Oregon Walnut Credenza

from the workbench:

Here's an Oregon walnut credenza just about to be moved off the workbench and delivered to downtown Portland, OR.  I made some fun drawer pulls out of bloodwood. Also, as if the flames of sapwood aren't enough, there's an inlay of bloodwood vertically carrying through each drawer face. I always enjoy what I'm doing.

The Audio Visual Dovetailed Cabinet

Here is the front view. 48" x 22"d. x 36" ht.   The drawers below are sized to house DVD cases on edge. These are also hand cut dovetail drawer boxes - no drawer slides - just a box in-a-box design with waxed rails - loose enough for some wood movement. - very smooth.  African wenge wood pulls are hand made.

The finished dovetails

Take it from the top - Finished dovetails

In shop - furniture making

The in-shop workbench layout of hand-cut dovetails on cherry wood - very exacting.

CVG Fir Kitchen

This kitchen has a 9' ceiling and our CVG Fir cabinets feature full height doors. Horizontal grain matching seen here with the solid stock drawer faces is an important design issue. It is most often overlooked with production/stock cabinetmakers because it's expensive labor to keep track of that match. I enjoyed the custom wood microwave "trim kit."

CVG Fir Kitchen

CVG Fir kitchen - highlighting the baking center and prep sink.

CVG Fir Kitchen

Cedar Bench - Bentwood lamination

Bentwood cedar bench 2' x 8' - slats made from CVG cedar landscape bender boards; Brass base pedestals and tabletop / fire-pit cover made by Eric Canon Metals, a metal sculptor also of Forest Grove, OR. I had fun bending the 64 off the shelf 10' long cedar bender boards around an 8' radius form. Exterior white glue -Titebond II works just fine and is easy clean-up, but the process involves dozens of clamps and many set-up clamping sessions. Getting quality clear vertical grain material is key as is the case with any bentwood project, as well as lots of project patience. The finish is Linseed oil and turpentine - several coats. It's been a year since, so it's probably time for another coat. I like how the brass is weathering too.

Edge Detail

Mahogany edge detail

Fly Tying workbench

38" wide and 45" ht. -
This is mahogany - one wide board for the main work top. I had fun with the end panels
and the top edge ends. Even the little drawer faces are fishy shaped. I think my friend Tom will have plenty of room to get that Pheasant tail nymph going.

CHERRYWOOD STORAGE SHELVING/CABINET

Here's a modern rendition of a Japanese step tansu, at a hallway and staircase. This really does help organize within a busy passageway.

This cherrywood entry is for shoes and each door has locker type storage for school backpacks, soccer balls, and skateboards?

Pull-out spice organiztion

Kathy Vinton inspired me to do this. She always has such a fresh approach. Simple wood dowels work well herding the flock of spices.

Let's start with a good breakfast

Cheryl & Chris Hunter have a breakfast table now that will be even more comfy when seat cushions are soon done. This local Oregon white oak wood is from a Forest Grove neighbor - whose backyard tree had a few embedded tree house nails, but we cut around them just in time.
The butterflies are walnut which embellish and help hold things together. It's challenging working with air-dried "green" wood because of natural shrinkage, twisting and cracking but these effects also lend to a nice character - not found in anything but genuine, natural materials.

Cvg Fir Cabinet Door & Butt hinge

CVG Fir & Glass cabinet with butt hinges

Honduran Mahogany Table

Here is a Honduran Mahogany tabletop with my fierce concentric wave carved edge. I'm afraid the ponderosa pine peeler core leg does it little justice and pales in comparison.

White Oak Table

Here is an Oregon white oak table with a strong clean leg detail. With tables I like to announce how leg design should never go unnoticed, and of course I can't help but do things a bit unusual. The edge detailing speaks boldly for itself.

Oregon White Oak Table

This is a pair of bookmatched 4" thick slab of local Oregon white oak placed on a trestle leg system. It was rather green when built, and the wood has shrunken quite a bit. Our butterflies really do the job of holding it together. It weighs a ton, and when you sit at it feeling its solid density, it is a very grounding experience. This is an oil-based satin polyurathane finish.

