“Nothing works without details. They are everything, the baseline of quality
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As I had mentioned before, I start with a very bare bones design plan and add details as I see fit as the project comes together. Because no two boards are alike, it takes some design thinking to determine what grain patterns will work well in certain areas. Once I had planed boards to their desired thickness, I got to work laying out how the boards would fit together.
Luckily the longest boards had some incredible figures which I wanted to showcase which is why I selected it for the top of the case. When the late afternoon light hits the wavy interlocking grain it pops with an eye catching chatoyance. In fact you can even catch glimpses of it within the door slats.
Once I had the case built, I had to decide on a way to enhance the overhang on the top and bottom boards. I went through several iterations and the most striking – practical with a toddler at home and worried about sharp edges – ended up being a pair of counterbalanced rounded edges.
With the main case details in place, I installed the slatted doors to view my work and felt it was missing something. The entire case was starting to feel very japanese influenced. Something about the slats and rounded edges made me think of using Shoji paper. Separately, I’m always looking to expand my repertoire so I ordered up some nice Kozo (mulberry) paper interlaced with golden threads and some traditional nori paste. It ended up being a very simple addition that elevated the entire project.
The final design elements that came were the interior shelves. Once built, I felt that it lacked enough storing capacity because the interior was thin and tall. Luckily I had leftover cherry veneered ply from the back of the case so I made shelf inserts. I then used what leftover lumber I had to cut edge banding so that it blends perfectly into the case.
I hope you enjoyed this series on the production of this case. If you have any questions or are interested in a commission feel free to comment or email me at andrew@norelliwoodworking.com.
“You don’t think your way to creative work. You work your way to creative thinking.”
Design Elements
Taking a stack of lumber and turning it into a piece of furniture — a piece of artwork — is a feat of strength, of vision, of planning, of iteration and execution. What looks good on paper ends up being infeasible, ugly, or bulky and you must make alterations. Wood fibers can tear out leaving ugly scars. Hands can slip with a power tool and you turn a beautiful piece of lumber into scrap wood.So I tend to design something basic and leave room for modification as I go. These are some initial drawings of what I was looking to build. There is a lot of free flowing in this phase, but it quickly culminates in a concept that I think I like, and most importantly one I think I can actually build.
The main focus on any console or cabinet is the doors. They are the main attraction and the most functional piece of any cabinet. I went with this slat style because I had done it before (Nelson Bench) and I liked the look.
Form dictated function in this case as I felt the slatted door would look great as a sliding door rather than a swinging door. This is where I took a leap because it was my first time trying a sliding door. I did some research on sliding door hardware, but I ended up coming across an article on doing it the traditional way without any hardware which seemed easy enough to accomplish.
With the outside of the case designed, I ventured in and began to consider the use. The case’s interior dimensions were tall and shallow so I felt it needed some shelves to utilize most of the available space without becoming cluttered.
What is often an overlooked aspect of any console is the feet. In most of my drawings they were essentially placeholder squares as I wanted to let the completed console dictate where I would go with the feet. While I ended up thinking about this aspect last, I didn’t want it to feel like an afterthought and also wanted to treat the lumber organically so I kept the live edge and created a trestle base. No one will likely ever see the joinery, but I spent the time to work on my hand-skills and created a housed bridle joint between the cross beam and the legs.
Part III coming soon…
桜 - Sakura - Cherry blossom
Part I
“A tree is our most intimate contact with nature.
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Our lives, whether we actively seek to or not, are invariably connected with our environment. Depending on where you live, you might be surrounded by trees on all sides — as I had in childhood — or you might just pass one or two by on the sidewalk on the way to work. Either way, they offer an imposing presence. A constant reminder that while we are masters of the environment, we are nowhere near its largest subjects.
I have been building furniture from wood for three years now, and almost exclusively my stock, a woodworkers term for lumber, has come from a lumberyard. It’s like a grocery store for woodworkers. Anything and everything, trees from far and near, are available by the board foot.
