At the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), they have a display, (a small room, actually / maybe 10′x10′?) inside of which are the reconstructed walls and ceiling treatments of a highly-figured room that must originally have come from a palace, castle, royal estate, whatever… (15th, 16th century?)
As you can see I’m guessing here… because I have these photos I took when I was there but I can’t recall the description written on the placard sitting adjacent to the ‘rooms’ entrance. (I’ll get this info when I re-visit and edit the post.)
Anyway…
I wanted you to see (what must have been) a monstrous amount of work AND a great deal of time from planning through finish.
I can’t imagine what it was like to dedicate yourself to such a project nor how satisfying it must have been when it came together.
The pictures speak for themselves…
corner where walls meet ceiling
ceiling's center
At the time this was made, there were no power tools… so you can only imagine the sheer volume of hand carving involved.
Our client’s family (two adults and three children) wanted a room in which all their different activities could take place. Their TV and stereo components, video games, the computer(s), the home’s business area, library shelving and additional storage (for all those small things that would clutter every surface if not put away)… were all incorporated into the plans for these built in cabinets… Our plan was to create a room that had a place for everything and look great at the same time.
Although they wanted built-ins that were richly appointed, they expressed their wish to maintain the appearance of ‘hand wrought’ craftsmanship. I knew they didn’t want ‘rustic’, but I felt that perfectly straight-grained, ‘select’ boards and veneers wouldn’t portray enough character for their tastes.
So… we decided use cherry but made sure to include some great looking imperfections, so you might get a sense of the actual trees from which this furniture was made.
I’ve included my renderings so you can appreciate how our plans became realized.
where the children do their homework
her antique desk sits in front of this piece that has 5 hanging-file drawers
Although labor intensive, the right details make a world of difference.
full beading on vertical corners, side walls paneled
create a thicker counter top with a routed profile
We’ve done many built-ins that were difficult to get a good picture of…
…and there are some that just seem to be made for it.
click on this master shot for full screen / it's crystal clear, 4,368 pixels wide
With smart design, honest craftsmanship… and a great client… it’s hard to go wrong.
We had worked with this client before on numerous projects. They had an apartment in Manhattan as well as their country home, a nearly 200 year old farm house they had been renovating slowly but surely since they bought the place ten years ago.
When they called asking about our building a bar for them, I figured it was that basic, finished basement bar we’d made for clients a dozen times before.
However, when I arrived, they showed me a small closet with a standard door (30X80) and suggested that, perhaps, the bar could fit inside the closet w/o any modification to the size of the opening. I was still scratching my head when they went on to show me a series of pictures of an antique, Deco-style bar. A small unit, (on wheels) they had found for their apartment in the city.
He loved this bar because, upon first inspection, it was all enclosed, but as you opened the front panel, which hinged outward and down, three things happened. First, the panel opened only 90 degrees so it’s back face acted became the surface to prepare cocktails on. Secondly, a clever arrangement of brass arms automatically lifted away the unit’s ceiling AND thirdly, also caused a tray of a dozen glasses to rise up and outward towards, what I’d imagined was, the tuxedoed host, serving his guests in some old, 1930’s movie. It was a very cool, old bar.
Right after their explanation and photos, they looked over at me and simply smiled. Following an uncomfortable silence, I said “aah… sure! We can do that”.
Driving back to the shop, I thought of what might reasonably be done w/o subcontracting a machinist, mechanical engineer… and perhaps, a therapist.
It had to store SO many things… 40 bottles of liquor & wine, shot glasses, scotch tumblers, wine glasses AND… a wine cooler (and the stereo distribution amplifiers for the whole house that sat inside this closet already)
I positioned the serving section half way up the opening (at standard working height) and let the above and below areas handle the storage for all the bottles and the cooler.
I envisioned a means of having the tray of glasses come out towards you as you opened the bar’s door panel.
They liked the design and trusted us to figure out the mechanism. So we began.
