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| Our Novice Period |
We went from novice to intermediate to advanced woodworking
in six years and filled our home with beautiful Arts & Crafts style
furniture. Take the tour with us and see why we are proud to present
this gallery. It is a houseful!
We primarily use quartersawn white oak. None of our furniture is stained! We
use our easy fuming method with a standard household safe ammonia method.. After
fuming for several hours in our mini van, we apply two coats of tung oil
and several coats of paste wax for a durable and classic finish. We
include this easy fuming method in every plan we offer.
We call our style Arts & Crafts Furniture updated for the 21st
Century!
Many customers have asked us to send them pictures of
our furniture over the years. While we were glad to do this, we
now include our Gallery on our website.
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We began our journey with the ball rack, breakfast room table, billiard
chairs and beverage tables.
The Ball Display Rack is available as plans.
Our
Breakfast Table has drawers at the ends. Shown with Mary's
Great-great-grandmother's chairs. This table is now accompanies our
new Peacock chairs in the Breakfast Room (see later pictures) but
previously served as our
temporary Dining Room table. |
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| We offer these Mission style Observation
Chairs and Beverage Tables as plans as well as our later 9 Styles.
Our Billiard Room has both sets of chairs and tables and
the television keeps us posted on news as we play One Pocket every
afternoon.
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| Then we moved right in and built the pool table. We
would have killed for a book on how to do it. So, we wrote our
first book so you didn't have to go through the hand-wringing, research and
reinvent the wheel.
We won the 2001 Billiard Digest Architectural Design
Award for Best Home Room. Everything in the room (except books,
knick knacks, and cues) cost us only $5,000 including the pool table, all furniture,
billiard lamp, framed pictures, plants and window treatments!
For months after completing the pool table we would walk
into the room and our eyes would fill with tears of happiness because we
did it ourselves!
Building our pool table gave us courage to move on to
more intricate woodworking challenges and techniques.
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| Intermediate Period |
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| Next we built four Morris Chairs. Three are shown here.
The cushions are firm and feature piped box style cushions. They are
so comfortable you can fall asleep in mid sentence. |
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| Bending the oak for the Morris
Chair arms was challenging! We resawed 13/16" oak into
3/8" thick. Then we glued two pieces together and let cure
overnight. The next day we added the third piece. It was slow
because we were clamp limited and only made one contour fixture.
At far right are three of the eight arms after fuming
and several coats of Tung oil.
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| Gluing the arm to the side of
the chair required all the clamps again. The arm is doweled to the
top of the side with six dowels and lots of glue!
Progress was made when we could attach the adjustable
back to the chair and it deserved a photo even with the uncovered foam
seat.
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| We temporarily parked our beverage tables
in the foyer so we could
have room to work on the pool table and they were sadly missed when moved
them into
the pool room. So, that afternoon, we went into our shop and cut out all the
pieces for two Foyer Tables with a thinner and wider profile. Notice
the one shown covers the ugly air
intake perfectly!
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The Game Room Drink Table plans we offer is based on
our Foyer Table. |
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| Our next project was our three loveseats.
The tapestry loveseat is in the billiard room. Our Prairie Loveseat,
far right is upholstered in leather. |
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| Our round back loveseat is the only one in existence
of which we are aware!
It has inviting suede leather cushions. The curved back was routed
to shape and painstakingly hand fitted with mortise and tenon
spindles. The back cushion is a rounded T-shape to extend the cushion
curve over the arms. Two slim side cushions lock the back cushion
from falling forward.
Both leather sofas
required much swearing to get the cushions sewn with the heavy
leather.
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| Our coffee table needed to be
very special to go in the center of the living room. Mary pieced oak burl and
sap along with regular quartersawn oak to produce the striking geometry on
this parquetry top. There are 137 pieces in the top alone.
Everyone is amazed with its charm and detail. |
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| The four Morris chairs each needed
footstools. We also built the bedroom
bench at the same time to save on machine setups. Having them open cuts down on clutter from
our other hobbies of building model ships, quilting and guitar music. All these pieces can be used as extra seating at the dining
room table for large parties! |
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| Mary designed billiard bookcase while on vacation on a
laptop. The six pieces are 90" wide and 96" high
with a low profile of just 12" on the base units and 9" on the
uppers units. Leaded glass doors were placed so that any possibility of a
ball launched from the pool table would not break them. The drawers are lock joint
construction and hold all sorts of billiard accessories. |
The Wall Mounted Cue Rack plans we offer are based on
the upper center section of this bookcase as a stand alone version. |
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| The front porch and deck were no longer
empty with the
addition of the Georgia cypress furniture.
Our Spectator Chair and Bench Plans use our simplified method to make
rear legs with a slanted back like these chairs. Have no fear
if you have a router.
