A bath Cabinet ..design concept beginining

[Mark Singer]

Since my daughter moved out of the guest house...I will be making a few pieces for it. The bath cabinet will be the first. I have been thinking about the design for a while and have decided on a small base cabinet...maybe with coopered doors and upper shelves that will slide on blind ledgers. With the recent discussions on design, I thought this would be a good basic project to explain design decisions and respond to coments. I don't even have the wood to make this yet, so the options are open.
Context: It is a small area about 22" wide, 8' high, and approx. 17"deep. We need storage for bathroom stuff...towels can sit on shelves exposed...but some things like toilet paper, cosmetics, etc should go into a cabinet. The wood I used for the bathroom door and mirror frame is Honduras Mahogony. See photo.
There is a lip of Portugese limestone that encroaches into the cavity a bit and will need to be delt with. There is a lot of limestone in the room. Because the shower is close by and the floor could get damp the cabinet should suspend above the floor.
Design direction: I am thinking of using 2 woods, one similar to the Mahog.in color. The other should be lighter and vertical grain since it will be staved for the coopering. Some of the best small cabinets are Krenov's and I have been looking at his books for inspiration. This will however be a built in piece not free standing to maximize the small space so there will be no supporting frame typical of Krenov's cabinets. I made a couple of sketches and may pick up the wood on Friday at one of my suppliers. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

[Jamie Buxton]

Mark ---

Oh boy, design!

From the shadowing in the front view, it appears that the cabinet doors will be curved, but the countertop above will not. Have you considered making the countertop and the shelves echo the curve of the doors?

In the top view it appears that the left side of the alcove is deeper than the right. Your sketch of the cabinet appears symmetrical. That is, it is the same depth at the left as on the right. How 'bout making it asymmetrical, so the left is deeper than the right? And while you're at it, make the doors so they're not symmetrical either, but meet someplace off the mid-line of the alcove?

Your coopered doors are convex. How 'bout making them concave? Most standalone furniture would look funny if it were deeper at the sides than in the middle. However, in this alcove a concave curve would work just fine, and you'd have something a little bit different from the usual.

And while I'm asking questions, could you explain the second photo in your posting? It is the area to the right of the alcove, right? It seems to show a mahogany-framed door with a glass panel, but that would be unusual as the door to a bathroom, so I suspect I'm misunderstanding something.

Jamie

[Steve Jenkins]

I think I might look at riftsawn white oak to go with the mahogany trim. I think the color would look good with the limestone and the linear look will compliment the tall narrow opening and the coopered doors.

[Jim Becker]

Are you proposing a filler to adjust the space for the limestone veneer that wraps the corner? If so, would it be more limestone or something that contrasts? Would it be better to make the cabinet slightly asymetric across the face, yet use the full width, especially since that would provide "just a little" more surface on top of the cabinet?

In general, I really like the design you are proposing and the radius of the coopered doors will help to balance the angular surfaces and spaces in the room. This was the one room I didn't see on my visit (said beautiful daughter was enjoying a shower at the time, if I recall ) but from the picture I can see that the alcove is crying for a cabinet like you are illustrating.

I can't wait to see how this develops further!

[Todd Burch]

Mark, I think that will look good. (My interpretation...)

I think I would get African Mahogany, as you are much more likely to match the figure in your door with African rather than Honduran.

I would use VGDF for the coopered doors. It would be a nice compliment.

Todd

[Mark Singer]

It is really great to have all of you to bounce my ideas off of! I respect your thoughtful imput and it is already helping me improve the design! I love this forum! I feel that you will all be joinnig me looking over my shoulder,so to speak, and we will learn from each other as the project continues.

Jamie, I apologize but my intent is to allow the top to follow the curve of the doors. Just a bad drawing on my part! I ran the idea of the concave doors by LOML and she wants them convex....she is part of our design team too

Todd, Great drawing and thanks....much better than mine! I will need to get sketch-up...no question. I was considering curving the shelves...LOML said "straight" , I think you and I will win on this one since I like the way your drawing looks. The doors will not be a stile and rail with coopered infil pane as you showed though, I made a cabinet like that and never liked the look. I will have a basic coopered slab door. I am planning to vary the radius by varying the width of the staves. This is a bit tricky and requires laying up the door before the cabinet is made...scribing the radius from the door and building the cabinet to the varying curve ...it greatly improves the design and I think I can handle the techniqical challenge. The hinges will be Brusso Knife hinges...I already have a good stock of those. This means the hinge mortising will need to be done prior to assembly and there is no adjustment in the hinge. The key is a perfectly square cabinet and door!

Jim. I probably should have limestoned the entire wall! But, I will deal with the limestone by creating a reveal and using a dark wood like ebony or wenge to make the opening appear to be a simple rectangular recess...this is not a perfect solution ...but the cabinet will need to just slide into the opening and cannot be scribed to the odd shape...since the top is an integral part. Jim this is similar to the cabinet in my bathroom that was Shedua., if you recall.

The use of Vertical grain Doug fir is someting I thought about...we use its cousin for rough framing all the homes here! It is beautiful...Swedish Fir would be better...I will see what I can find at Austin and Orange Coast tomorrow.

Steve ,
The Rift sawn oak is a good choice...I have a stock of some nice pieces...I am considering that choice.

Really great suggestions...I am already changing my ideas and sketching again
Thanks

[Jim Becker]

Mark, I hope you noticed the little detail on the shelves that Todd drew...the flat at the wall before the curve. While I realize that would not exactly follow the coopered door if it's a continuous sweep, it's a very attractive detail "up above"...

[Mark Singer]

Jim,

It looks like a ledger...maybe Todd can clearify? I will be using a blind ledger and cut the shelves to a "scribe" template to fit. The shelves will slide on hidden pieces of wood on the sides and back...a dado in the sides of the shelf hides the ledger. The dado stops short of the face so it is hidden.

Mark, I hope you noticed the little detail on the shelves that Todd drew...the flat at the wall before the curve. While I realize that would not exactly follow the coopered door if it's a continuous sweep, it's a very attractive detail "up above"...

[Jim Becker]

Mark, that makes absolute sense for mounting these shelves in your space...it's in keeping with the overall design throughout the home and guest house where a number of things "seem to float". Bravo.

[Mark Stutz]

Mark,
This is a very interesting and fascinating thread for me. Original design is something that doesn't come easily for me. I have read with interest but at this point don't have any new ideas. Given our recent thread about coopered doors, however, I'm really looking forward to see this progress. Thanks for including all of us in this part of the process.

Mark

[Todd Burch]

I drew it with the countertop elevated about 3/4" from the cabinet with a recessed spacer that mimics the shelve's front edge. Pseudo floating.

I thought the fir would add some order to the chaos in the grain of the Afr. Mahogany. (Curly maple wouldn't look bad either - "chaos meets chaos" )

Perhaps some styled wood pulls on the cabinet, boomerang/banana shaped, mounted as a cleat on a sailboat.

[Jamie Buxton]

For the pulls, how 'bout boring a round hole through the doors about 2" diameter, centered on the seam between the doors? I've also made pulls like this with an oval shape. Nice and simple.