Reclaimed Pine and Natural Edge Ash Cabinet (2013)

The Completed Cabinet

Sometime in 2012, I was approached by the advisory board of the the Franklin Park Arts Center, located in Round Hill, Virginia,  to build a cabinet to fill a corner in the reception room/gallery that leads to the main auditorium in the theater. The cabinet was to be designed and installed as part of a donor wall, which would display a large ceramic tile tree, made by local ceramics artist, Joan Gardiner. Beneath the spreading arms of the tree would be a list of names of people who donated to make Franklin Park Arts Center a reality. My job was to build a complementary cabinet that would tie in to the tree theme as well as the exposed post and beam architecture displayed in the reception room. Below is a photo of the wall slated to be the donor wall (the wall to the left of the corner beam). The cabinet was to fit into the corner and occupy the space between the door to the theater (to the right side of the photo)  and where the tree would one day be (to the left of the large vertical pipe).

The advisory board member who had initially approached me about the job asked that the cabinet have a live or natural edge top and that the vertical surfaces be made from reclaimed barn boards. She also specified that the cabinet be free of visible hardware and instead utilize European style cabinet hinges that spring open when the door is pushed.

Using SketchUp, I designed the basic structure of the cabinet, taking into account the pipe and the vertical beam I was going to have to build around. I then applied a surface with a natural edge top and barn boards for the vertical surfaces. I envisioned this as being a gray face board like oak and thought I would probably have to stain the top surface to match. The original design also incorporated a longer cabinet on the left that would completely surround the pipe. Here are a few photos taken in SketchUp. First are a few images of the cabinet construction followed by some photos of the proposed cabinet with the siding. Each is displayed from several angles.

The cabinet's internal structure.

 

The proposed cabinet with a natural edge top and barn board siding.

After the project was approved, a couple of changes were made. The pipe was going to be surrounded in wood so that it would not be seen at all. Also, The cabinet would be built into this surround and incorporate it into the design. this shortened the length of the left hand cabinet so that it stopped just past the location of the pipe. Other then those details, the project was on!

My first duty was to source the materials I would need. As far as the top was concerned, Ash was selected and bought from my friend Rick Herbine (http://www.herbinehardwood.com/). The material used to make the vertical sides came from Cochran's Lumber in Berryville, Va. (http://www.cochranslumber.com/). Thanks to both of those organizations for providing fine material to work with. Below is a photo of the lumber stack that the barn boards used for the vertical surfaces came from.

On to the construction. The cabinet had a skeletal structure that was made from plywood and 1 x 4 material. Making the cabinet in this way allowed me to fit the cabinets to the space by cutting the plywood. Once everything fit well, I could add all of the exterior faces to the cabinets in my shop and then install the cabinets in the Arts Center. This was the plan and it more or less worked!

Below is a photo of the base of the cabinet that sits between the post and the door to the theater. It is followed by the same base upside down.

This photo shows a variety of found items providing the height of the cabinet while I cut the top pieces of plywood to fit.

The photo below shows the two bases fit together.

After all of the fitting was done and the 1x 4 braces were put in place, the cabinets were temporarily put together and the barn boards were attached. In the photo below the left cabinet is done and the right cabinet is being worked on.

Now for the top! Below is a photo of the three Ash boards chosen for the top. Two were used. I needed to glue them up to create a wide enough surface so I decided to book match the boards to take advantage of the beautiful grain. The two boards on the right are book matched.

After they were cut to length, I glued the boards together. I used tie down straps to do this so that I would not damage the natural edge (The edge that is facing in the photos below).

This photo shows the cabinet with the vertical surfaces and the doors complete... or almost complete. A decision was made to replace some of the darker boards to give it a more even appearance. The following photo shoes the cabinet with the new boards in place and the Ash top in place.

This photo was taken of the cabinets installed and the top being finished with a satin varnish. To the right you can see the wood surround for the pipe.