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| Our Japanese Garden surrounds us
with many laceleaf maple trees. The goldfish pond
accentuates the ambiance along with rocks Mary collected all over the
country including fossils she found while digging the pond. |
Our Japanese Garden is the
perfect place to sit and enjoy a tall glass of iced tea while sitting on
the Garden Bench! |
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| On 911, we were working on this quilt stand
while airplanes crashed
into the World Trade Center.
Nothing else was accomplished that day.
This quilt stand holds four queen size quilts. It is the only piece we have given
away to Brian's best friend as a wedding gift. It is fumed cherry with
heart cut-out handles.
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| We built Snooker Rails for our
tournament pool table. Shown here hanging next to our pool table on the
wall. It takes
about 2 hours to switch between the pool and snooker rails. The
balls are just sitting on the perfectly level top rail. |
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Our snooker rails assemble to our 9 foot pool
table. You can order the snooker table plans and build the snooker rails for
either of our pool table plans in any size. This is the optimal
solution when you only have room for one table like we do. |
| Our Advanced Period |
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| The Hardware. We could not find anything
we liked to put on the
furniture we had built to date. Mary decided to file over a thousand square
holes. The drop pulls shown on the night stand doors at
far right were made on a band saw from square brass stock and
pivot outward.
Bails and posts were
purchased. Bail at near right is antique A&C. Bail at far right is a
standard Hepplewhite drawer pull. Next these sets were sent to be
professionally polished to a mirror finish and lacquered to keep their
brilliant finish.
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| The Twin Towers. Our adventure in veneering
began with
the backs of these cabinets and the bubinga veneered sides and doors.
Our first dovetail project involved the drawers on the lower cabinet.
Soaring to 105", each of these towers consist of
three separate
cabinets which can be easily restacked for different configurations. The glass
leading is actually adhesive-backed brass finished lead tape which gives the rich
appearance of individually pieced sections. Cabinets are lighted and feature
adjustable glass shelves.
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| The End Tables repeat the bubinga theme in
our living
room. The two cabinets are mirror images of each other except the drawer
on each enters from a different direction. We found granite to be a
wonderful top giving a stately look to the tables. Hardware is on all sides of
each piece to give the illusion they can be opened from any direction
since they sit in the middle of the room.
We used cherry for the drawer sides after buying 690 bd ft for only $295
from a guy getting out of the business.
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| Our two nightstands had different requirements.
Brian's
door unit has chestnut burl veneer doors. Mary's drawer unit has
room for all her stuff. Both feature a pull out lap
board that is mostly used pulled out 2/3rds of the way for coffee and
midnight snacks. Again, granite tops give the rich and unique look
as well as a very durable surface. |
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| Brian's Armoire is in two pieces because of the weight.
Drawers in the upper unit feature movable jewelry trays. Lower drawers
have built in dividers. Chestnut burl on upper front and both unit's
sides. |
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| Mary's Mule Chest Dresser features 10 drawers and has chestnut burl
sides. The upper two drawers have movable jewelry trays lined with
Pacific cloth. Other drawers feature fixed dividers. Granite
provides continuity with all other pieces in the room. |
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The mirror comes later |
| The bedroom Credenza has a bow shaped granite top
above the breakfront cabinet. Now we have ample
room to store photo albums and cameras. The low profile makes the
piece look larger than its 54" length and 30" height suggest. Like
other bedroom pieces the Credenza features bookmatched chestnut burl
veneered doors and sides. |
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| We ordered 100 brass plates
custom engraved to keep track of the year we made each piece. We
mounted them inside drawers or doors or under the pieces so our house wouldn't
look like a museum. |
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See our Links page for the supplier of these
professional brass plates. |
| And now we needed accent
mirrors. We had "crystal" beveled mirrors made especially for their
superior clarity. The dresser mirror features movable wings for primping.
Construction included a French cleat system for solid wall mounting,
although it appears to be sitting on the dresser.
Two
foyer mirrors face each other across the foyer to accentuate the height of
the room. The two photos at right show the two foyer mirrors.
The Twin Towers' sides are seen but are actually around the corner in the
living room.
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| The two tabourets capitalized
upon a huge mistake earlier on. We cut eight legs too short on an
earlier project after quarter gluing them.
The Decagon Tabouret used five of the rogue legs.
I features pommelle sappelle sunburst veneer with oak surround.
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Top view of Decagon Tabouret
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| With the completion of the
Decagon Tabouret, we decided to revise
one of the Morris chairs into a round back version to match the window
valences which are similar to the dining room valance shown below. |
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Online auction sites are a
wonderful place to find designer quality high end fabrics at affordable
prices. |
| The three remaining legs host a bubinga veneer table top for the seating
nook in the billiard room. The edge banding of the birch plywood substrate
was easier than we anticipated. Mary pieced the bubinga in a six
part sunburst which created interesting splice angles in the table top.
The three stretchers meet in the center of table.
We fashioned Y-shaped brass brackets to secure the construction on the top
and bottom of the joint to ensure the stability and rigidity. The
table has nine corbels in two sizes to accentuate the top.
