A custom alder storage armoire began with two inspiration pictures from the interior designer, Suzie Hall of Cornerstone Interior Design.
The first one shows what the cabinet and upper trim work of the armoire will look like. The cabinet is going to measure 45″ wide, 50″ tall, and 20″ deep. The cabinet will then sit on a base unit comprised of a top plate, four turned legs, and a lower stringer.
The upper cabinet will be painted a rich red color and distressed and glazed to add a nice and rich aged look.
While the armoire cabinet and trim details are inspired from the first picture in the series, the turned legs and the stringer are based on the second picture. The base legs will be turned from solid alder as well, and will be roughly 5″ in diameter at their widest point. The legs will be stained a semi-transparent black color.
The final design of the armoire, is shown in Sketch-up renderings. Each of the doors on the upper cabinet will be connected using a pair of 6″ strap hinges and will have a large handle in the middle.
A closer look at the upper trim work of the base shows the trim will be three different pieces of moulding assembled to achieve the final look.
Also, rather than having a lower shelf, we will be replacing it with a simple, but elegant, curved stringer connecting all four legs.
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We provided Turnco a quarter profile of the leg so they could turn it to the specifications. We sent the legs to be turned at Turnco in Vancouver. Here is what the turned legs and feet look like when they are quartered. We dimension the drawings and send them to a turning company in Vancouver BC, who use them to create the final pieces.
In the last entry, I left off with the top of the console table in the vacuum bag. In this entry, we will begin with the top fully veneered.
As you can see in the picture, all of the ribbon Sapele veneer on the sides has the grain oriented vertically and the grain of the top is parallel to the longest side. We veneered each surface individually, which meant that the tabletop took five rounds to complete the veneering. Each time, the tabletop spent three hours in the bag, and at least four hours outside the bag to help the glue cure. After each round we spent a few minutes checking the edges of the veneer and re-gluing any places that had not fully adhered.
A quick note about vacuum pressing. The bag itself exerts up to 1700 psi worth of pressure on the veneer. As the veneer is pressed into the substrate, the air is expelled from the glue joint and a bond is created within an hour or so. But, for the glue to for a permanent bond, it requires the water to be evaporated, which is impossible since the vacuum bag is air tight and therefore void of air in the first place. Thus, when a project is removed from the vacuum bag, it feels clammy and damp and needs a few hours in the open before the veneer is fully set.
Jared Patchin started woodworking professionally in 2008 when he set-up 
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