Design Process: Part II

Krenov and others working in his style has had a huge impact on me recently. Both, in terms of aesthetic sensibilities, and in the mindset of the woodworker. Here follows the finished cardboard mock-up of the Walnut Key Cabinet. This photo shows the actual view a six foot tall individual will see of the hung cabinet.

The size is approximately 18" tall, 11 3/4" wide and 7 1/4" deep. The case will be of walnut shown below, the frame and panel back will be QS white oak, with mabye white pine or beech for the panel. I think there will also be another thin rail 2/3rds up the back panel with pegs in it. This is, after all, a key cabinet. I think. The case will also have a drawer, hidden by the door, I'm not sure what wood that will be yet, maybe white oak also.  

These next two pictures are of the mock-up building, very simple tools and materials. I love paper mock-ups. These are the same techniques I teach in the first project of my model making class. 

  I really love the grain in this board, it measures just over 7 1/4 inches wide and about 8 foot several inches long. I wasn't intending to buy walnut when I visited the lumberyard, but I couldn't resist. There were two other walnut boards
I could have gone for, and a gorgeous 8/4 spalted maple slab...I should have gotten it. It's probably gone now. Live and learn. 

Design Process: Part I

After reading through Tom Fidgen's book Made By Hand, again, I was inspired to start designing a wall cabinet around this one waney edged board I picked up a few months ago. I did a few thumbnails and then started to build the thing in SketchUp to see the proportions work out. Here's a look at a few of the drawings. The one on the left is the front face of the cabinet, I'm imagining the door is fumed beech with glass and mullions. I've also got thumbnails of the mullion arraignments there too, I like the asymmetric ones I guess... Six lights looks good to me, but not for the feel of this cabinet, it's too house-like in this instance. I also like the dramatic feeling in an irregular angular layout. I'll need to build some mock ups to solve that question.   

I'm pretty happy with the case at this point, but I'm still not sure on a few things, the location of the shelves/drawers/dividers and the arraignment of the lights. I'll make a mock up out of cardboard with interchangeable parts to live with the arraignments in real life. Stay tuned.