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| We started the dining room with the two Corner China cabinets.
Madrone veneer is on the base unit. Each tower
consists of three separate units because they are very heavy and measure
96" high when stacked. Lighting is installed behind the cabinet to wash up the cathedral ceilings
at night for a dramatic effect. Lights installed within the cabinets
are controlled from a common wall dimmer. Glass shelves are
supported with oak fixed supports which are routed with plate grooves
along the back wall of all levels. Glass door and side panels are
faux-leaded like our billiard bookcase and Twin Towers.
The side drawers were an interesting project. |
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| The Server was a challenge
because of the different levels involved. Pullouts on each side
hold extra party items and are parquetry. The bottom arched shelf is
open to the wall. Madrone veneer panels and
black granite top make this a super elegant showpiece. Shown with
parquetry pullouts closed, but pictured below. Lights are controlled in
our common wall system with the China Cabinets.
The upper self of our server is one continuous plane
with glass recessed in the middle to give the illusion of the blue crystal
vase floating above the antique pieces beneath.
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 Shown
above with doors on side and front open. Madone panels hide the
adjustable shelves for glassware beneath the display shelf.
In
olden times this cabinet was referred to as a "Chaffing Dish
Cabinet" and was usually with one door. |
| We framed Anita Munman art prints in rail and stile frames
and used leftover claret-colored loveseat suede for the matting and
installed a crystal bevel
mirror which reflects light from our antique chandelier. Shown in
above Server pictures.
We routed two keyholes in the back of each stile so the
pictures would flush mount to the wall and stay level forever!
Two Munman prints hang above the Sideboard with
rust-colored suede mats which blend well with the mardone panels in the
furniture.
A third Munman hangs alone on an adjacent wall, shown at
far right.
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| Our Sideboard uses a lot of mission
detail and is based on our bedroom credenza breakfront design. The angled side drawers are
dovetailed on each corner! Yes, hand cutting some of the dovetails
was hard! Black granite
brings it all together. Drawers are lined with Pacific
cloth and fitted with custom Pacific Cloth silverware trays.
Parquetry pullouts are not shown and are similar to the server's pullouts.
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| Although we had not built our
dining table yet, we finished these dining room chairs. The chairs
are shown here with our Breakfast Room table and it looks marvelous!
The chairs use an interesting element of long spindles into a
angled curved upper back stretcher,
the spindles meet in a angled straight stretcher at the bottom. Side
upper on lower stretchers have angled tenons. The piped
box cushions curve around the spindles. Chenille fabric matches the
arched window cornice.
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| Next we swapped out the our
kitchen and dining room tables to their targeted rooms.
Pictured at right is trestle draw table closed
configuration. The picture at far right shows the draw table fully
extended. The table accommodates two to eight people.
This solved the problem of storing table leaves.
Mary worked for six months piecing quartersawn oak, burl,
and sap pieces to achieve her goal of combining quilting and woodworking
one precious glue-up at a time.
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| To get the operating cams
perfect, we fashioned two from scrap MDF which would be later used as
router templates. The cams go through the center beam, which keeps
the leaves level when extended.
Then, the side filler blocks were added to fill the
space between the leaves when the table is closed. The top floats
upon all the structure with a layer of felt glued to the bottom of the
top. Dowels hold the top in alignment through the filler blocks.
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| Now that our Breakfast Table
lives where it was programmed to be, our recently built Peacock Chairs
bring our nook together.
We've described the Breakfast Table well before, we only
add that it has compartmented drawers.
The Peacock Chairs have a fan shaped center slat with
curved spindles on each side. The slat is dyed with black aniline to
deeply penetrate the slat surface. The curved spindles are fitted with
horizontal blocks to give these chairs a MacIntosh flair. The fabric for the seats has peacock
feathers, hence the name!
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| These spindles are pinned with
brass rod to maintain alignment forever!
The rear legs are tapered and are angled back at five
degrees for an ultimate seating experience.
The lower horizontal stretchers are pinned with
"Brass Jewels" we made from square stock. They add a
special glint to the chairs as well as ensure the chairs stay put together
in a hundred years! |
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And we are not done! We have more intricate pieces on our plate this
coming year which include:
The Queen size Bed. Like our Morris Chairs, the top cap on the
headboard and footboard will be bent. Chestnut veneer and spindles will
adorn the headboard while the footboard will be spindled much like our Round
Back Sofa.
The Plant Stand. Black granite topped to occupy the empty corner of the
dining room, this piece will feature more madrone doors and glass shelves under
the granite top. Lighting will highlight antique china. Yes, a plant
will sit atop.
All furniture shown on this page are in our private home collection and are
not for sale.
Editor's Note: We include this gallery so you can appreciate the fine
detail that we use in our furniture construction. When you buy our plans,
we show you how and why something is done. You won't get this with other companies' plans.