After the finish had cured, The blue tape was removed and trim was put around the top. Below are a few photos of the completed cabinet. A special thanks to Joan Gardiner, Shirley Lyle Volberg, and The staff of Franklin Park Arts Center. This was a fun project and I am glad to have been a part of it.

Steamer Trunk (ca. 1908)

The Restored Steamer Trunk

A recent project to come through the shop was the restoration of an old steamer trunk.The customer who owned the piece said it has passed down through her family and that she would like to have it restored. Not much is known about this trunk except that the lock that was on the trunk said "The H&A Lock Company Patented December 10th 1907" around the keyhole. There were no indications that this lock was a replacement so I assume it to be the original. If that is true then the trunk would have to have been made after that date and was probably made at the earliest sometime in 1908. 

The trunk was made of pine that was covered in canvas or linen and tin. The wood slats that are mounted to the surface appeared to be made of Chestnut. The trunk was also adorned with leather straps and handles as well as a lock and fasteners, making it quite a chore to open and close the trunk, and also making it hard for the contents to unintentionally escape!

The condition of the trunk as it came to me was pretty bad. The exterior straps and handles had rotted and were largely missing. There were also significant portions of the canvas missing from the top. The interior of the trunk, which had been papered was torn and brittle, and also smelled of mildew. In essence, this trunk really needed some help! That being said, the damage was reversible and the customer and I decided to go ahead with the project. Below are a few photos of the trunk as it came into the shop.

The front

 The back.

 

The top.

Missing handles from the sides.

The interior with the rotted paper lining.

This photo is of the inner tray which was also papered.

After removing the paper from the interior and removing the finish from the Chestnut slats, the entire trunk was masked with newspaper with the exception of the portions that were covered in tin, which was originally painted black. The Photos below shows this part of the project

After it was masked, The tin portions were painted with Rust inhibiting black spray paint. This quickly brought the black look back to these sections. After the paint had dried the paper was carefully removed.

These next few photos show the interior after it was sanded. After the interior was sanded it was painted with Kilz primer. This is not standard procedure for me, but I thought it was a good idea to try to contain the mildew smell in the interior.

After the paint had dried on the interior, the new paper was applied to the entire interior and the tray. Below are some photos of the interior after the paper was applied.

The exterior of the trunk was finished with shellac to bring back the nice brown color of the canvas. The lock was also replaced due to the fact that someone had broken the original trying to open it. The leather straps and handled were also replaced. Here are a few photos of the completed trunk.

At the end I included two photos of the old lock which was kept with the trunk as part of its history.

Late Classical Mahogany Chest of Drawers (ca. 1830)

The Completed Chest of Drawers

A recent restoration project was a chest of drawers from the Late Classical period of American Furniture. I say in the title that the piece was made of Mahogany, but in truth there were several other woods used both in primary and secondary settings. The entire front facade of the piece is made up of Mahogany and all of the other woods used in the manufacture of this piece play a supporting role. Before delving into the woods used, it would be useful to pin this chest to a specific time period to see how it plays a role in the evolution of style from Federal New York to American Empire and the larger  Late Classical period. 

In researching a piece, I often ask the customer what they know about the piece. In this case the customers indicated that the piece was bought in New York some years ago. While pieces can move around a lot, I decided to look at other examples of chest of drawers from this period that are known to have been made in New York. Many pieces exhibited carved columns and similar drawer configurations. Upon further research, I looked at a book I have on Scottish cabinetmakers in Federal New York. The book is entitled "Scottish Cabinetmakers in Federal New York" and is written by Mary Ann Apicella. I referenced this book before in researching a Federal arm chair and have found it a good source of information on a variety of furniture forms. In her section on chest of drawers, Ms. Apicella takes a look at the styles of chests that emerged in early 19th century New York and cross references those styles with English and Scottish examples from the same period in an attempt to isolate the design elements that are unique to Scottish cabinet making. She speaks of the emergence of a wide frieze above the top set of drawers in English 19th century chests. This frieze was purely decorative and was typically veneered or sometimes fluted. Scottish examples have short glove drawers set into this frieze. According to Apicella, This is unique to Scottish chests.

