We tore down an enormous brick fireplace and replaced it with this bench that we designed and I built. Jana (my wife) had the idea to plant the succulents underneath, which will look amazing when they grow in fully. We had our first outdoor party with it a few nights ago with some friends and a fire and it was fantastic!
This is a new bed design I dreamed up and decided to build. It's built from jatoba (a.k.a. Brazillian cherry), rosewood and maple.
Our friends Randy and Megan came over to help me take some good photographs of the piece. Randy taught me the power of a solid white background and proper shading in taking good photos, plus he brought over his nice camera and artistic eye. Thanks Randy!
For this bed it was requested that the drawers be very deep- 10 inches as opposed to the normal 5 - 6 inches. So I decided to build them out of baltic birch plywood and cover them with a veneer. The veneer is Indian rosewood while the bed is mostly South American rosewood, but I think it made for an interesting contrast. The headboard is really interesting too- it's got all kinds of birdseye-like markings and highly expressive grain action. I don't really have any idea what type of wood it is but it was mixed in with my stock of rosewood and it looked awesome so I used it. I also really like the pulls on the night stand drawers.
There is a long, harrowing history to this project that I wont bore my readers with, but suffice it to say that after breaking 4 mirrors and an expensive piece of frosted glass, I realized that I really hate glass, and decided to do these in walnut.
This shipping company called Saia destroyed my shipment to Canada (here's some free advice- don't use Saia) so I had to rebuild this set. It was a bummer, but I think I like the way this turned out even better the second time. I'm especially fond of the headboard, which is rather wondrous I must say.
The title pretty much says it all. I think this bed turned out super boss.
This nightstand design was born from the following question: if you strip down a nightstand to its most essential elements, what do you have? My answer: a small table for a lamp, alarm clock and/or book and a drawer for whatever you’d rather not have on display. From there I arrived at this design, sort of a night stand without sides, or a see-through night stand, or however you want to think about it. My favorite part about this design is the fact that the drawer sliding elements are inside the drawer, so that the drawer appears to be floating from all angles beside the back. The added bonus to this design is that, when stripped down as described, the nightstand becomes light enough to float off the ground, attached to the bed with 4 screws.
The bed and nightstands are from solid rosewood, and I also built a sweet candle chandelier from the same material (photos will be forthcoming). The drawers on the nightstands are solid rosewood (minus the bottom) as well. Also notable is the fact that the slats are reclaimed from the legendary Acres of Books bookstore in Long Beach, recently shut down. These slats once composed book shelves- pretty cool, right? Now I’ve got to figure out how to get all of this to Canada- wish me luck!
I'm taking a furniture design class at Cerritos City College, and these are models of my first two projects.
The first project was for a table, so this is an idea for a cantilevered coffee table. The shelf is intended to store remote controls and/or magazines and is meant to be hidden from view, which it mostly would be unless someone was to purposely look under the table. Somehow my shelf on the model didn't end up parallel to the table top, but this is just a flaw in the model, not a strange design element. The model is 1/8 scale. Eventually I'd like to build this with rosewood legs and perhaps a contrasting top, like maple, or vise-versa.
The second project was for a case good, i.e. a piece of furniture that holds something. This is a credenza/entertainment cabinet. The fabric would hide speakers, and the shelves would hold a turntable, records, dvd player, etc. The doors would open like garage doors (vertically). I made them out of zebra wood on this model just for fun, but I actually really like the zebra wood next to the fabric. I don't know what species I'd use for the cabinet, probably something dark. The model is 1/4 scale. I can't wait to build this!
I built this bed for a couple in Arizona. It's a borrowed design, with a few modifications. It presented quite a few challenges, such as engineering it in such that it could be taken apart, shipped, and reassembled by someone else. Also, figuring out how to support the headboard panels on a cantilevered edge was quite the task. And most importantly, figuring how to make it properly supportive with 45 degree-angled legs. Plus, everything is mitered (2 45 degree angles to make a right angle), which leaves little margin for error. I asked my furniture design professor (highly regarded builder Todd Ouwehand) for advice and, after thinking it over for a few moments, simply said 'I don't like mitered corners very much.' Indeed- they look great, but are a pain. Well I think it was all worth the trouble, because the bed looks fantastic. It's built from solid walnut.
