Cabinet design (2)...

I'm on track with my next commission and am currently in the process of designing it as I mentioned in the last post. The client has given me free reign over the design with only some dimensions to follow, namely the height and width. This will be a cabinet on stand and somewhat different than the previous jewelry armoire. The proportions are based on more of a showcase , with a wider stance and lower height. The client specified a few drawers in the design, but the location of the drawers within the cabinet is not important, sufficient space for art objects, etc... is important however. The color of the cabinet is intended to be of a light color with darker, contrasting detail. The stand for the cabinet will also be in a darker wood. Since I can design as I please, I thought I would give myself a challenge in the process. I have the design of the cabinet front incorporating a large drawer opening with four drawers.

Blending the front door panels with drawer fronts becomes a challenge in that I intend to have a seamless transition from door panel to drawer fronts with minimal reveal between them. The drawer fronts themselves will have a lower lip which hides the drawer divider between each of the drawers. My intention is to have nothing but four drawer pulls, the two door pulls and some detail elements on the front or facade of this cabinet. The location of the door pulls has not been finalized and I am also considering mounting them in the upper center of the doors. This is all secondary to the design at this point.

Unlike the previous jewelry armoire, this cabinet will have full panel doors, most likely veneered doors. I do have available some light colored solid beech which is almost quarter-sawn, bordering on rift-sawn. The expansion coefficient for European beech is 5.5 when quarter-sawn, and this will definitely be a factor in my decision whether to use either solid wood panels or veneered panels. I also need to consider that the two cabinet doors expand and shrink individually, therefore this 5.5% rate increases the movement to 1.3 inches from .6 inches in absolute terms for a 24 inch expanse of panels. At this point I'm focusing on the design however, and in the next few days will have a better idea on how I will proceed. My next step is to formalize some drawings and present them to the client for approval. I'll also mock up the cabinet front for a better idea of the proportions and scale of the unit, once I have an approved design in hand.

The stand itself will either be integral with the cabinet or detached and give the semblance that the cabinet is floating on the stand. Putting a design on paper is an excellent exercise, it allows one to visualize how the components of a piece of furniture blend in together. This is one of the first steps in creating a piece of furniture after some preliminary sketching.

Cabinet design (1)...

It's been a hectic past week with some unfinished small work to complete in my studio. I usually leave the odd tasks to be completed between furniture projects. This past week was an ideal time as the studio is once again uncluttered. I've sort of disciplined myself into cleaning up and putting my tools back after a day's work, I owe this very good habit to a furniture school I attended, the students attending the school clean the complete bench area at the end of the day. I'm also still in the process of applying finish to the jewelry armoire, I have been given a reprieve as the owner is out of town for another week or so. I will definitely post pictures of the armoire, which is developing a beautiful patina, in it's completed state once ready. In the meantime, the design of my next piece of furniture is slowly moving to the forefront. I am beginning to lean towards a cabinet much in the same vein as the armoire but lower and with different proportions. I don't need to have quite as much height in the cabinet since it is for the most part a showcase.

There are a few fine examples of the design I am considering with inspiration from James Krenov work. Another consideration I am mulling over is to use two one piece front doors which will probably be veneered. If I decide this, the doors will not be the customary frame and panel design, but instead veneer over substrate. A large advantage to this type of construction is that there is more surface area available to the wood (figured?) used in the door, thereby enhancing it as a component of the focal point of the cabinet. I'm also debating whether to introduce curved doors into the design, another advantage of veneer over substrate design.

I also have more flexibility in this design as some of the constraints of the previous armoire are unnecessary. In the above photo, I have an earlier drawing which describes a single panel door as opposed to the previous frame and panel door. This design can be quite elegant if executed properly. I also have in mind to use lighter colors with more subtle contrasting shades and colors in the detail.The above design is what I'll be using as a basis for what I will be presenting to my client. The design will evolve from this drawing as it morphs into a slightly wider and more squat cabinet on stand with a pair of doors instead. The proportions are going to be a bit tricky as they might clash with the Golden Rectangle rule of a pleasing ratio of proportions. I'm going to be placing some blind faith into the fact that James Krenov has already designed cabinets with these proportions and these cabinets are definitely aesthetically pleasing.

The layout of the interior of the cabinet is yet to be decided, and I prefer it this way actually. Another consideration with this new design is the depth of the cabinet, it does not need to be quite as deep as the previous cabinet (armoire). This upcoming cabinet design is leaning towards a showcase cabinet with less focus on functionality. An example of function follows form instead of the typical form follows function?

