I'm in the process of designing a new project for the wife, she is my client. After all these years that she has put up with my woodworking obsession: the tools, lumber, the dusty messes and the late night reading of every piece of material I could get my hands on, its time I pay her back. The project is to build something for the dining room that will both store dishes and silver while providing a serving area for platters or drinks. She has a finely tuned palette when it comes to furnishings so I really need to take this to the next level to meet/exceed her high expectations. I've really enjoyed this site the past 6 months and wanted to use the design form to see if I can work out some remaining design issues and get some feedback from the group as I build it over the next few months.

The design inspiration started by scouring the web, old wood mags and books looking for every early American period hutch, china cabinet, cupboard that I could find. After presenting a dozen influential pieces to the "design committee", she seemed to gravitate towards the look and feel of the Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York "country" looking pieces. Not rough pine but pieces without a lot of intricacies, inlays or fancy brass. Just somewhat elegant simple pieces with flat surfaces, Chippendale influenced bracket feet, large moldings and exposed joinery.

The material that the hutch will be built out of is some Tiger/Curly Hard Maple I've been stock piling the past few years. I have a few different lumber grades from AAAAA Fiddle back Tiger Maple to medium curly stuff. That would be the primary wood, poplar would be the secondary wood and I'm also considering the possibility of incorporating in some Birdseye or Ebony for "pegs or knobs" if appropriate.

The finish that catches her eye is a nice rich antique maple color with a top coat of blonde shellac. But the exact formula to be used needs to be experimented with and proven, after generating a few samples and being able to repeat it two or three times is the point where I'll sign off on anything. I would love to get some suggestions from anyone that has experience with Tiger Maple. Robert Millard has a great tutorial showing one technique I would love to try out but my wife wants it a little darker in shade.

I want to make sure and do this project right from the start, so I've kicked it off after some quick paper drawings using Sketchup. I have about 15+ hrs. in this model that I've built so far but the time has been so valuable as I run into issues that I never thought about before. And I would rather solve them digitally versus half way through the real thing. It has really pushed my boundaries with the application and helped me learn how to create Ogee Bracket Feet and incorporate real joinery.

Here are a few exported pictures from Sketchup showing the preliminary design:


The model is still missing a few items such as backer boards, drawers, cabinet doors and hutch single pane doors. Two dimensions that I overlooked is the depth of the top hutch: 14 inches and the bottom cupboard with is 20 1/2 inches. As you can see there are a few measurements that have a phantom 1/64" added or missing from an inch.. not sure how that happens.


When possible I've been adding joinery details to the piece to allow me to workout the layout and a more detailed build outline.


This image shows the backside of the Ogee Bracket Feet with the hidden support material. The feet are 4 1/4" high, 9 3/8" long and 1 3/4" thick. These feet are pretty close to what I pictured the final piece using, but they need some work and I might work that out using the full size patterns.


I'm in the process of designing the profile for the three moldings. The top molding will most likely be a buildup of several pieces of wood due its size and added flexibility to make. Moldings have only been added to one side of the project to minimize the Sketchup work until the profiles are finalized.

There are a number of construction, design and joinery unknowns that are haunting me, here is a quick list of a few:

1. The design was initially influenced by the desire to maximize space, lift the hutch to give 12" of space for plates and misc. Does the overall proportion or the whole piece, the top, the bottom.. individual drawers work for you? I know this might be a bit premature to work on until the moldings, doors and drawer fronts are incorporated.

2. The backer boards are one area that I need to get some advise on, I would like to do some ship lapped 1/2" boards along the back with a potential bead incorporated. As for the a vertical versus horizontal orientation, what about color? Should they painted white, light blue or left finished like the rest of the piece?

3. The molding profiles so far have been influenced by profiles of wooden planes that I currently have but that is pretty limiting so I'm still searching for a molding reference site. Do you have any suggestions or resources?

4. This is the first large case piece that I've worked on and I was wondering about the base construction, how the bottom molding and bracket feet are attached. Should a center support be added since the current design has the piece spanning 70".

5. My design around the center draw area incorporates solid vertical dividers. From a structural aspect is this design correct? Wood movement shouldn't be an issue since the grains will all be moving in unison.

