custom sideboards and buffets

we have made quite a few different sideboards and buffets in the last 25 years, and the form is one of our favorites.  there are 27 sideboards on our regular website, but since we are working with some clients on a new designs, i felt compelled to organize some of my favorites here.  the curly maple one above is one   actually, i like the challenge of the sideboard/buffet form, and there's not one shown here that we didn't enjoy designing and building.  the sideboard directly below is from my own home and we have made several variations on that one using our 'studio style' cherry and black design theme.  click the photos to enlarge them.

 

 60" wide x 20 " deep by 34" high.  natural cherry and black milk paint.  1987

there is a blog post on this sideboard/dining room at this link

 a variation on our sideboard circa 1988.  72" long x 20" deep by 34" high

                                  

this one and the one below are similar in design with figured cherry panels and quartersawn cherry edge details.  one with an edge inlay, one without.  one with black details; one all cherry and one with curly maple details and crotch mahogany veneers.  same drawing, different results .. 'take and object; do something to it; do something else to it'.

 ditto here with black painted legs and 'burl and bar' edge inlay.

mahogany and curly maple; crotch mahogany veneer panels ...

a fancy and complex variation on the theme above in cherry and maple burl 

with subtly curved doors and drawer faces ...

the black walnut bar/sideboard above was a fun project.  mirrors, lights, glass, 

repeating details ... all fun. there is a pretty long blog post on that one here.

not exactly a sideboard, but sort of the same idea

 

and here's a stylish one that accompanied a table with similar design ... we worked the details over carefully with the client and while we we stuck for a label, included it in the realm of 'art deco' though it is strictly 'diane and dan deco'.  an extremely fun project from the early 90's.

here's the table that it went with.  lots and lots of details on that one.  often, the table and sideboard are designed to complement one another and make the room seem to be totally custom.

 

this custom bubinga sideboard was made from the 6 feet we cut off the end of a 20' bubinga plank that we used to make a 14' x 48" wide table that went to princeton, new jersey, next door to the governor's mansion

  i've got a better photo somewhere .. +/- 2002.  dawn of the digital photo age

 

this figured cherry sideboard had a table with it

as did this cherry and maple burl sideboard from +/- 2003.  this sideboard was made from virtually the same drawing as the first, curly maple sideboard in this post.  'take a design, do something to it'

this country style sideboard was one of the first sideboards i made back in the very early 80's...

 and this one, from the early 90's, was an engineering challenge with it's suspended box and turned supporting columns with brass feet, and curly maple veneered doors.  the inside was almost completely drawers on runners that pulled out to store not only silverware and dining room stuff, but also music cds, at the time a semi precious commodity.  times change ... another 'diane and dan deco' project ...

this is not really a sideboard, but it's a cool piece.  it was designed to go against a curved wall, (the 'front' in this photos), but we made the drawers go both ways and they had pulls on the other side too, so it can also be placed at some time in the future, against a straight wall.  multitasking ... and on and on ...

this one is from last spring.  it's 9' long and had to go through the window when it got to new jersey .. oops!  but it made it ... it now has a stone top and you can see the details of its construction in this blog post.

i'll add a few more as time permits and update our progress on the upcoming sideboard below once we get it under way in early december ... all for now ..

    12/2 ... a few more sideboards

 studio style again with cherry and black and ebony and burl details.  the pulls are blackened brass, custom cast for us by horton brasses in pensylvania.

and this piece, while technically not a sideboard per se, has certain sideboard buffet qualities to it.  storage, interest, detail.  'fun with walnut'  ...  blog post here

 a little mahogany 'arts and crafts' thing here ... hardware from stickley.  design by dan and mary

 something tall with a little paint ... this one we designed with the client who wanted a top set of shelves, but also wanted it to be 'light' and wanted it to store a lot of stuff too.  in the foreground are some of our windsor chairs from the mid 80's when we used to make a lot of them ...

 my first sideboard.  1973.   before i even had a house to put it in.  i made it from a book entitled 'fine furniture you can make yourself' and i believe it was by someone named christoforo, but i can't seem to find it at the moment.  it's around here somewhere ... anyway, you can see what happens to a linseed oil finish on pine over the course of almost 40 years.  it gets pretty dark.

 close up