In my next post, I should have a new drawing with a better indication of where I'm headed with this design.

Thoughts on design...

I had an enjoyable Christmas holiday period along with my wife, and we managed to get some skiing in as well as trekking through small boutiques and shops in the mountain villages up here. The weather has been snowy but great otherwise. I last left off with the jewelry armoire fairly complete aside from some small detail work, the hardware fitting and the actual finishing process. I've been prepping the armoire in the past day or so to begin applying the thinned shellac coats using a small pad applicator. Typically I apply many light coats of shellac with some very light, fine sanding between some of the coats, this is to keep the shellac layers levelled and remove any nibs, etc.. The finishing I will begin in the next day or so.

In the meantime I've been giving some thought to a new design I will be working on next. The client for this piece has also been following the jewelry armoire project and would like a piece in a similar vein with some unique differences. This particular piece will not be dedicated to jewelry, at least this is the design discussed to date, I therefore have fewer restraints to work with. The new cabinet on stand I have in mind for this client is not quite as tall as the jewelry armoire and will have a different drawer arrangement inside. There is no need for as many drawers as the jewelry armoire in this design. At this point I haven't even created any sketches for the client, just some thoughts in my mind and visions of what I would like to propose to the client. I'm debating a few different designs in my mind and am also considering incorporating some curved work into this cabinet on stand. I have many considerations to discuss with the client including the

- contemporary styling of the piece
- surrounding furniture ( complement or contrast)
- focal piece or blend in
- showcase or not
- proportions and scale with respect to room space
- color ( wood types)
- detail work
- flat or curved panels
etc.

I'll be working on these criteria in the next few days while I am completing the jewelry armoire. In the meantime, above is a drawing of a credenza design I had worked on a few months ago. This particular design was a blend of contemporary and Hepplewhite style influence, with the Hepplewhite elements being predominant. Although I have a few designs ready, the actual commission has not occurred to date. When and if it does occur, the beauty of hard copy sketches is that I will have them ready and we can continue with the evolution of this particular design. The design of this credenza also allowed me to delve into Hepplewhite period furniture elements and design, all good for future reference.

Armoire detail (1)...

Some of the detail in closer range. Note the small black diamonds
in each upper corner of the cabinet. I felt the cabinet needed this
for better balance with respect to colors and patterns.It is also a nice,
subtle decorative touch to convey the diamond theme.These photos
are just before I install some additional brass hardware in the area
above the drawers and begin the finishing process. I need to break
now for the Christmas holidays. I wish you all a great Christmas!

Armoire stand (3)...

The front door pulls have been created and installed. It's beginning to look like a complete cabinet on stand now. I designed the door pulls to have a half-diamond embedded at the front to carry the diamond theme into the armoire cabinet itself. I feel that there is now just the right balance of color in this armoire,a subdued but striking look. I did not want to take any focus away from the tiger maple door panels but at the same time wanted to have a fine symmetry in the colors of the cabinet.In my opinion, the hint of white holly in the door pulls makes the difference.The armoire is now oriented and secured to the stand at the moment with one pin on either side, where pin refers to a short length of dowel. I can quickly detach the cabinet from the stand to continue with the next phase of work to do on this armoire. I have some specialized hardware to install in the interior of the cabinet, but this can wait until after I have partially applied some finish.

The first phase of the finishing process involves lightly scraping all surfaces, removing any lingering pencil marks , and checking for anything else I would not want to have under the finish. The finish itself is thinned shellac applied in multiple coats with an applicator pad. This is a lengthy process as each coat is thin and only with many coats does the finish begin to attain the right sheen and depth.

I decided a couple of years back to begin using more natural finishes on my furniture pieces. The benefits to this are primarily health motivated and as well the finishes are pleasant to use and with the right consistency can be applied with an applicator pad. My finish of choice is thinned clear or super blonde shellac with a light coat of wax afterwards. I mix my own shellac and set myself up to be able to finish a piece of furniture over a period of a few days. Shellac coats dry rather quickly so the possibility of dust nibs on the surface are next to nil. Many thinned coats almost guarantee a nice, even finish if the strokes of the applicator pad are offset every so often.

It's interesting to notice how much the upper cabinet ( armoire) has already naturally darkened compared to the armoire stand which is only recently put together. This disparity in color will blend together over the next two weeks or so, one of the great features of cherry.

Armoire stand (2)...