When my mother told me some trees were to be chopped down that were threatening her house, I told her to not let them take anything away until I came home. What I found when I arrived were these wonderfully large, straight logs of Cherry. I knew there would be something special underneath that bark, so I told her to get them milled. Once cut into slabs , these beasts would have to dry for several years before I could touch a blade to them.
Fast-forward two years, I went to pick from the pile to build a floating desk in our new home. After selecting a couple of good looking boards, I drove them back to NYC in my climate controlled car. I could hear them cracking and my heart started to sink. A seasoned woodworker knows that wood, even after sitting for years, is a living being. It twists, cups, cracks and swells with the seasons. Once I got back to the woodshop, I laid out the boards, weighed them down so they wouldn’t move too much and let them acclimate as I worked on other projects.
When I was finally ready to begin, I could already see that I was shit out of luck. These boards were twisted more than I could have imagined. I was not going to have enough to make the desk so they sat again, waiting for another use.
Months went by and I was ready to come back to them. I needed to make a media console for our basement and I thought I had just the right amount so I started milling. With each successive run through the planer, more and more figures started to appear. When one looks at a living tree, all they see is the bark. Great woodworkers have x-ray vision and can imagine what a tree looks like undressed. I’m not a great woodworker yet, so I was excited to see what I could not imagine.
To be continued…
I’ve always loved the Midcentury modern aesthetic, especially when it is applied to furniture. I would always find myself flipping through the pages of the Design Within Reach catalogs; eyes wide to the sleek styles and bold colors, eyes shuttered as I see the price!
One particular design that I’ve always admired has been George Nelson’s Platform Bench. When a project fell through after I had already purchased a bunch of White Oak, I felt inspired to try my hand at building one. I spent a lot of time examining the wood I had to make ensure the grain pattern seamlessly flowed from slat to slat. Each slat was selected and placed so that the quarter grain was showcased on top. Quartersawn lumber is prized and sought after for its stability and pleasing grain on all four sides.
The center brace is actually two laminated pieces of white oak that give the feel of one. Younger sap wood is lighter than the older heartwood and to some aesthetically not as pleasing. By laminating them together, it gives a nice white line down the center of the piece that is punctuated by the slats.
Measurements are 36” W x 16” H x 18” D. I hope you enjoy the piece as much as I enjoyed making it. To commemorate the launch of my website, I’m offering it up at a discount to one lucky follower. E-mail me with questions or click the link below to purchase!
Some of my earliest memories as a kid were shooting my bow and arrow. It was a simple longbow of unknown origin, but it was fairly accurate. My father had started archery in his 20’s and by the time I came around he had become a proficient maker of custom bows. While I became a dead shot in my younger years, I lost touch as I grew up. My dad continued to experiment with woodworking, building me a skateboard that he was certain was superior (it wasn’t), to building kayaks, a house full of furniture and even an Adirondack guide boat.
Adirondack Guide Boat on the shores of Rollins Pond, NY
Adirondack Guide Boat
I was always fascinated with how these things were built without ever delving into the how. I would admire their aesthetics and craftsmanship from a distance.
That distance would decrease ever so slightly until I finally decided I’d take a course on woodworking. Part of me was afraid of the machinery that could easily lop off a finger. To this day, my dad recounts of the time he told me not to touch his chisel, only for him to follow a trail of blood drops to me frantically trying to stop my bleeding finger.
Through the course I was taught the proper technique of the main tools, and as such, that fear evaporated and my creative juices started to flow. I began building furniture for my own use and teach myself new skills. There are few days where I am not envisioning current or new projects I’m working on; fewer even, times where I’m not sketching new pieces that I’d like to construct next.
I’ve come to feel immense pride in the labor of woodworking. What may take weeks or months of laboring, sweating, and cursing can result in something as beautiful as these pieces…
Knife Block
Walnut and Curly Maple
Nelson Bench
White Oak with Ebonized Legs
Meditation Stool
Walnut
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