6. Initially I planned on using poplar for the bottom of the carcass but after reading a thread Tommy posted yesterday about only using secondary wood where it is not seen I'm thinking about using some "less" figured hard maple for the bottom. It looks like the only use for poplar is for the drawer slides and underneath bracket feet supports. Does that seem like a correct use considering all the stresses applied to the feet and given how soft poplar can be. Should I use hard maple for the bottom.

7. Laying out the stock. Once I start to pick where each piece of lumber will be incorporated I wanted to run by you my list of prioritization for the use of the better grades. The drawer fronts and cabinet doors will get the best figured stock followed by the cupboard top, case sides, moldings, bracket feet and the face frame. How does this ordering work for everyone? I would love to hear your suggestions.

8. The face frame. Is this something that would commonly be incorporated in an older period piece? It just seemed like a logical way to design the piece given the drawers and cupboard construction. If so, were they attached using just glue or were other mechanical "pegs/nails/screws" used to fasten them?

I guess that is enough for now. I'm looking forward to feedback and hopefully I can keep this project on schedule and regularly post my progress and obstacles to ensure an on-time April/May delivery time frame to the misses. She thinks it won't get completed until after next September.

One Question:

How does your wife feel about the figured wood?

I am not sure if that goes with the simple "country" style.

I thought it was very interesting in Neil's Wendell Castle interview when Wendell discussed how highly figured woods can take away from the impact of the piece itself. The focus moves to the wood and the finish and the piece/design gets lost.

--steve

Steve,
My wife does love Tiger Maple and appreciates figured woods in general so that was never a concern whether she would like it. And I do agree that it seems like a stretch to think of nice figured hardwoods being used in a "country" piece of furniture so I admit the adjective "country" was used a bit loosely in my title. Naming it was a dilemma since the piece seems to be stuck between the formal chippendale chest, huntboard, sideboard, federal breakfront styles and the true Pennsylvania country furniture styles that people really associate descriptors like "rustic", "distressed" or "painted". It is sort of a scrounge I suppose.

One of the concerns I had with this piece is exactly what you pointed out when Wendell Castle mentioned that people often overlook the fact that figured woods will compete and detract from the design of a piece. Right now my thinking to minimize that from happening is to stick with classic design principles that have held up to the test of time. I've backed off in many ways during the design to keep it safe, making sure every aspect of the design complements the overall proportion of the piece, the weight and scale provide a visual balance across the piece. If that is true, the piece should be strong enough to stand up to the heavily figured wood. It sounds good on paper.

Scott,

Why expose dovetails? Is it to show off your joinery skills or to enchance the overall piece?

If you are building the piece in solid wood, why the face frame?

Having a base span of 70" won't you need some support in the middle of the piece? The middle would need to support a lot of weight.

What type and style of doors and drawers will you be using? (inset, overlay, partial overlay). Will you be using mechanical drawer slides or traditional fit drawers?

Some points or food for thought....

The upper backer boards? Do you have enough stock to make them out of maple? What is the color of most of your wife's stuff - dark or light?.... How's the lighting in the room where its going to be? Dark stuff, darker room... go lighter, maybe the same maple or painted poplar..... is everything already light colored and the room bright? Then maybe a darker backdrop would be better. I'd probably run the boards vertically..... are they going all the way down to the top of the base?

I don't know about the center support. If the bottom case is a large dovetailed box out of hard maple..... eliminate the face frame idea and use all sliding stopped dados in the case..... the vertical partitions would be all maple, all the horizontal pieces would be poplar with the maple glued on the front..... all the partitions would slide in the stopped dados from the back...... or from the front and slide in dovetails - like the bombe, this would make quite a solid box..... and think, how much weight is going to go in this thing? The center only has drawers.... the weight of the drawers themselves and their associated dividers will probably outweigh their contents. There's no way it's going to sag under its own weight and unless you load it with dumbbells I doubt it would move. The weight of the upper section shouldn't matter because the load from it will be transferred down the sides of the case onto the feet. Do any of the old ones you've been looking at have a center support?

Stock layout...... try to let the wood all blend together.... the face frames or partitions should share the same wood that the drawers and doors do, so the whole front of the piece blends together...... ya know, the horizontal partitions should match the drawers and the rails of the doors.... while the the vertical partitions match the stiles of the doors and the panels. Try to get the sides of the upper and lower cases to match by using the same boards to make each side.... how wide is your stock? Two boards to make up the 14", continue that down and add another board to make the 20.5" on the bottom? Depends on what you have I guess. The bottom of the base could be less figured with a nice piece glued on the front edge where its visible. I'd plan to select the best stock for the visible parts of the case first, then if you still have nice stock left, try to work it into the inside of the upper case - the area that will be eye level when everything is opened up...