I've gone ahead and did some decorative detail work on the front apron of the stand for the armoire, and also managed to squeeze some Christmas shopping in. Since this is essentially a jewelry armoire, I decided on a diamond theme for the inlay detail. The pattern on the apron creates, at least in my mind, a semblance that the stand is holding the armoire up. The center diamond in holly balances out the theme and provides a contrast to the outside blackwood half-diamonds and stringing. As with anything woodworking related, the inlay work involved precise measurements since the pattern is symmetric. Working on and creating the inlay detail was immensely enjoyable to me although a little stressful at times since the spare apron I had set aside somehow developed a ding. The stand is completely assembled now and has been test-fitted with the armoire attached. I'll use wood pins to connect the armoire and stand together, this will make it simple to separate the two pieces for transport and also for any other reason that might come up.

I'm now working on some decorative door pulls. I'm going to embed some holly into the blackwood pulls to carry the blackwood and white holly colors from the stand to the armoire. There will be a subtle inclusion of holly in the door pulls with once again, a diamond theme. The door pulls have a small tenon with four shoulders which fits into a chiseled recess in each of the doors. I carefully marked the door pull recesses and confirmed that the pulls are perfectly aligned in both planes.

In the photo, there are two blackwood half-diamonds on the outside of the apron , with blackwood and holly curved stringing leading to the center of the apron. Just above the center is located the holly diamond. I selected these two woods to provide good contrast once the cherry ages and develops a darker color and patina. I don't apply any stain to my work and instead let the natural aging process of cherry develop its own distinct color, and use as many woods with natural contrasting colors as possible..

There is more work to do for me on the armoire, mostly completion work however. I need to install a couple of brass carousels and brass pegs, create compartments in the drawers, and also line the drawers. Now I can begin to focus on getting the detail correct and lightly scraping the surfaces on the unit to prepare for finishing. I'm also at the point where I can very soon begin finishing the armoire while I work on the drawer compartments.

Armoire stand (1)...

I've just about completed the legs and aprons for the (cabinet) armoire stand after allowing some time for the wood to release any internal tensions which might have developed. These internal tensions are brought out in the resawing work I performed for both the leg blanks and aprons. I began with a wide plank of 8/4 cherry for the legs and ripped four leg blanks from this blank. I oriented each leg blank on the plank to attain the best possible grain configuration, in this case a rift-pattern with no face grain on any of the leg faces. This is a little more wasteful of wood, but it's definitely worth the time spent. The legs blanks have a very pleasing straight-grained orientation on all four faces. In the photo, I marked the pattern of the grain on the ends of the legs and it is slightly visible.

Afterwards, I proceeded to mark and create the mortises for the mortise and tenon joints at each leg. Since I initially created the stand, I needed to create the stand with the exact dimensions in length and width to appear integral. This was a greater challenge than I anticipated, since the measurements become very critical and need to be exact. The cabinet and stand need to appear to be one unit. Therefore, the aprons need to be measured with allowance for the legs at either end and for the tenon itself. The tenons have four shoulders to be completely housed within the joint, and are offset on the face of the legs towards the front. There was a bit of trial and error and I actually made a small trial joint with similar dimensions to test for measurements, as the apron faces need to be flush with the leg surfaces.. After some deliberation, I decided the safest approach would be to prepare the mortises first, then cut the aprons a little longer than final length and cut the tenons.I had the final measurement of both the front, back and sides and worked back from this, subtracting the thickness of the already prepared leg blanks.

This worked well and I slowly snuck up on the final measurement for the apron. A shoulder plane is a godsend in this situation, as it is specifically designed to trim and tune tenon shoulders. I kept at this while often checking that the tenon and shoulder is square and perpendicular to the apron. Shortly afterwards, I had four aprons ready. I've since assembled the stand using clamps and actually test fit the armoire on it. I am now creating the tapers on the legs. The design on these tapered legs has the taper beginning a few inches below the apron to the foot of the leg. The two inner faces of the legs are tapered. I rough cut the tapers using a bandsaw and then it is strictly handplane work, in this case a jointer plane. It is quite a satisfying operation to watch the tapers being created without too much effort and without use of fancy jigs, just handplanes for the most part.

I'll continue with preparation of the stand components and probably have it together in a day or so after I create some decorative detail work on the front apron.

Drawer build (3)...

The drawer pulls are now complete and installed. I decided on blackwood as per the original design. The pulls are rectangular, 2 inches long , .75 inches deep (visible part) and approximately .25 inches thick. The width and length of the pulls was a matter of experimentation and as a mock-up I hot glued two to three different sizes to a drawer front blank I had as a spare.

