like alot of my designs i came up with this a few years ago, but only now have i made it a reality fromjust an old sketch book drawing (8 and counting, another post). the idea came about from an observation that many furniture manufacturers were designing out the handles on items of furniture, and having ledges or indents to open the doors or draws. i felt this was a shame as handles can give a piece obvious individualism and changable style, but also i liked this idea, paring down the design to bare minimum panels and materials.
so my design plays with this theme and takes the main door and draw panels of the side table and simply extends them beyond the boundaries of the frame to create an area to hold and thus open the door and draw.
this simple change of asethetic creates a very strong, unique looking design that is also simple and functional. Sapelle wood is used for this design as i thought it was a perfect wood choice to complement this strong minimalist shape. The construction is all paneled sapelle glued together to form a strong frame with a cupboard and a draw unit. Proportional the draw is a quarter of the whole piece with the cupboard taking up 2 thirds. When drawing this out an important consideration was size and scale as this had to suit many different height and sized beds. Many mock ups were made to finalise the final correct scale. This proved the most difficult part of the design as this also determined the size of the ledges that would form the door and draw handles.
the whole making process was time consuming and accuracy was important so that the draw opened correctly and did not stick and that the door hung correctly too. The sapelle wood was finished with sealer and then 2 coats of traditional wax was applied, this not only emphasised the fantastic grain on the wood but also helped the piece function and gave it a durable finish.
like with all my designs this style is planned to expand into a desk and other items using this striking offset panel affect to create functional but minimalistic items of furniture. I had originally planned for this piece to be made out of OSB board to match another design i have (yet another post topic) but felt this could also work well with premium hardwoods as the photos show.
as all designer/makers know you learn alot every time you make something, and alot of lessons were learned especially working with this difficult wood (make sure your tools are razor sharp) which will make me a better designer/craftmans in the long term
this design will be available to buy from www.stylisticgallery.com very soon and will appear on my online portfolio sites as well, but i hope this blog will show it more in terms of my thoughts and construction methods and give a better insight into me and my career.
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