American Furniture Design
Escondido, CA
www.americanfurnituredesign.com
Category: Residential Furniture, Freestanding
Project: Residential Furnishings
Materials: Quartersawn red oak, leather and fabric.
Construction: The 24 pieces of Arts-and-Crafts furniture included a bedroom group, living room and dining room produced over a 10-month time frame.
Project Notes: This project was the largest single-home commission the company has done for one client.
MJ Martin Woodworking LLC
East Hartford, CT
www.worksofwood.com
Category: Residential Furniture, Freestanding
Project: 80-inch Round Residential Dining Table
Materials: The table top is birdâs-eye maple veneer and straight-grain sapele. The base is sapele pommele veneer and quartersawn sapele.
Construction: The arms of the tulip-shaped base were drawn freehand, then 1-inch MDF was pattern-routed and glued together to form the substrate. Custom forms had to be built to lay up the sapele pommele veneer in the shopâs vacuum press.
Project Notes: The veneer work suggests a compass star. The piece is all curves with no straight lines.
Furniture by Jerry Whittington
West Palm Beach, FL
www.furniturebyjerrywhittington.com
Category: Residential Furniture, Freestanding
Project: âAntiquityâ Grande Sideboard
Materials: This piece is constructed with cherry, poplar, custom finished âcrocâ leather and granite. It features decorative antique brass hardware and functional hardware from Häfele and Accuride.
Construction: The drawers and the doors are 1-3/4-inch thick. The raised panels are removable. Equipment used included: a Rob land Z380 sliding table saw; a Rob land TSS saw; a Nash Wolfhead sander; Vega belt sander and drill press; Powermatic belt sander; Nash profile sander; DeWalt mitre saw, Mattison lathe; 18-inch Delta radial arm saw; Hutchins DA sander and more.
Project Notes: Whittington incorporated Italian fine leather to help create a piece with a âwarm spirit.â
Andrew Pitts Furnituremaker
Heathsville, VA
www.andrewpittsfurnituremaker.com
Category: Residential Furniture, Freestanding
Project: Custom Cabinet
Materials: This cabinet was fabricated from solid wood milled by Pitts, with a cherry carcase, a red oak top, ambrosia maple handles, walnut for the showcase back, sycamore veneer and glass shelves.
Construction: All woods were milled on a Wood-Mizer LT15 portable sawmill and dried in a solar kiln. The curved laminated legs were bandsawn from built-up sections of red oak on a Delta 14-inch band saw with height block and were laminated with two layers of cherry front and back. A DeWalt 12-inch sliding compound miter saw was used to rough-cut planks, which were smoothed on a Powermatic 8-inch joiner, Grizzy 20-inch planer and Makita 15-inch planer. A spoke shave and Delta Boss oscillating spindle sander were used to smoothe concave leg parts.
Project Notes: This cabinet houses a retractable flat-screen television, showcases a snuff bottle collection and holds jewelry (earrings and necklaces) in hidden compartments.
The Torode Co.
Vienna, VA
www.torodeco.com
Category: Residential Furniture, Freestanding
Project: Cherry and Maple Burl Entertainment Center
Materials: Solid cherry lumber was purchased in 5/4-inch and 8/4-inch lengths from North Land Forest Products. The maple burl was purchased as raw veneer from Certainly Wood.
Construction: All of the flat panels are maple burl on MDF, which was veneered in a 5-foot by 10-foot vacuum bag. Edges were built up with solid cherry and lock mitered to the face frame. The face frame and doors are solid cherry, veneered front and back with maple burl. The egg-and-dart moulding was purchased, but had to be recarved before use. The majority of the work was done on an Italian combination machine and a square mortising machine.
Project Notes: The project consists of seven individual sections serving to house stereo equipment, speakers, CDs and a record collection, as well as the television.
Architectural Furnishings
San Juan Capistrano, CA
www.archfurn.com
Category: Residential Furniture, Built-In
Project: Moroccan-Inspired Home Bar
Materials: The Moroccan-style home bar is fabricated in solid walnut with a mapa burl inlay. Pillowed solid walnut panels float on backlit onyx papnels.
Construction: The project required heavy reliance on CNC capabilities. The large pillowed stars on the base and the center display niche and the Tangier cabinet doors were all designed on AutoCAD and toolpathed into ArtCAM. From there, the pieces were fabricated on a two-axis ShopBot CNC machine. Touchup on each piece was done by the in-house woodcarver.
Project Notes: The design was a merger of the client/husbandâs desire for craftsmanship and the wifeâs wanting something modern and âchic.â
Greenville Wood Products
Greenville, PA
Category: Commercial/Institutional Furniture
Project: Church Altar
Materials: The church altar and accompanying pieces were manufactured from 1/4 sawed white oak.
Construction: Moulds used in fabricating the countertops were stacked vertical pieces, which were curved both vertically and horizontally with the grain direction of the counter edge going vertically.
Project Notes: Cope-and-stick Gothic arches were fabricated to match Gothic architecture of the 100-year-old church.
Bright Wood Works Inc.