Preparing the drawer pulls took a little time as I needed to create a shoulder on either side of the blanks and two other shoulders also. I use a rabbet block plane to create the long shoulders. The four shoulders form a tenon and enable the pulls to fit into a smaller mortise where none of the mortise walls are exposed. Due to the sheer number of drawers I decided on creating the mortise groove using the router table with stops. This took some time as I could only remove a very small amount per drawer for eight drawers. The cycle was repeated until the depth of the mortise for each drawer was approx. 5/16 inch, afterwards which I squared the ends of the groove by lightly paring using a small 3/16 inch chisel. Following this, I hand sawed and filed the sides of the pulls in the area of the tenon to create an accurate four-sided tenon to fit into the groove.

In the photo , the drawer pulls are installed and one remaining blackwood blank is also visible. I will use this to create the pulls for the front doors. The blank has already been rabbeted on either side to form a tenon. At this point , I simply need to decide on the length and depth of the pulls for each of the front doors. Part of my decision to create the drawer pulls the size I mentioned above, or 2 inches long and .75 inches deep, is also to have the pull act as a small fulcrum with a large bearing surface for a person to remove and hold the drawer with ease, thus the drawer can easily be removed with a single hand. If I instead made the pulls small, the pull itself could only really be used to pull the drawer open or closed but not help to lift it.

In the past day or so I've spent some time arranging the components of the stand for the jewelry armoire. The stand is comprised of four legs and four aprons, two side and a front and back apron. I want to make sure the grain orientation of the legs and the aprons is straight-grained, this involves some clever ripping of the legs to maintain straight grain on all four faces of each leg. I used a small template of the dimensions of the leg to overlay over each 8/4 inch thick, 36 inch long blank of cherry I have, which allows me to best orient the leg within the blank. The orientation of the grain for each of the aprons was very much the same, although not quite as straight-grained, but very much acceptable. I'm letting the rough sawn leg blanks acclimatize now to let the wood reach a "calm" state before proceeding.

Drawer build (2)...

I've been busy building the dovetailed drawers. At this time, I have seven of eight drawers fairly complete (new,updated photo, all eight done). You can see the parts for the last one in the photo along with the completed drawers. Not long into the process, I developed a rhythm and the dovetails came along a little quicker than at the very beginning. This is one of those techniques where you need to keep practising otherwise the skills begin to lapse. If the saw cuts are placed correctly, or to use the expression "split the line"... the tails and pins go together quite well and snug. I hardly bother to test fit the tails and pins together, just apply glue and tap them together. You can usually tell if there is going to be a hangup in the mating process simply by aligning the pins and tails and pressing the two together with a little pressure. Another important consideration in the dovetail process is to make sure the baseline of both the tails and pins is aligned and parallel to the edge of the boards.

The drawer bottoms need to be measured, cut and inserted next, they are simply pinned at the bottom of the back of the drawer.... this allows the drawer bottom to be removable and replaceable if necessary. There is more than sufficient strength for the drawer bottoms as they are located within a groove on the sides and front of the drawer.The drawers are very lightly oiled at this point and I'll apply wax to them later on in the finishing process. The drawer fronts are for the most part, quartersawn or rift sawn grain orientation, this allows any expansion and contraction to occur in the thickness of the drawer front, and also creates a more stable drawer front. Quartersawn oriented grain also allows the drawer fronts to remain fairly snug in their respective drawer opening with hardly any movement in height, this maintains a consistent reveal around each drawer opening. Each drawer will also be lined and have removable drawer inserts forming small compartments within the drawer. The drawer fronts slowly become darker and the contrast with the drawer sides becomes more enhanced.

I need to begin designing and creating the drawer pulls next. The drawer pulls will be mortised into the center of each drawer front. At this time I'm leaning towards rectangular pulls with a small tenon which fits into a small horizontal groove in the drawer front. I haven't decide whether to use blackwood (original design) or a more subtle wood. I need to take into consideration the fact that the cherry slowly darkens over time, changing the contrast with the drawer pull.

I've been looking forward to seeing these drawers in their drawer openings, it gives me a sense that the completion of this armoire is not far away. Some of the next steps are the completion of a stand for the jewelry armoire, some detailed decorative work time permitting, and of course the finishing process. All this will occur within the next few days.