Maple wood & Granite - Master Vanity

Beaded face framed cabinets

Alder wood studio cabinets

This is an solid alder wood studio with inset flush face frames and where a bead molding is applied to the edge of the drawer faces.

This is an applied molding to the doors and drawers. Inset flush face frames give it the old world appeal. We used hidden euro hinges and full extension under-mounted heavy duty drawer slides.

White Ash Kitchen Cabinets

White ash cabinets; On right, the cabinet doors are integral into VG hemlock paneling.

White Ash - very open shelving

Minimal strip lighting (Hera) is in-laid up into shelves. No visible means of shelf support -(imbedded rods into wall studs & into shelves)

African Iroko Tables

Wonderful wood kitchens

This is an African teak kitchen, or African Iroko wood. We've applied a molded piece to the inside edge of the solid wood frame and panel door. This is just a clear natural finish with no stains used. As a photographer, it's hard to get out of the photo with such a mirrored backsplash.



Here's a French provincial style. These doors are raised panel solid black walnut cabinet doors.
Again, this is just a clear natural finish, which I feel maintains the integrity of the wood. Wood is a real natural material and we need to see it's disposition. Stains often just muddy the waters, homogenizing the character.

Cherry wood with cordovan stain

This is a dark stained cherry wood kitchen where recycling bins pull out from the dining side of the desk/peninsula. The natural cherry countertop is a nice contrast as well as being a working surface finish.

WINE STORAGE

This is a diagonal point of view. The cabinet door diagonal panel pattern vent the air conditioner in this wine room. VG fir is the wood.

Fireplace Cabinet

This is a fun contoured mantelpiece so we created a similar cherrywood countertop edge. This cabinet is full of audio components on pull-out trays etc.

Dark Stained Cherry Kitchen

Raised panel solid stock cherry kitchen cabinets we stained and clear finished.

Nested Trio

These are black walnut lathe turned, hand shaped legs. The many woods of the top inlaid designs are 1/4" thick. They depict my local Oregon Williamette valley - three views- the mountains, the city and the beach. I did this many years ago, but I'm showing it here because I had someone last week ask about it. I'm not sure I could still pull it all off today. I'm rusty on the lathe lately, and getting more lazy with such hand work, but I'd love to find an excuse to get back to it. This set was in a Renwick Gallery traveling USA show. My aunt Barb immediately snapped it up and now I think cousin Randy in New England has it.

Iroko Sideboard Table

This is Iroko wood, which is a very dense and weather sturdy African wood. It is a great exterior wood and is often used in boatbuilding. I band sawed a curve in the top surface for fun and also when it gets wet on the back deck moisture and shrinkage issues are minimal. Through tenon mortices make it for a very strong workbench table. 16" x 36" x 32" ht. - I like Sam Maloof's simple oil mix finish recipe - linseed oil & turpentine etc.

Library cabinets and bookshelves

Here's a corner of a large residential library. There's a whole lot more to it, but this shows a detail of the classical concept.

Horizontal rift grain maple

Here we have continuous horizontal grain matching through all the doors and drawers.

Horizontal rift grain ash

I recently went back to one of my favorite kitchens for it's ten year tune-up. I hardly did a thing and seeing how nicely it has aged, I photographed it . The natural finish on the horizontal ash grain layout works nicely with all their natural skylight flooding in. Laminated maple and poured-in-place cement counter tops are also in great shape.

Half-moon pull-out susan

Cabinet Details

Here is an upper cabinet pull-out storage idea- making use of tight spaces.

Here is lift-up door idea. It makes for good access to the space above a microwave.

Tansu design

This island cabinet is a modern styling of a Japanese Tansu cabinet also modified and installed in the kitchen (seen at upper left- only showing drawers). It's made of flat sawn Doug Fir with applied horizontal banding.

OFFICE DESK

African kaya mahogany office desk with computer in cabinet and printer in a drawer.