Maybe a pic of one of the pieces you were looking at will help us out. It might help the face frame idea or answer Chuck's question about the exposed joinery. I don't know much about this stuff but it seems as if you've sort of combined two methods of cabinet construction.... I don't know if you'd do the face frames on a dovetailed carcass traditionally.... maybe you'd see them more on a frame and panel construction - maybe someone else could clarify this??

catch ya later

Hmmm. I could see a country piece in regular maple but all in Tiger might be a little bit overwhelming because this seems to me to be a beefy piece of furniture. Could it maybe just have some Tiger maple accents rather than having the whole piece figured? What else is in the room with this piece? Do you really want this hutch to be the focal point of the room? Will the dining table or other stuff in the room be able to hold it own?

Steven Naslund
Chicago IL

Chuck,
Why expose dovetails? Is it to show off your joinery skills or to enchance the overall piece?
Both my wife and I like the overall look, the contrast between the long grain and end grain would serve as a design element. The exposed dovetails would only appear from the top on the two sides, the molding along the bottom and top sides of the cupboard will hide the ends of the tails.

If you are building the piece in solid wood, why the face frame?
The entire piece will be built out of solid wood, and as for the face frame.. it is really the two side stiles that give it the appearance of a face frame, the other parts of the "drawer dividers" are really just functioning as primary wood glued to secondary wood draw slides/dust frames. The two stiles are 3" wide and were to function as an additional design element and also my thinking was the larger boards would provide more mass and wood to hold the two cabinet doors.

Having a base span of 70" won't you need some support in the middle of the piece? The middle would need to support a lot of weight.
The addition was one of my initial questions to ensure the structural "anti-sag" integrity of the piece. As Dave later on points out, the transfer of weight along the sides from the top hutch will go directly down to the feet so the drawers and its contents are really main concern. I'll play around with it in Sketchup and add a middle support to see if it adds anything to the piece design wise. I can always add nice decorative shell shape to the middle of the bottom case molding that would conceal a hidden leg positioned directly in the middle of the base out of eyesight.

What type and style of doors and drawers will you be using? (inset, overlay, partial overlay). Will you be using mechanical drawer slides or traditional fit drawers?
The style of doors for the base would be double raised panel doors and traditional fitted drawers. Personally I'm on the fence to use either inset w/ cockbeading or partial overlayed doors using a delicate thumbnail pattern on the overlay. Both of the styles would add a certain character to the piece, inset a little more sophisticated due to the contrasting shadow lines introduced. The hutch top will be closed with three 6 pane divided light doors, the center one won't be functional. The top doors would most likely be partial overlayed but I guess I'll need to take a look at some other pieces.

What are your thoughts with the style of doors?

Dave,
I do have enough hard maple to make the hutch backer boards out of solid stock, I have a ton of full 4/4 material that I would just resaw and surface one side to a bit over 3/8".. leaving the backs rough. I do think vertical is the best orientation for the backer boards as well. The piece is wide enough, and a horizontal orientation might make it seem all the wider. The base cupboard will most likely use the secondary poplar for backer boards, 1/2" shiplapped as well. As for the dishes, we have a few sets of lighter colored pieces, cut crystal and silver. My wife has been eyeing Ironware, so I have a feeling we will be displaying mostly white or lighter shape pieces.

I've seen a few wider federal breakfront pieces that incorporated middle legs, but I'm not sure how they are constructed, but most likely those legs are not functional but design elements. I can always add a hidden leg to the middle of the case just as a precaution.

Stock wise, I have a lot of lumber to play with around 200+ bd/ft, and in cases where I need hard maple but it won't be exposed I have some grade B Birdseye and less Curly stock. Width wise I have 8 10' boards 12"-16" wide so I should be able to have some nice continuous grain along the the sides of the hutch and cupboard and use two nice boards for the top to minimize the glue up lines. It should be possible to use only two board glue ups for the majority of the case. My best figured stock is in the 5" to 8" wide range with is perfect for the partition pieces, doors and drawer fronts. I'm really looking forward to the stock selection. Part of my design is because I have a ton of 4/4 stock and only one nice 8/4 piece that will be used on the bracket feet and top molding if necessary.