We need to brace ourselves up here, a huge winter snow storm is on its way and should arrive here this Sunday. Winter doesn't technically begin until next Friday, Dec. 21, but we're well into it already. This contrasts with a relatively mild winter we had last year. I also can't believe how close Christmas is, seems like it was autumn just a short time ago.

Drawer build (1)...

The drawer build is slowly coming together. I've set up a sequence to ensure that any steps are not skipped in creating a drawer. For example, I create the grooves for the drawer bottom after making the half-blind dovetails at the front of the drawer. The grooves are created just prior to glue-up. If I create the grooves before the dovetails, the tails are considerably weakened and fragile due to the groove. The nice part is that the groove is completely housed and does not therefore need to be a stopped groove. Some of the other steps include hand planing the surfaces of each of the drawer components. Each drawer is individually fitted to its compartment in the drawer case. The drawer front is marked and cut first as it needs to be a nice, snug fit. Each of the drawer sides is then marked, measured and cut accordingly. The heights of each of the pieces are similar, I hand plane them to ensure they are exactly the same height.

All this in preparation of creation of the dovetails. Marking the pieces also becomes very important at this stage. Each of the outside surfaces and the orientation of the pieces are marked, as in the photo. I've made a small change to the dovetails partly due to a suggestion to a blog reader and partly to strengthen the joint. The tails were fairly large in the mock-up with little pin surface area. I am concerned with the tails telegraphing through the drawer front, so I reduced the size of the tails slightly leaving more wood in the drawer front pins. In the photo, the top drawer has the new dovetail layout.

I use a few tools to make these dovetails as in the photo, most of the chisels used are visible and I keep them sharp with repeated honing during my work. I also have a few more measuring tools than necessary, the duplicates are merely to keep the measurements for making the tails handy. At the the right in the photo, a dovetail jig is partially visible. I use this mostly to orient the tail and pin boards for precise marking and chiseling.The drawer sides are slightly proud of the drawer front edges and I hand plane them down afterwards. During the glue-up, I check and re-check that the sides are perpendicular to the drawer fronts. Later on, I install the drawer backs and drawer bottom for each of the drawers.

Creating and assembling the eight drawers is a bit time consuming, and patience is a necessary virtue here. What I have done is to create the sequence I mentioned above and make sure everything is correctly and visibly marked to avoid any mistakes. So far, so good.
There is nothing quite as satisfying as bringing a dovetail joint together after a few taps with a mallet, well at least in the woodworking world. Hopefully, in the next post I'll have the eight drawers mostly complete except for the drawer pulls, of which the design I haven't finalized yet.

Dovetail layout...

I've spent some time in the past day or so working on an optimal dovetail layout for the eight drawer fronts. Since the height of each drawer is approximately 1.75 inches, this doesn't leave much room for multiple dovetails. After some consideration and sketching of layouts on some precut cardboard, I decided on a layout comprising two tails and somewhat narrow pins. I feel this looks elegant and has sufficient strength for such a small drawer. The tails are housed within the drawer front, also known as blind or lapped dovetails, and in doing so, do not take anything away from the appearance of the face of the drawer fronts. I went ahead and mocked up a sample dovetailed corner with the exact dimensions of the drawer height and the sizes of the components. This mock-up allows me a better feel for how the drawer will look in the drawer case. In the photo, the mock-up or sample drawer corner has a cherry front and alder for the side.

I haven't decided which wood I'll be using for the drawer sides just yet, my criteria is to have a striking contrast with the drawer front. It isn't visible in the photo, but I have also created the grooves for the drawer bottom in the mock-up. The process of laying out dovetails involves locating the drawer bottom groove on the tail and pin board. The groove, in this case .25 inch, is completely contained within the lower tail. This both simplifies the process and does not introduce any issues with overlap of pin and tail with the groove, possibly weakening the joint.. Therefore, consideration of where the drawer bottom groove is located is part of the layout process for the dovetails.

I'm glad to have gone through this exercise and in the process also have the exact measurements with precise settings on my tools to be able to replicate these dovetails. I create the tails first, then use the tails to mark out the pins. I now have two marking gauges preset to the correct depths of both the drawer side and drawer front, I use a divider to mark the dovetails.

Next I will cut and prepare the parts for the eight drawers paying careful attention to the grain orientation of the drawer fronts. I'll also prepare extra components for a complete drawer as extra insurance against any mistakes. The nice part about this process is that every drawer is fairly identical and therefore the initial layout and measurements apply to each set of drawer components. In my next post, I'll have everything laid out and marked and hopefully partially complete.