This Liquor Cabinet was my capstone project that wrapped up my last semester in the Furniture Design & Woodworking program at SDSU. For this project, I wanted to explore design and constructions that I have not done before, or techniques that I felt I should practice. This ranged from joinery techniques, to lighting design, to finishings.
My cabinet was influenced by the often top-heavy, dainty-legged cabinets by James Krenov. The 'Spidered' legs were my take on a traditional Cabriole leg, with a contemporary twist. Other forms, particularly relating to the interplay of light and shadow, took inspiration from the carved details in John Vugrin's furniture. The height of the cabinet was decided based on view points of the top of the cabinet. I believe that a smaller, freestanding cabinet should either be much below eye level, or above eye level. If at average eye level, or just below, the slight accumilation of dust on the surface will always be noticable, unless you wipe the surface religiously. Furthermore, if the top of the cabinet is below eye level, it must be low enough to be comfortably used as a placing surface. These limitations of mine, led me to construct a cabinet that is looked up upon by the average viewer; having the top placed about 7" above my eyes. This give the cabinet a more elongated, monumental appearance, as if you are looking up towards the top of a skyscraper.
The cabinet is constructed using Ash and Granadillo. The tannins in the Ash have been bleached out, and a white dye has been applied, then lightly sanded, and finished with a lacquer. The Granadillo, which is a type of Mexican Rosewood, is finished with an oil and wax mixture. Granadillo was used in this cabinet as a way to pay homage to the material. A mixture of unsustainable harvesting and bug infestations in the sapwoods has made this wood incredibly difficult to source. To my knowledge, there are only two suppliers left in the US that have any sizeable stock for sale, and once it runs out, that is likely the last there will ever be. I have bought out as much of this wood as I can afford, and a portion of it was used in this piece. I was striving for a stark contrast between the components of the cabinet, and the Granadillo and Bleached Ash provide this. The exterior of the cabinet and the legs, contrast with the dark, warm tones of the interior, the live edge doors and aprons (with light sapwood) act as an intermediary, closing the gap between the contrasts of the wood species.
The exterior cabinet was constructed using a trapped sliding dovetail technique, using 4 panels of book matched Ash. The legs were shaped through a series of compound cuts on the bandsaw, then refined with spokeshaves and rasps. The interior of the cabinet is a friction-fit sleeve, that was inserted into the Ash exterior. This sleeve was constructed using hidden sliding dovetails. Lighting is recessed at an angle into the top of each shelf, and wiring is contained within the construction of the sleeve. The doors, made of book matched, live edge Granadillo, overlay at the sapwood. When this overlay taps a little wooden button on the interior of the cabinet, the lights turn off. When the doors are opened, and the button is released, the lights fade on. Doors are secured via a wedge system at the top of the cabinet. In my studio, the joke was that this wedge system acted as an age-verification to access the alcohol inside the cabinet - if you can't reach the wedge to open the doors, you probably shouldn't be drinking what is inside.
The top left shelf is designed for shorter glasses, like rocks glasses, old fashioned glasses, copper mule mugs, or tulip glasses. The middle left shelf is for taller glasses, like wine glasses, margarita glasses, martini glasses, etc. Each shelf holds at least 8 glasses comfortably, or more, depending on the type of glass. The bottom left shelf is meant to be used as a little mixing/pouring station. The two identical shelves on the right are for bottle storage. Each shelf holds 6 standard bottles.
Dimensions: 5'11" x 27" x 16"