What was so great about their antique bar was how tightly everything fit inside when it was closed, but how easy to get to it all when open. The movement was relatively simple, but there were a number of requirements for this contraption. How far would the tray move when the door was opened? Would it miss the wine glasses hanging from it’s ceiling? The swing-down door was to have a mirror on it’s back side to act as a counter top to mix drinks on… which made it heavy. I found some adjustable tension, brass flap stays to ‘cushion’ the door from slamming into it’s open position (held at 90 degrees). I knew we had to build an operating model (wooden prototype) before committing to the actual construction.. Here is my cellphone’s video of the mock-up.
We adjusted arm lengths, pivot points and the amount of tension until we liked how the mechanism moved. I ordered 1/8″ x 3/4″ brass bar stock to make our arms. It was soft enough to be a pleasure to work with.
Next we designed a handsome, functional tray for all the glasses… in mahogany with thick, ebony inlays. My son (always eager to do finer, more intricate work) volunteered.
We created three tiers for glasses. Each glass sat within it’s own recessed circle, lined with felt. We made decorative side walls left, right and across back.
A brass lamp was mounted above. It illuminated when the door was opened. Here’s how the tray looked following it’s lacquer finish.
Because the closet’s interior had more room to the right of the doorway, we needed to create an extension that had to be removable during installation. The lower shelf configuration was also removable to allow access to the audio distribution system..
The wine cooler required ventilation… and with no other way to circulate air other than through the front, I suggested these little ‘jail house’ doors. This picture is from another project done a few year back.
We’ve done a number of projects for them (four of which are in a single room). Here is a short video of that room after all was completed.
My youngest son (Brian) likes making intricate furniture as much, if not more than, the larger projects we do. He recently created an end table w/ a small inlay for us and we took a few pics of the various stages of production. This work is historically referred to as marquetry.
Like all design work, it starts with a drawing
then he created his bird from 1/8th inch maple then he used the bird cut out to mark exactly the size and shape of the area to be removed on the table top the router is used to create the inset area he made the bird’s beak from a naturally red-colored wood called Paduak inlay prior to finish coat here is a detail of the drawer within the skirt hand-rubbed oil finished with a urethane top coat I began to think of how great one of these inlays would look as a small ‘signature’ on one of the doors or drawer fronts in a kitchen or entertainment unit. A rosette made from a contrasting wood could also make a piece richer
this is a pair of doors I made many years ago for a client using what is known as marquetry inlay banding. It seems that the possibilities for cabinet and furniture makers are endless
This is the same client (friends, actually) for whom we constructed an exterior door (see oldest post here- ‘A Castle’s Exterior Door’… at the bottom of the page).
Anyway, this stone house was built over 75 years ago and we believed the old tongue and groove pine was original. Nice old wood but it made the living room a bit gloomy and she wanted to brighten and ‘clean up’ the look. They wanted to keep the stone fireplace and redo everything else.
We designed low shelving for that wall, the wall to it’s left and included a place for cord wood ‘waiting it’s turn’ to heat the house. It was a bit pricey so we eliminated the shelves returning on the left wall and… got to work.
The paneling was removed to expose the studs, the walls sheet-rocked, the stonework re-chinked, floors sanded / urethaned and the walls painted before installing the bookshelves.
We installed all the finish woodwork including some wider molding for the windows (more ‘old-world’ look to work with the stone). All painted white for a nice contrast. I fabricated some thick, oak, quarter round molding for the hearth’s edge as it sat 2″ above the floorRather than build the whole cabinet deeper, I elected to simply extend the floor of the cord wood opening. We protected it’s interior by lining it (floor, walls, ceiling and back) with sheet metal. I’m interested to see how this will stand the test of time.
I usually like the look of very old wood but it’s not quite so special when everywhere you look, you see nothing but walls of dark wood. I think this room is vastly improved… as our friends, all along, believed it would be.