I'll address Steven's question and post some pictures of the pieces that my wife liked in a few.

Dave,
Here are a few pictures of the pieces that caught my wifes eye and have driven the design so far.


By Olde Mill Cabinet Shoppe
This piece was the most "country" of the lot, but you can see how it contains a lot of the same elements in the three other pieces.


By Alan Turner
This piece is the one that has me even considering the use of inset drawers and doors.


This is an amazing piece, the curly maple really works well. My wife didn't like the hutch doors, she wanted a bit simpler form.


By Kinloch Furniture
This piece incorporates a lot of amazing details, bracket feet and is wider in dimension.

Steven,
This piece would be the focal point of the room and would share it with our Duncan Phyfe style table and maple ladder back chairs. My next projects would be to build a huntboard and a new table to match. It would function as the dominate piece just due to its size.
In my initial posting when I noted a question about the order of priority for the use of the prime figured maple, I was thinking that it would be okay to use slightly less curly stock for the face wood so the stock used in the drawers and doors would really pop and not compete together. But now I'm not sure since that is the view that most people will see when they walk in the room or when seated at the table.

Scott,
I really like what you have come up with so far. I think it will be beautiful and your wife will love it.

Concerning the possible sag, I have built some things where I was concerned about sag and I used slightly larger rails to help it out.

I also wondered if a center stiffener applied to the bottom of the case from side to side would help. I would install it near the center front to back so it wouldn't be noticeable. It could be also be tapered from the center to each end.

Just an idea!

A little war story about a cabinet I built. I was going to use doors with a small round over overlay and when I was cutting the rabbit for the door I goofed and cut too far and ruined a door. Man was I PO'ed (mad)! Those doors took a lot of work to build. So what I did was to saw off the round over on all the doors and drawers and installed cock bead. I'm glad I did because it looks great.

Charlie M.

Scott,

This is a cool post. For a beginner like me it is great to following along and see how you go through the design process. Thank you for taking the time to write up a detailed description and to include sketch up drawings – I am learning a lot.

I would like to provide some feedback on the design (I am no Neil Lamens but I will try to provide a constructive comment or two ), however one question before I do; are the sides tapered? I can not tell if it is the way that the sketch up drawing appears in the front view or if the sides are indeed tapered.

Mike

Medford, MA

Charlie,
Thanks for the the comments.. I'm happy with the piece so far and I know my wife will really be happy to get her dishes and china out of the moving boxes this year sometime.. Its only been three years.
Attaching a thicker rail or center leg is a great idea. The bottom chest will only be 4 1/4" inches off the ground so unless someone is on their knees looking under it they wouldn't see a center leg support or supporting stiffener. I'm all about over engineering a piece if there is any doubt that it could cause something to fail many years down the line.

Your mistake rabbiting the door turned into a design opportunity. My in-laws have an old chippendale lowboy with partial inset drawer fronts with a delicate thumbnail profile around them. I'm amazed at how thin those drawer sides are and the fact that the craftsman of long ago did such a great job with out any short grain tear out. As with your story, the inset doors/drawers with applied cock-beading would be a bit easier if that is possible making a project such as this.

Mike,
I'm glad you are getting some use out of this post. That is really one of the reasons why I'm taking the time to do it, first to help me keep up a good pace and make some progress on the project and two to think through the process and learn from and incorporate feedback provided by the local 207 members. And last but not least, this post is trying to document the design process since so many other project tutorials start with completed plans and jump right into the construction, post design phase.

As for the Sketchup pics, no the case sides are not tapered, I think the two point perspective really distorts the piece and changes its lines a bit. I still have to work on the best way to output pics that best represent the piece. I'm planning on posting an updated set of Sketchup screen caps tomorrow once I get a few more changes incorporated. The moldings will be added, backer boards and hopefully the drawer fronts will be in as well.
Let me know if you are interest in the actual Sketchup source file to play around with it. I'll add an attachment link to the thread shortly.

Scott,
The offer for a Sketchup source file is great. I am currently playing with Sketchup trying to get proficient with it. It's coming but slowly! Can't be old age though!

Good day!