American examples in Federal New York made by Scottish Cabinetmakers exhibited this same drawer configuration and also placed the deepest drawer above the other drawers. This deep drawer was often decorated with crossbanded veneers or oval inlays in the drawer front. A piece attributed to Richard Allison ( a contemporary of Duncan Phyfe and a Scottish New York Cabinetmaker) can be seen in this link:

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/2504363

The piece in the link has many similarities to the chest I worked on. That being said, there are many notable differences. In terms of design, The piece I worked on has as much to do with later examples of an American Empire chest as it does with the earlier Federal example. To illustrate this, here is a link to a later American Empire Chest of Drawers:

http://www.cowanauctions.com/auctions/item.aspx?ItemId=19343

In this example, The top set of short drawers are entirely missing and the long deep drawer is on top. One point of interest is that the drawers below the top drawer are inset between the columns. The same is true of the example I worked on except all of the long drawers are inset between the columns and only the two short drawers are overhanging.

It is my opinion that this chest has one foot in each period and in it is seen a transition in design from the late Federal to the late Classical or American Empire. The other indicator of this is that the side construction on this chest is solid, where later examples (after 1840) show a frame and panel construction, as seen in the second link. This adoption of the frame and panel construction was to reduce the risk of the sides cracking, because the large panel is floating in the frame and is free to expand or contract. The solid side is fixed at its outer edges and as it expands and contracts the side cracks down the middle. The chest in question suffered from this fate many years ago and Mahogany wedges were glued in place to fill the crack.

Now that that is cleared up, onto the specifics! The chest was made primarily of Poplar and Cherry. The poplar was used exclusively as a secondary wood in  the case construction. The Cherry was used for the top and sides and the upper edges of the drawer fronts. This is typical of pieces from this time as decent Mahogany was expensive and often hard to come by in wide widths. Cherry, sometimes called the "poor man's Mahogany" was often substituted and stained to match the Mahogany sections. 

The front of the chest was veneered with a West Indies Mahogany, probably from Cuba or the Dominican Republic. The columns and the knobs were made from Honduran Mahogany, which was typically used for these purposes due to its availability in wider widths. Other stray woods used in the piece were Pine in the case construction and Oak for the interior drawer slides. The columns and feet were both highly carved, the columns with Acanthus Leaf and spiral reeding and the bun feet were also reeded. The inclusion of these well carved elements points towards a city center, such as New York City, as a place of manufacture, but it is difficult to say. Perhaps this was made by a Scottish Cabinetmaker in New york later in his career. One other element that would pont towards a Scottish or English hand were the atypical small pins in the dove tail construction on the drawers. American Dovetail pins are usually wider than their British counterparts. The inclusion of these small pins in an American chest may point towards an immigrant cabinetmaker. There are many clues, but just as many questions!

The condition of the chest was pretty good when it came to me, but the majority of the finish had been ruined with repeated application of Linseed oil. This caused the finish to crack and soften. The exception to this was the carved elements, which were in much better shape. Because of this I decided to remove the finish from the top, sides, and drawer fronts and leave the carved elements with the existing finish. This allowed me to also remove some black rings on the top of the chest and repair loose and missing veneer. Below are some photos of the restoration process.

These first few photos show some repairs. The first photo shows veneer being glued down and patched. The following photo shows one of the feet removed which was later glued back in place. The third photo shows more veneer repair.

This photo shows veneer repair done to the large crosbanded drawer as well as a repair to one of the short drawers.

This photo shows the chest repaired and with all of the repairs in place. You can see that I manitained the existing finish on the carved portions of the chest.

These next two photos show the side construction from the inside of the chest. There were metal brackets which spanned the cracks in the sides. These were put in during a previous restoration in an attempt to stabilize the cracking sides. I figured that they did more good than harm, so I decided to leave them. The second photo shows how the drawer supports were dovetailed into vertical stiles which supported the carvings in the front and acted as legs in the back of the chest.

The next two photos show the chest during the finishing process.

These last few photos show the completed chest of drawers.