The economy may be soft, but it’s not dead!!
The economy maybe soft, but it’s not dead. Every year I build a piece of furniture for my son’s high school charity auction. This year I built a wine cabinet based on a tall cabinet designed by Dave Jones (Australia).
Based on past year’s experiences, if this piece was auctioned off last year, I figure it would have auctioned for around $2,500. But, given the economy, I was expecting the piece to sell for ~$1,500. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised when it was sold last night for $2,100!!
I was wondering what others have found concerning charity auctions…
Details about the piece:
- The legs are made from wenge… my buddy gave me about 20 old rough sawn boards he found in his new house. This included an 11 foot 2.5” x 6.5” piece of “unknown” wood. I threw this ratty looking rough sawn piece of timber into my planer and out came a beautiful piece of wenge. (I was like kid opening a present on Christmas morning
)... I wonder how much that board was worth??? I guess I owe him a case a beer??
- The door knobs are also made from wenge.
- The case is made from plywood from Menards
for $40. Now before you start laughing, I was buying some baltic birch plywood at Menards and notice some highly figured maple plywood. I dug into the pile & found 3 unbelievable sheets with lots of quilting & birdseye. (My local commercial plywood shop sells 4x8 sheets of birdseye maple for $300 a sheet
)
- The door frames are made from quarter sawn maple and the door panels (and case back) are ¼” birdseye plywood (from Menards again J) … You can’t tell from the photos, but I cut the door panels to match with the case back.
- Talk about luck... checkout the second photo... the dark streak in the maple plywood fit perfectly into the "V" created by the legs.
- The piece is 6 ft tall, 2 ft wide and 16” deep.
- The cabinet will hold 12 bottles of wine and 12 wine glasses. The wine bottle holders are pocket screwed to the sides of the cabinet from the back. (This way the load is transferred to the sides and to the legs)
- I used Miniwax wipe on poly. I used satin except for the top of the shelf where I used gloss. (for better protection and to really show-off the quilted maple)
- I was very pleased with the ergonomics of the piece. Everything just feels right… the shelf is 40” and the perfect height to set/pour a glass of wine. You can easily read & grab a bottle of wine (without stooping) and wine glasses are at eye height and easy to reach.
Comments welcome.
Enjoy!!!
-jj
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Originally Posted by Ellen Benkin