Charlie Mullins

A few updates to the model, last night: rabbited the back of the cupboard and hutch for the backer boards, finalized the base transition molding between the case and Ogee Bracket Feet, updated the internal structure to better resemble the real joinery using mortised and tenoned drawer slides that dado into the case.

I've uploaded two Sketchup files:
1. Bracket Feet Parts
2. The Hutch Cupboard

I was planning on putting together a quick tutorial how to make the bracket feet next week if anyone is interested. Also it would be beneficial if the local 207 started to build a library of furniture parts, molding profiles, etc. to aid in the Sketchup modeling phase.

I like the design and I think the figured stock should be on the doors and drawers and maybe less figured on the framing and sides. You have really thought this out a lot and I think you have a good design here. One thing to consider on the shelves is something I had to recently deal with myself. I replaced a shelf in a bookcase that was sagging. On the new shelves I put a small strip of edging on the front and rear of the shelf with a tongue and groove joint. It was only about 1/2" thicker than the shelf and it added an incredible amount of strength and stability to the piece. I think it is at least doubling the weight capacity. Nice thing is that you could try the shelf without it first as long as it is removable. If it sags too much for you, you can edge the shelf. One thing to look out for is that it makes the shelf visually thicker.

Steve Naslund
Chicago IL

Hey Scott..........are the Sketch-up drawerings above, particularially the one titled The Hutch Cupboard your completed drawering (crown, bases molding, faces etc)? For those of us who do not use Sketch-up are we missing a completed drawering here????

Went though the thread again we've pretty much hit on everything to date, I found the Castle comment interesting and presents an opportunity.

____________________________________________________________________________

I'd like to possibly clear-up uninformed, shallow, internet misinformation, pick your term... regarding Castle, exotics, integrity, decorative art, and studio furniture.

Castle is considered the Father of Studio Furniture. Was he the only choice at the time? No. You had Osgood, Keyser, Makepeace, Hopkins, Kagan, Bennett, Harris, any number of guys mostly born in the 1930’s. But he became that person because he believed in what he was constructing, as other craftsman shuddered at his technique. It wasn’t the traditional joinery and technique found in furniture and people fretted over the question of its longevity. The common thread that always was forefront in discussion and is lost today was the integrity of the craft.

I’ll digress but just when it seems so lost today and down on all fours, Charles M posts his Tall Case Clock, Ustompsteve, aka: Steve, takes us through his journey of a chair, Austin lands in Irion, Chuck rides us through a Fed table complete with detours by John Z into Dunlap Table stringing, Daddy-O puts himself on the block to be a better woodworker, Swedishiron takes us into his dining room, and Dave McLaren questions furniture being expendable. These are qualities that address and open us up to discussing the integrity of our craft.

With round one of Castle versus Krenov over (Castle always wins) let’s get back to whatever the heck I was writing.

Oh, it was exotics that “ustompsteve” brought up and referenced Castle, I found this interesting and thought maybe just maybe this was Castles’ “mental moment”. To begin, the only way that he could comment on exotics was that he had experienced them. We must understand that he is always searching to build “functioning art”. His art like all art is intended to dominate the surroundings. So imagine the swipe at his ego when somebody comments on the wood first and not the object. “To hell with exotics”, screams Castle “it’s the form of the object that should dominate” as he scoffs at the Krenovian resawn book-matched veneered doors. All his life, Castle has been fighting to keep his work out of “decorative arts” which is what we build.

Let’s not beat around the bush. Studio Furniture is intended to dominate an environment. To grab the viewer and wake’em up. Decorative Arts are put through the design process to blend, to become a part of the surroundings, to compliment the setting not to dominate but to become a part of. The only design element that may provide a bit of separation is the wood selection and of course the execution of the integrity of our craft.

By the way………..building to the Decorative Arts pays more consistently than building Studio Furniture, although most people say they are Studio Furniture Makers because it sounds good, most are building to the decorative arts in a shop. Oh that word integrity again


Keep going Scott what other morsels are you going to bring out???

Go Rough Cutters Go!!!!

Scott,

Again I like what you have done with the hutch. It's turning out very good.

Some comments---
1. A few weeks ago I asked about how to design Ogee Bracket Feet. I was informed that they are a form that is designed to please the designer,--my interpretation--, as there is no formula as such. Your Ogee feet are very pretty IMHO. I did a Sketchup overlay and discovered that they were very close to two squares laid side by side. Thanks, I'll probably use that in the future. I have been using the golden rectangle and some have turned out nice.

