Should I use figured wood for accent?

[Chris Atzinger]

Hi,
I work from home for my day job, and want to install some built-in book cases/storage for my home office. I am still in the design stage. The plan is to make the cabinet boxes from cheaper birch ply, the upper bookshelves from maple, and then do a maple face frame, doors, drawer fronts. I have attached the current sketchup image below

I was thinking about using curly maple for the drawer fronts/desk legs, and door parts to give it a little flair. Do you think this is a mistake? How would you incorporate some figured maple, be it curly/crotch/burly/bird's eye?

I am open to suggestions.

Thanks!
Chris

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[Brian Hughner]

Chris,

last year I made a half-height display case using hard maple for the carcass and maple plywood for the panels. To add a little character to the piece I made the door rails/stiles from curly maple. Both I and my customer loved how it came out, the picture does not do it justice. The curly maple door frames add just enough but doesn't overpower the piece. While this display case is not as large as your book case, I think the idea of doing either the door rail/stiles or the panel in a figured maple would be great.

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[Todd Burch]

Nice looking case - looks like something I would make.

I'm with Brian on this - a little curly goes a long way.

I have seen spectacular pieces that were 100% curly, but like other niches, it's not everyone's cup of tea.

In the cherry kitchen island I am building now, I am incorporating just a bit of curly cherry on the lower rails of the side panels and doors only.

Your crown molding would be a good place to use curly as well. It would top it off nicely.

When all else fails, I go for symmetry.

On Brian's built-in, while very nice indeed, I probably would not have used curly at right angles to itself on those doors. I probably would have only used it for the 3 main case stiles - they are prominent, set apart, and wide enough to support the figure with a nice "normal grain" border. Or, only used it on the top.

Todd

[Brian Hughner]

I agree with Todd on this, symmetry is important. And its important to balance this against the amount of curly maple you want so you get the right amount of "weight" of curl in the design. As a matter of fact, when I first started this project I put together a design similar to what Todd suggested, with the main stiles made from the curly maple. I even put together a model of that design in sketchup, and it looked great. But once I started to build the actual cabinet, and I could see the cabinet full size, and in real lighting conditions, I felt like there wasn't enough "weight" to the curly maple. I also knew that given the finishing schedule I had put together with the customer that I couldn't use the finish to bring out more curl. So I reworked the design and came up with the door design. This seemed to my eye to the right amount of curl. Don't forget that lighting will play an important part in how you design in the curly maple. Overhead recessed lighting will illuminate the cabinet differently than floor lighting and you can you this to alter the perception of the curly maple.Good luck!

[Chris Atzinger]

Hi,

Thanks for the responses. It sounds like a "less is more" approach is best.

I like the idea of using the curly on the moldings. Although, it seems like I would need to either make my own (which I have never done) or pay a mill work shop to do it. How do you guys handle getting the moldings in a curly wood?

Thanks!
Chris