About The Project
The customers who commissioned the cabinet had recently moved into their majestic early 1900’s home. The house was designed and built by one of the lead civil engineers for the Northern Pacific Railroad. As such, the home is solidly built and contains a plethora of high-quality interior woodwork.
Because it is an older home, it was designed for entertaining guests rather than raising young children. The customers were in the child raising phase of their life. The living room where the cabinet was to reside also serves as the family room. One requirement was that the cabinet be a place where the kids’ toys could easily be stashed away. Additionally, the cabinet needed to house the electronics for the TV that was wall mounted above it. Lastly, the customers wanted a modern design that made the piece stand out, while complementing the gorgeous woodwork and raised panel walls of the living room and adjacent foyer and dining room.
The interior designer saw a photo of a piece of furniture with an alternating U-pattern on the doors. This was the base idea for the cabinet. The cabinet features co-planer sliding doors, in which each door slides open over the opposing door. This was achieved using some very high end Italian hardware.
The cabinet is made of quarter sawn white oak. Quarter sawing is the process of cutting the boards with the saw cut perpendicular to the annual rings. This results in board faces with a tight, uniform and parallel grain pattern. The boards and door veneer were glued together in a slip matched pattern. In this process, the boards/veneer slices are consecutively laid out and glued together along opposing edges, much like dealing a deck of cards. This results in a matching grain pattern repeating across the surfaces of the cabinet.
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