2. The hutch drawing has a profile drawn on the upper right that is a form I like a lot. I was wondering how you intend to mill/shape it? do you have a molding plane/s to cut that or a shaper cutter? Inquiring minds want to know!

If I were doing that with the equipment I have on hand it would be cut in two pieces, the cove part with the bead and small cove added on. I go as easy as I can!

Have a great day!

Charlie M.

I haven't had a chance to read todays postings, but I should have some time later to respond.
Before I forget, I've uploaded the latest Sketchup file with the three molding profiles completed last night. My next steps with the model include designing the drawer fronts, raised panel doors, and divided light hutch doors.
Once those are completed the hutch will be considered complete in its most basic form.. then the fun begins, adding the embellishments to give it a unique look.

FYI, I've started to collect some molding patterns being saved into a single file. A majority of the profiles were grabbed from the Sketchup 3D warehouse but as I find/create new ones I'll add to the inventory.

Updated Sketchup files:
1. Molding Parts
2. The Hutch Cupboard

Hey,

I love the way this discussion is going. I'm definitely more interested in the construction aspects of furniture, but threads like this really get me into design and particularly the interaction between the two. I haven't finished reading the thread because I started reading it backward, but that bit about Wendell Castle caught my attention. We recently had Curtis Buchanan (http://www.curtisbuchananchairmaker.com/homepage.html) come to the school and teach us how to make a windsor chair. He is absolutely fascinating, and may make the best furniture I've ever seen. I'll talk more about the experience in another thread. During the workshop, he was complaining about the trend of letting the wood speak for the furniture. His take, and one of the reasons he loves windsors, was to think about a piece painted black. What do you have then? All the impressiveness of the wood is gone and you just have the form. If the form isn't good, you've got nothing.

Eli

Steve,
I think you are right, the sides will get the widest less figured wood keeping the focus on the front of the piece. If I fix the top shelves in the hutch I should be able to provide some additional hidden support behind the face frame stiles. That was my initial thought if fixed.

Charlie,
I had a hard time finding a bracket feet design that really jumped out at me. The one incorporated is off from the usual ideal of the "golden" proportion but due to the mass of the piece the 2:1 ratio seems to work. The molding profile in the model if the stacked one is something that I will most likely create using all the tools in my workshop: tablesaw, router, hand scrapers, plough and molding planes. That is the luxury of incorporating fillets in a molding, it provides the perfect place to cut and stack the molding from multiple pieces, making it a lot less expensive to not have to locate curly hard maple stock in larger dimensions. I worry though how the grain patterns will come together and whether or not the final molding will work. I might have to pay close attention to the grain using only quartersawn material. That top cornice molding is so important, a focal point for those walking by.

Whoa Neil.. I have to say you make an excellent point about the decorative arts versus studio furniture comparison. Now putting myself inside the head of an artist such as Mr. Castle, I can see why the choice of material is so important. In my head I want this to be a piece of artwork, but I guess not in the same sense as Duchamp's latrine. Crossing between this point and what Eli brought up concerning the importance of just focusing on the pure form of the piece is why I'm enjoying my modeling time in Sketchup. I'm designing in an environment where no surface textures have been applied, I haven't picked out my lumber yet for the different parts. Right now I'm 100% working in a black and white world using lines, curves, creating shadows and negative space but still concentrating on the pure form of the piece. My previous pieces are guilty of following the trend of letting the wood speak for the furniture. I'm usually hording amazing boards waiting for the perfect piece that will just so happen require the same bd/footage as i have available.. to minimize wasting this amazing wood of course. But the final product can be hit or miss, if the lighting isn't right to highlight that wood or show off the grain pattern the piece can fall short under its own merit. This just all reiterates the importance of using sound design principles and working through the piece whether full scale drawings or in a 3-D applications to discover, explore and find the weak points in your design.

