another restored display case

as the work on the jj hapgood store in peru is wrapping up, i felt it was time to finish up the cases that were rescued from the original store that have been 'resting' in the finish room since july.  i must admit i was ignoring them a bit cause i wasn't sure what would be involved in getting them to look good enough to go in the new store, which is going to be spectacular.  the photo above is the closest thing to a 'before' shot i have, but when i say it was an awful looking thing, you'll have to believe me.  under the sliding shelf was a half inch of some white powder that might have been baking soda, and under that was some interesting mold.  the rotating shelf had a 1/2" hump in it and, well you can see the case door in the photo above.  click the photos to enlarge them ..

 

 the top of the case had a large, sort of scummy spot, that required us to strip it and restain and refinish it.  in fact, quite a bit of scrubbing and restaining on all the parts was involved.

 

 the wavy glass, however was all there and is unbelievably spectacular. 

 both cases in fact, have fantastic glass.

 this photo shows the hardware that pulls the shelf out as the door is opened .. 

simple, and extremely clever.

 the shelf rides on v grooves and is trapped by the runners (b) below, and drops into an opening in the tracks (a) and there is a stop on the front of the shelf at (c) that stops the door and keeps i level.  although we didn't have to disassemble this one, the whole design is screwed together, i assume for ease of both original construction and later repairs. 

    nice piece!!

and for pete's pizza oven at the store, sam made the door below, using a graphic from the website.

all good ... 

Furniture Making and Interior Design

let us now talk about interior design and furniture making. they are related .... i have always thought them to be separate disciplines, but in looking through my 'on site photos' folder recently, i realized that making a piece of furniture, particularly a piece for a particular client, for a particular spot, with their design input, is more than furniture making. if you get it right, not only have you manifested their vision, but you have created for them a 'special place', a place where they too can see 'their vision'. powerful stuff, when you think about it .... so, that said, i will be adding a new category to my blog, interior design, where occasionally i will post a few photos of successful collaborations that i feel meet the criteria above. like the sideboard above, some are from my own home, where the realization began; others from my local clients' homes.

click the photos to enlarge them ...this is one of my favorite before and after rooms ... the challenge was to take a little used guest room/fly tying spot and turn it into a husband and wife home office/fly tying spot ... lots of conversations, lots of drawings, lots of changes ...  before above ...

after

we did, in the end, receive a couple of design awards for this one ...