About The Project
The customer wanted an aesthetically pleasing alternative to the two plastic kennel crates she kept in the foyer. Her house is very tastefully decorated, and the plastic grates were an eyesore, especially given that they were the first things a person saw when walking in the door. She requested that I design and build a kennel that looks and functions like a Mid-century Modern credenza.
The kennel has four drawers along the top. Instead of cabinets below, which would be found in a typical credenza, the two center panels are fixed. On the ends are doors with metal bars. The inside of the cabinet is the kennel. The customer has two dogs. There is an openable divider in the middle of the kennel that allows for creating two separate kennel halves, or one long contiguous kennel. The back of the kennel is made of slats with space between them, thus providing the needed ventilation.
The kennel is constructed of sapele wood, Sapel is native to tropical Africa and is prized for its subtle ribbon-like iridescent grain pattern, rich golden to reddish-brown tone, harness and workability. The doors of the kennel are made from two booked matched pieces of wood. In this process, two consecutively cut boards are opened and glued together along matching edges, much like opening two opposing pages of a book. This results in the two boards creating a mirror image of each other.
I had several call backs on this piece, not because of any problems with what I built, but instead because of a very curious and determined dog (it’s the female, the male is very chill). As can be seen in the photos, the latch for the door is on the inside of the door, as the customer didn’t want exposed hardware. The latch is opened by pulling up on the lever. The female dog learned to hook her nostril over the lever and pull it open. I came back once and shortened the lever, figuring the needed increased leverage would be too much for the nostril. It was only a couple of weeks before the nostril got toughened up enough to open the latch again. I then build a wooden protective cover over the latch. This lasted a couple of months before the dog chewed it off. The end solution was to install a second latch, as the nostril can only pull one latch open at a time. I only hope that the dog doesn't develop a dexterous tail.
Photo Gallery