Back to the design, I have to say that this model I've been building is taking a lot longer than expected given all the experimentation with design elements. In the latest Sketchup file posted yesterday, the cupboard doors and drawers are completed. The drawers are inset and have an 1/8" cockbeading applied to the drawer. The doors are an inset double raise panel design without any cockbeading. The light at the end of the tunnel is just starting to be visible with the exception of adding the hardware and hutch doors. Each door will have 6 panes of glass making them tedious but a pretty fun challenge to tackle. As for the hardware choices, this is going to be a bear to find something that the little misses really likes. I was hoping to keep it very classical in feel, so my first instinct was to add Chippendale Pulls & Escutcheons to the model. Below in the first screen capture.


My wife isn't thrilled with the look of those drawer pulls. She thinks it looks too formal or intricate, and I think she's a closet brass hater at heart. I mentioned the rosette style pulls as an alternative but for some reason she associates them with more contemporary furniture design. Her request was to use knobs for all the doors and drawers. What is your opinion on using something like one of these Sheraton knobs?


The second attachment shows the same 3/4 view with only escutcheons.

Questions:
1. Would you add cockbeading around the bottom cupboard doors? Or bead the face frame?
2. Would you fix the hutch shelves to keep them aligned w/ the door muntins?

Good Morning Scott!

Eli made a great comment about the form of a piece. "If the form isn't good, you've got nothing."
I used to build flintlock rifles many years ago and was taught that no matter how many inlays, how elegant the engraving, and how exquisite the carvings are, if the architecture isn't right, it's still wrong. A simple rifle is still beautiful if the architecture is right.

Before I read Eli's comment I thought this would be a pretty hutch even if it were painted black.

Have you thought about simple brass smooth knobs? The case is already elegant enough that it doesn't need any more enhancement unless you want it.

About the cockbead on the doors, I would say yes and apply them to the doors. Then they will have a vertical alignment with the cockbead on the drawers. Makes it neater to my eye.

Fixed shelves that align with the muntins appeal to me, but that's just me.

I think you have done a great job of design and obviously you've done your homework.

Keep it up!

Charlie Mullins

Charlie, Thanks for the comments.. This has been a fun project so far.. and to tell you the truth today I pulled out my curly maple and stacked it against the walls of my garage (aka workshop) to start envisioning where it will be used. That is an excellent feeling.

I'm going to apply the cockbeading to the cupboard doors, the shadows and lines really do bring the piece together. As well the top hutch doors will be cockbeaded for consistency.

The fixed shelves aligning with the muntins appealed to me as well, my greatest concern was my wife.. I meant "client", if she wanted some flexibility to change their position down the line to accommodate new pieces. So far she thinks it would be very disruptive to the overall look and feel if a shelf edge was cutting across or off in alignment from the muntins or glass panes.

I've been officially approved by the wife (client) to proceed with construction as things stand currently. There are a few areas that I personally think need addressing later.. but they can wait for now: top hutch molding profile, knobs and orientation of the cupboard backer boards.. Minor stuff in the big picture. The design has a lot of horizontal and vertical lines that really move your eye across it, the inclusion of cockbeading, moldings, molding fillets and contrasting pegs should provide some interesting shadows and depth to the piece.

Here are a few exported pictures from different angles showing details from important design element areas of the hutch/cupboard. I would like your feedback if you see things that don't agree with you.

Pretty, Pretty, Pretty!

Charlie M.

Scott,

I like the piece and your design. Nice proportions and moldings. There is one thing I would change... The feet as drawn are definitely too bulbous and curvy for my taste. In fact this piece being country I would consider a straight bracket foot. I would still have the scrolled pattern on the inside of the foot as you have drawn. But this is just MY opinion...

This is going to be a great project. Have you started yet? Cal

Cal,
I really appreciate your feedback and think you're right with the design of the feet. The straight bracket foot still brings most of the elements that the ogee design has but it compliments the overall design a bit better. The thing about the ogee foot that catches my eye is the shadow and interesting profile it brings when looking from a 3/4 view up the case side.

I have not started the project yet, although this Sketchup exercise has been amazing and I feel like I've built it and fixed most of the surprises. I was in the garage yesterday and sorted my stock, measured it up and have them leaning around my garage to start laying out the pieces. Total a have about 166 bd/ft of curly hard maple. My next job though would be to put together my cut list and figure out exactly how many bd/ft I'll need.

What steps do you do once you have a design down and know what you want to build?

FWW had a great article about the habits of a successful woodworker. I'll have to pull it out and read over things again.

Just bumping this thread up incase some guys haven't seen it yet..........its good and needs to stay alive.