a few of our favorite things

for many reasons, things come and go from the 'popular posts' list over there to the right.  there are some posts though that i call on over and over when talking with potential clients.  and some of these posts, for whatever reason, are popular with me, but have never made the list.  'the duck bed' shown above and below was a collaboration between one of our favorite clients, our younger son will on the turning, carving and finishing and the older son sam on the metal 'carving' and patinas. 

i got to do the cad drawing and lead the design parade.  there are four posts total in the construction description, but you can access all of them from the link above.  carving spirals, cnc work on the inlays, waterjetting the actual metal parts and patinas are all covered there.

this one's got it all .. three posts total, from adapting an existing design below to a new space, cross country contractor and architect communication, custom steel railings, secret compartments, shipping details to palo alto, on and on .. lots of headscratching ... much fun.

and this 1989 project is the original staircase we built for local clients that the palo alto folks found on my website.  we recently added the railing so there is a blog post about it at this link.  a version of this project was posted on facabook by a radio station in mississippi and it has been shared i see 567,855 times .. go figure

a greene and greene style sideboard .. drawings, construction details, fabricating the hinges and the pulls, the works ... many more photos here.

ahhh, the trout desk, dovetailing 28" wide walnut planks, 'houndstooth' dovetails, and more, and below,

the 'bridges bench'  both are part of our bethlehem steel series combining the efforts of sam, will and i to create collaborative pieces in wood and steel ... 

more pieces in this series at this link

and another example of the bench above for a local museum garden

another member of the bethlehem steel series by dan, sam and will

lots more stuff here along with thoughts on interior design and custom furniture

and then we've got our on line slide shows at this link  six years of work with albums on claro walnut tables, furniture from reclaimed lumber, stuff you can do with a cnc router, some of my digitized sketchbooks with sketch and finished piece ... thousands of photos there ..

the 11 foot copper top table

loads of fun .. new processes

pool tables ... always a pleasure .. i think we are working on number 17 right now

five easy pieces  .. in addition to this fun zebra wood dining table, there are four others in wenge, hickory and steel.  one of my first ever substantial blog posts.

more photos here

as always, you can consult the 'categories' section for specific interests and the 'popular posts' section for other things that m ight catch your eye ... happy reading.  comment with your questions and i'll try to get back to you shortly ..
 also, there are slide shows available at this link that contain literally thousands of photos of our work ..
enjoy!!

chair challenge

5/13 ... we delivered this challenging rosewood chair last weekend ... this project was a real wrestling match for everyone involved. the upholsterer had a long backlog and then, a long struggle with the edelman 'rattlesnake' leather ... i have to agree, it was an unusual material, and, for him, a real bear to work with. looks great though; sits great; glad it's done ... cool object ...
the challenge ... make a chair from a photo .... if you've never tried it, it's not easy ... we had a photo that the client took from a french website of a "Lady Vanity Chair by Christian Krass (Design of JE Ruhlmann) france, 1930, 'very elegant and slender vanity chair by Christian Krass after design of J.E. Ruhlmann' ". .. since my client didn't want to order the chair from france and also wanted it to match the other furniture we made for her dressing room a few years ago, she called on us to do the job ... we had no measurements or details but we went at it in the only way we know how ... make a full size mock up; sit in it; walk around it and make changes mentally before building the real thing ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
mock up on the left ... the real thing, (in morado), on the right ... in this photo, we have made a cardboard template for fitting the real back piece, which is actually a section of a cone and tough to fit. we glued it up on a curved form already on hand from a previous project ...
at this point, we realized that the back seat rail also had to curve out to match so we had to make a new one of those ... details, details ...
next we fitted the real backsplat (two wacky wood layers and two and 2 1/8" birch ply layers) and made up the bookmatched/slip matched veneered piece that would finish it off. next we glued that to the fitted backsplat and flushed it up ...
viola' ...
one thing i kick myself for not noticing was that the back legs of the original chair are vertical and parallell, and i did mine in my typical, 'turned out' fashion that gives the chair a little more style. but, it also makes the legs flare out at the top which made making the back piece removable for upholstering a real challenge ... i fooled around with it for a long time, moving the tapered connectors, filling bad screw holes etc, but i finally got it. it will take two people and a clamp to install the upholstered back splat, but hey, what are friends for?
you can see the connectors here ... photo of the matching splat hardware later ...
it's in the finishing process now .... it will be dark and shiny and luscious and will be upholstered in edelman 'rattle snake skin' leather (be sure to check out that link for some serious style) ... it should be a knockout ... can't wait ...

