I always like to mix new technology with an old look and that is just what we got to do with this project. Behind the doors lie a 40" Samsung TV that pops out of the top. This project was for the office in a private library.

Here is a pic that shows the curve of the front. these are the rails

                               Here is a picture of the legs with the mortices  cut for the rails. Below shows the Brusso knife hinges mortice which must be done before the assembly .

Here is a shot of the assembled cabinet. Next the fun part.

This is a picture of one of the side doors sideways in the vice.

Small doors done and working drawer fronts in place

Below is the almost complete cabinet. All that is missing is the library seal we had made by Dover Designs.

Below is a short video of the vacuum bag used to bend the laminated and veneered panels. It is an amazing way to press anything flat or curved. 

Here is a picture of the Nexus 21 TV Lift installed.

Detail of the marquetry

The finished piece before delivery. 

                Louis XVI chairs to go with the Dining table I made for the Beach's.  See the earlier post for that project. Sure no problem I said. What was I thinking!!
   So where to begin was my first question. How about with the easiest part the leg blanks. The only piece that started as a square, straight blank. Every piece after that had some sort of curve to it.
The legs had numerous steps to get them to completion, lots of jigs etc. Oh yeah! there was the 384 flutes to rout out and clean up. Below is the stack of leg blanks, front rail,side rail, and back rails.

                      You could say this generated quite a bit of fuel for the Chiminea at home!

This is an early mock up to check back angles and seat height for the client to sit in.

       Working on the crest rail here. More curves and angles than one knows what to do with.

 This is how I addressed the back leg detail. The legs where angled at 4 degrees I think, and to be honest I can't remember what the upper part of the back legs was reclined at. The problem was how to make it in two pieces and have strength for the stress of someone leaning back after that great meal was finished.

   Here it is refined with the rail  mortices and lay out lines for the back leg turnings.

          Back to the legs. I had my Mike Chavez turn the legs for me. Once that was complete it was on to the 384 flutes that had to be routed on a tapering leg. I came up with this jig for a laminate trimmer with a 1/4 " core box bit to rough them out. Then they all had to be cleaned up to make it a true radius then finished with a small detail at the bottom termination. That was fun for days!!

This is a shot of the little jig used clean out a recess for the paterae.

The stack of finished front legs.

This shows the completed rails with the tenons cut and the rabbit for upholstery and the square detail that will be done with gold metallic paint.

This is almost every part needed to complete a chair.

Starting to come together here.

A couple of shots on the crest rail and bottom upholstery rail.

What can't be seen is the domino I used to join the rails to the leg. The Festool domino machine is second to none for this type of work. It made it way easier than doing a mortice and tenon and is far superior to a couple of dowels.

First dry run on glueing up the fronts to the back. Once I had them all together there was a lot of carving to get the detail around the crest and upholstery rails finished.

This is the gadrooned cap that sat atop each crest rail.

The line up of twelve completed chairs. But we're not done yet we have to turn two of them into arm chairs.

This is the blank for the arms. 

The arm and support column with all it's little details.

One detail I was fretting about was the reeding at the column base. This is an area about 1 1/8" x 2 1/4"

with a series of 1/8" reeds. Carving them was out, to time consuming. A router with a pt cut round 1/16" Radius. That was all good but how to keep the spacing exact. Bumping the fence on the router table was not going to be exact. Then I remembered my 30 year old Incra jig. Yep!!  That was the ticket. Took about 15 minutes maybe and was perfect.

Sorry the pictures are lacking in some of the later steps. I guess I got more concerned with finally finishing this project than documenting it.

Below is one of the arm chairs in primer.

Here is a completed side chair.

Arm detail before some of the patinating took place.

One of the finished arm chairs awaiting approval at Emily Owens Design. 

Thanks Emily and the Beach's for this wonderful and challenging project.

I don't think there are to many sets of twelve Louis XVI chairs being built by hand in the world today.

Next I just want to build a square box again!!!

Here is the inspiration picture a set of twelve dining chairs that will suround  the Louis XVI Dining table in a previous post.
Starting to prime them for the finish today.

This is another project I made about a year ago for the same client that I did the previous post. We wanted to do something in the Federal style. Steve's request was Curly Maple drawer fronts and the upper was to be glazed to show off some great pottery.

The carcase was solid Mahogany. I chose White Pine as the secondary wood.

I used two different pieces for inspiration. For the base and cornice I chose the secretary on page 177 in Albert Sack's The New Fine Points Of Furniture. The upper is from a second Piece on page 175. I think they blended well to create a unique and functional piece of furniture.

 Here's a shot of the drawer details. Dovetails, Curly Maple field with a Mahogany cross band and an   Ebony line separating the two.

 This picture shows the start of the doors for the upper cabinet. The doors where constructed of solid Mahogany then veneered with crotch Mahogany on the exterior and plain sliced to balance on the inside. Although the ached glazing bars where a challenge to do, I love the look.

Here is a detailed shot showing the joinery at the glazing bar intersection. Hard to see but horizontal bars half lap and that through mortices the vertical bar

                                    Here it is with the base complete, upper mostly complete.

                            This is a detail of the Eagle inlay I purchased from Dover Design. Sorry I don't have a close up of just the cornice. It was fun to do and was topped off by three wonderful reproduction brasses finials from Londonderry Brasses. They supplied all of the hardware for the piece and it really finishes a reproduction off right. Thanks Nancy for all your help!

                                                           Before the finish is started.

                                                            Delivered to it's new home.


     I have been working on a set of 12 Louis XVI Dining chairs that I will be posting about soon.