop by and check it out - you won't be disappointed.

The Santa Cruz Woodworkers is a collaboration of professionals dedicated to fostering appreciation for locally-produced, one-of-a-kind, handmade woodwork. We thank the Rittenhouse family, the building's owners, for supporting the local arts community by allowing us use of the space.