Furniture

Opinions please

Last year I renovated my master bedroom. I went maybe a bit overboard with the red oak but overall I’m satisfied with it. One of the things I constructed was a large, built-in bureau which, again, I might have gone a bit overboard on with the carvings. My next taks here is to finish off…

by Steve
08/09/2008

Last year I renovated my master bedroom. I went maybe a bit overboard with the red oak but overall I’m satisfied with it. One of the things I constructed was a large, built-in bureau which, again, I might have gone a bit overboard on with the carvings.

My next taks here is to finish off the house with five years’ worth of backburnered stained glass projects, one of which is the panels to the bureau’s doors.

I’ve got two options and I’m undecided which will work better. The first is a simple but classic crosshatched diamond pattern using translucent art glass. This wouldn’t compete with the carvings.

The other is a pattern I designed with GlassEye today. I like it by itself but I’m concerned that it might be too busy for this cabinet.

I can only post one image here so you can see the pattern on http://www.brooklynrowhouse.com/node/117

Furniture

Comments

  2. Steve, I am envisioning etched glass as a solution, not stained glass. Its subtlty will match the subtle carvings.

    What do you think?

  3. I reworked the glass colors to pick up existing elements in the room and it looks much better.

    http://images.magpie.com/misc/glass/cabinet5.jpg

    Excuse the clumsy image overlay. I don’t have that trick down yet.

    The panel installs with clips so it’s not a tough job to replace it later, not that I expect I’ll want want to revisit this cabinet again in this lifetime.

    The white panels on that new design are actually distorted clear glass. That’s just how GlassEye renders it. Now on to fabrication. My new glass bandsaw arrives tomorrow.

    Thanks for the helpful comments, Vinca.

  4. I like the new design, and also think it’s at the point where the call is yours. (Put another way, this might be an interesting variation on Home Stretch Complacency.) Just remember, stained glass without light passing through will appear darker. Also, as an accomplished woodworker, you already know that early projects never quite meet the standards of projects after much experience. Not saying don’t use the stained glass, just saying you might want to install in such a way that allows for revision down the road.

  6. Thanks, but I can’t take too much credit for it, at least not for the carvings. I did it with a router and a template:

    http://www.woodshopdemos.com/cmt-3d-1.htm

    I’ve been bouncing more stained glass design ideas off the folks over on Old House Web, where a lady steered me in a better direction: simpler, more organic, less angular, minimal color. The best aesthetic idea came from a woodworker friend who said I should ditch the glass and use cane for the panels. But I have a cat that would rip that to shreds in about a week.

  7. Steve, I’m in awe of what you’ve managed to accomplish yourself! I do think the stain glass might be better suited somewhere else instead of these cabinets as the carvings in the wood already make it quite ornate.

  8. I think the carving is simple and elegant. It feels a little Eastlake, and also reminds me of Spencerian and Zanerian penmanship flourishes. If you’re not already familiar with them, you can see a little at the following link, and find many more links online: http://www.ameshistoricalsociety.org/penmanship.htm
    Also, Dover has more than one book on the subject, including Ornate Pictorial Calligraphy: E. A. Lupfer

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