The Week in Review

Busy week ... Lots of stuff went on ... Click the photos to enlarge them ... Will almost finished the half rounds ... actually they are half ovals, which complicated the process even more... The drawers are finished and the bottoms are fitted... Above, he has the first coat of stain on the tops and tomorrow he'll sand most of that coat off as it is mainly to raise the grain, and next he'll apply the second coat, being careful not to get the inlays too dark ... Varnish Tuesday ... out the door soon ...
Trevor started a new 'partners desk' project. It's actually for a husband and wife and their new home office in upstate Vermont. We found some really wide (30") mahogany at Irion Lumber that allowed us to make the top and the end panel out of just two boards ...
The lumber arriving from Pennsylvania ...
We rough assembled it Friday, did the inlays and built the drawer box ...
We've got to finish up the screen porch and the Wagatha racks this week so this one might be on the back burner for a minute ...
We also got some really fin curly cherry in the same shipment for a dining table and we finalized the design on that this past weekend ... I have a drawing somewhere ...
And my wood 'Revolving Door' prototype finally bit the dust .. The luann plywood just couldn't hold up to the wind and rain and if fell down piece by piece ... Sooooo ... time for the steel version.
The wood version was up since early summer and it spun nicely in the wind .. we'll see if the steel turns more slowly and less violently .. I hope so ...
I changed the proportions of the rectangles slightly and got the first three together inside the shop today ... It was a rainy Sunday and it seemed like a good thing to do ..
We're also working on posting items to our new home on www.custommade.com ... We haven't tried much online marketing outside of our own website and blog, but given the times, Will and I thought we should try some ... I signed up for a year and we'll have a lot of photos there by the time we're done with it ... What a time sink though ... Hope it works ... I think I'm about half posted now ...
We also made a prototype chair for a client's dressing room ... we made several dark, rich pieces for it a few years back and our client found this Ruhlman inspired design on 1st dibs ... With the client's input and fabric choice, we'll be doing our take on it in East Indian rosewood.
The inspiration photo ...
The bookend raffle went live at the library ...
And we reviewed some very nice drawings for an upcoming project ... Best shop drawings by an architect ever ... My hat is off to Ramsay Gourd Architects ...
And, lastly, I dug out a photo of my original Arlington shop that I built in 1976 for a video we're working on ... The new owners removed most of the second floor, added a kitchen, a fireplace and a big screened in porch off the back, and it is now a fine guest house for them ... It was a good shop for me ...
All for now .. Back for another week tomorrow ....

An Art Deco Vanity

We're doing an Art Deco style vanity based on the bar we built and delivered just before Christmas. It's for a different client but they were intrigued by the look and we adapted it to their vanity project. It's coming along now and I think it's going to be a very cool item. Click the pictures to enlarge them ...
The CAD drawing showing the overall layout and dimensions ...
The original bar cabinet with an blackened finish on the walnut ...
We started with the legs. Will made the notches for the moldings on the tablesaw.
Next we ran some panel details on the cnc which defined the centers of the stepped panels, defined the center molding location and gave him a place to start with his 'frame' pieces.
The end panel and front apron are completed ... doors and moldings next ...

An Art Deco Bar Cabinet

We delivered a nice Art Deco influenced sideboard/bar last week ... It was a fun and challenging project. Someone referred to it as 'Dean Martin's Bar' ... I lived in Palm Springs in 1970 for a winter, and it would have been right at home in the house we rented for sure ... The design was a quick sketch I doodled off after a series of rejected CAD drawings ... Sometimes the quickest drawings are the best ... Anyway, there was more to building this then first meets the eye when you look at the sketch. Click the pictures to enlarge them ...

Trevor fluted the legs on the cnc ... we stopped the detail at the tops and bottoms of the door/panels

Will then mortised the legs and created the back and side panels

We couldn't come up with any way to easily do the concentric squares, so we filled the micro pin holes with hide glue and walnut sawdust and sanded them off the next day ... worked sweet and even took the stain and paint ...

Panels finished and case parts ready to assemble

Assembly without the panels

After we applied the moldings to the 1/2" mdf doors, we had to rabbet the door edges and install solid wood edges ... hence the masking tape in this photo

Corner and door close up.....stainless steel knife hinges from Brusso Hardware

Trevor put the lights in even though they were cut from the budget ... We had them on hand from another project and it didn't seem right without them ...

Then we mocked up up the metal end pieces and mirror frame size and got those dimensions all finalized

The finishing process for this piece involved applying a coat of fairly strong brown/red aniline dye, sanding that pretty aggressively and then applying a second coat of the stain along with some black latex paint at the same time ... That mix was sponged around until 'it looked right' and then polished about a half hour later with steel wool and paper towels ... This paint/stain mix makes a nice durable finish as is, but we always add a couple top coats of oil varnish mix for a little shine ... I finished my kitchen with this finish 10 years ago and with a little damp spongeing it comes back to looking pretty much like new ... I have reoiled once or twice in the last 10 years ...

Before the oil coats

after

With the steel galleries by Sam in plce. They had threaded rods welded to their bottoms and were bolted on from under the frames ... We REALLY liked this piece and felt it was one of the most differect and strongest designs for the year ... Happy New Year !