update 10/31 ... we're on the home stretch on this project now. we'll be delivering the sideboard and table today and the 8 chairs later in the week. coincidentally, we have another dining room coming up next. an oval table (52 x 86), 8 chairs and a corner cupboard ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
the 8 chairs before the arms and the finishing ..
here we have our 'arm adding process'. essentially, we use the mdf too keep the arm blanks parallel to the seat rails until we can do the joinery and the final shaping
the completed armchairs ...
10/16 ... on our website you can see a type of furniture we refer to as our
'studio style', which could also be thought of as a 'signature' or 'default' style ... the kind of stuff we have made for 25 years for many clients and for our own home. it design nidea originated with a client who spent some time in germany and commissioned us to build
a custom desk for her like the furniture she saw when she lived there. i later came to understand that what she was describing to me was actually furniture in the
biedermeier style. that was in 1986, before
one of the definitive books on the style was published about 1992 and, believe it or not, before the internet and google even. so we kind of made it up on our own. these pieces are direct descendants of that german and austrian idea from the mid 1800's. must have been in my german blood. click the photos to enlarge them.
the construction process for these designs requires first building the piece and then completely disassembling it for the painting and varnishing. the pieces above are for the sideboard that is part of this commission. it is identical to one in my own home except that the center detail will be part of an oval instead of the angled geometric one in the photo below.
loyal readers have probably seen this one before ...
here's how it goes ... in the early stages, all the details are left flat so they can be registered with each other and then the shadows and bevels are cut when the individual pieces are disassembled for painting and finishing ...
at this point, nothing is glued, though the web frames are screwed to the insides of the face pieces, and the piece is completely rigid.
we leave the lower rail element uncut at this time too ... and then the drawer faces and the central element are fitted tightly in the holes. the final fitting happens after the case is finished and glued up ...
dovetail time ...
pulls and more finish tomorrow ...
the palette for this project is natural cherry and curly hard maple, with ebony and black milk paint details
here will is reassembling the table base that he made a few weeks ago.
the top and leaves of the table have a curly maple and ebony inlay that we routed out and filled back in. ... here lorne has finished installing the ebony borders before fitting up the 1/8th" central curly maple veneers.
once the bottom of the top is finished, the base is assembled and installed, the table is flipped, and the top is final scraped, sanded, and finished on its base ... runners again from our friends at moin hardware.
tah daahhhhh ... with the leaves in, before the fnish. 10' x 42" wide
a quick finish sample/palette study for the clients
we will be wrapping up
the chairs and the sideboard this week ... delivery time soon ... more on all of it as we finish up ....
lots of pieces to keep track of ....
we shipped out another cherry dining room wednesday ... and got a nice email below from the clients after it arrived yesterday, and that always makes us feel good ...
click the photos to enlarge them ...
the project consisted of a 52 x 86 pedestal dining table with one 22" leaf, 8 of our contemporary transitional chairs, and a 7' tall corner cupboard. the full plan view is shown below ...
as usual, we got our wood from irion lumber and, though it was close, we were able to fit the whole table top on 4 boards from the same log.
we start the base construction with 3 layers of 3/4" plywood for strength and stability and veneer that with either shop made or store bought +/- 1/16th" veneer. in this case, since we were tight for lumber, we used 1/16th" cherry veneer from certainly wood . it was beautiful stuff.
the main base support is a 'truncated pyramid', or 'hopper' geometric construction that require slight adjustments to the miter angles. steel runners are from our friends at moin hardware.
bottom view showing the angled aprons and center stiffener. the clients requested 'room to cross their legs' without interference from the table aprons. this was actually a new design for us, but it gave the table top a nice light 'floaty' look.
after the halves were glued up and cut to shape, trevor routed the pockets for the inlays and we installed them in our usual fashion, using bent temporary brads to apply some side pressure to the inlay borders as the glue set.
he also made a set of patterns for the shop made burl veneer which he then cut on the cnc as thick blocks, which we later resawed into the matching patterns you can see in the photos below. the burl was from berkshire products in sheffield, mass.
cutting veneers from solid burl is always a challenge in that the burls themselves are full of bark inclusions, small voids and generally pretty rough grain ... we like to leave a little of that texture which imparts a distinctive 'not from the furniture store' feeling.
the final inlaid surfaces are handplaned level and scraped and sanded and the resulting subtle texture felt when you run your fingers across the grain is also one of our signature elements.
nice pattern in the single 22" leaf. the design trevor created allowed him to use the same block for the triangles in the table halves and the leaf ... pretty clever.
next, the chairs ... 8 of em ... how many pieces total? interesting thought, let's see ... 18 pieces per chair (the splats are veneered on quartered cherry) x 8 ... sounds like 144, plus the seat blanks.
we've changed from the original corner block design on the left (a total pain in the neck to fit and install) to a routed solid seat base glued up integral to the whole chair, which makes me feel confident on 'my lifetime' chair guarantee. if you're not sure what i mean by 'routed solid seat base', you can see a stack of the seats in this photo from a previous post.
tah dah ... nice fabric choice ...
the corner cupboard ... natural cherry with beaded, handplaned pine backboards, a single pane door ... pretty traditional construction design with a nice contemporary flair
in process ...
the backboards ... numbered and removed for finishing.
all for now ... get that shopping done ....