St. Petersburg, FL
www.brightworks.com
Category: Kitchen/Bath Cabinets
Project: Friedman Residence Kitchen
Materials: Materials used in this project include Columbia Purebond veneer core, walnut plywood, Blum Tandembox drawers, Blum Aventos bifold hardware and Padauk hardwood accents.
Construction: The cabinets were fabricated using European cabinet construction methods. Padauk accents were used. The corner elements in the kitchen were a special combination of plywood, solid wood and strip accents all vacuum bagged to form a single panel. Then the panels were sized and mitered to form a sequenced mitered corner.
Project Notes: Padauk, which provided the project vibrant color without the use of stains, was also used to make the wooden pulls.
CBR Woodworking LLC
Hainesport, NJ
www.cbrwoodworking.com
Category: Kitchen/Bath Cabinets
Project: Gothic Kitchen
Materials: Maple veneers/solids were used to manufacture this Gothic kitchen, which also features distress finish, Blum undermount sides, Dykes metal straps and nail heads and stained glass inserts.
Construction: CNC equipment was instrumental in cutting the arches and curved mouldings. To create the overall look, the laundry room, hall closet and dining room walls were removed and combined to create a âflow-through look.â
Project Notes: The most unusual aspect of the project are the arches surrounding the 60-inch âfloatingâ flat screen TV. The series of arches allow a âflow-of-vision-throughâ wall.
I.A.Keer â Art of Furniture
Minneapolis, MN
www.artoffurniture.com
Category: Commercial/Institutional Furniture
Project: Host Station
Materials: The restaurant host station was fabricated from burnished aluminum plate, stainless steel, granite, Formica Deco metal laminate, frost white acrylic glazing â matte finish and MDF substrate.
Construction: Concealed MDF substrate with Formica Deco metal laminate finish was used to construct a flush wood panel cabinet. The countertop is solid granite mastic set onto a wood substrate. The base cabinet box is supported and protected by two stainless steel legs at the rear and a front mounted hand-burnished 1/2-inch-thick aluminum plate, water-jet cut to shape, which frames a fluorescent back-lit translucent sign panel.
Project Notes: The text on the logo was cut with a CNC router from 1/4-inch-thick plate aluminum.
Greenville Wood Products
Greenville, PA
Category: Architectural Millwork
Project: Entertainment Unit
Materials: Red oak was used in manufacturing this custom entertainment unit. The panel lift for the TV is an Auton Motorized System.
Construction: The columns on the mantel section were turned and fluted. The large shells were made with the use of routers and carving tools.
Project Notes: The fluted pilasters on the ends pull out to store DVDs and the inside pilasters are corner pilasters giving the cabinet a visual depth when standing in the room.
Dovetail Designs & Millwork Inc.
Billings, MT
Category: Architectural Millwork
Project: Two-story curved, carved staircase
Materials: Honduras mahogany was used for the baluster and handrails, as well as Raymond Enkobol rosettes, Santos mahogany treads, Microlam stringers, cantilevered steel supports and M.L. Campbellâs Magnalac finish.
Construction: A template was engraved into plywood and stringers were laminated around forms using a Vacupress glue bag. The lower staircase is a 180-degree ellipse and the upper staircase has a 90-degree right turning ellipse to a landing. The balustrade was coopered by hand and shaped and outlined with a CNC router. The newels were also carved with a CNC.
Project Notes: All carved heads were individually designed and carved.
ONSITE Woodwork Corp.
Loves Park, IL
www.onsitewoodwork.com
Category: Architectural Millwork
Project: Commercial Lobby
Materials: Pomele sepeli and quarter-sliced sapeli veneer were used and butt matched to attain a panel height of 17 inches. The finish was Chemcraft tinted sealer, Chemcraft high-solid sealer and Chemcraft Danspeed Elite 35 topcoat.
Construction: The alternating wood veneer panels of swirling Pomele sapeli and quarter-sliced sapeli are either flat or curved, consistent in width and connected by a reveal or tight butt-joint. There are solid architectural metal fins between every pair of panels and a solid setback offsetting the wood panels from the base, which is made up of short sections of metal clad core with many mitered corners.
Project Notes: This project required special framing for every 17-foot-high panel segment. Each frame had to hold the two angled veneer panels and mitered end panels.
ONSITE Woodwork Corp.
Loves Park, IL
www.onsitewoodwork.com
Photo courtesy of Paul Warchol Photography
Category: Architectural Millwork
Project: Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre
Materials: Ebony and quartered plain makore veneer and makore solid wood on layers of 3/16-inch MDF were used to fabricate this project. The finish was Chemcraft tinted sealer, Chemcraft high-solid sealer and Chemcraft Danspeed Elite 35 topcoat.
Construction: This project required more than 150 veneered, canted, double-curved panels to be made to exactly the same cross-section dimensions. Because of the severity of the curves, the panel quantity and the necessity of consistency, a form inside a Vacupress vacuum bag system was used. The veneer lay up was done with a Monguzzi double knife veneer cutter and assembled with a Kuper edge-gluer and then pressed on the Joos side-feed veneer press on bending stock to form the outer layer of the multi-layer sandwich that formed each panel.
Project Notes: Each veneer panel segment was unique and had different miter cuts on each end. The cuts needed to be made on a three dimensional axis, so that there was a different compound curved bevel on each end.
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