This cabinet is constructed predominately of Swiss Pear, with the back panels from Arbutus and the stand and door pulls from Bubinga.
The challenge in making this piece was to make the cabinet concave. The doors are curved, with curved rails and straight/vertical stiles, and to complement the doors, the sides of the cabinet are also curved. In order to conserve the amount of wood that I needed and to make the cabinet more stable, the cabinet was constructed using shop-sawn Swiss Pear veneer with Poplar lumber-core inside the veneer (i.e., similar to the way plywood is constructed). The front edge of the glass shelves inside are curved to match the curves of the doors. The doors are also asymmetric, with the left-hand door being wider than the right-hand door, and all six glass panels being a different width with an interesting progression from wide panels at the edges to narrow panels in the middle. The size of the six panels in the back of the cabinet is proportional to the size of the six glass panels in the doors and has the same progression. The Bubinga stand is also curved to match the cabinet.
This was my fourth major project while I was a student attending Inside Passage School of Fine Cabinetmaking.
Materials
Swiss Pear, Bubinga and Arbutus.
Dimensions
27 1/2″ wide x 12 1/2″ deep x 57″ high.
Finish
“Triple-Mix” wipe-on finish, which is composed of equal parts Tung Oil, Waterlox and Paint Thinner.
Status
This piece resides in our home on Vancouver Island.
