Corner Hutch update (pics)

[Fred Voorhees]

You guys may remember these corner hutches that I built from poplar about two months ago or so. I built them for my brother and he was going to do the painting, final trim work and installation. They were to be installed in their dining room which was being completely redone with new paint, new floor, wainscoting, new electrics, etc. Well, he called last night to let me know he was shooting over photos of the finished product.

I guess he didn't do to bad of a job. I had my doubts on his abilities on the trimming job with the floor trim. He wanted them to look as built in as possible so he wrapped the floor base moulding right around them. As for the paint, well to begin with, I'm not a painted furniture fan, and if it has to painted, white wouldn't be one of my first choices, but I believe his wife is a big fan of white. Shelving isn't in them as of yet as he told me he has one more coat of paint to apply to them yet. In short, they are happy with them so I can't be unhappy.

[John Hebert]

Very nice!!! Great looking work. You should be proud

[Karl Laustrup]

Those look really nice Fred.

While not a big fan of painted items, I do think that it works very well in this case.

Karl

[Charles Bruno]

Nice job! Good design, but I'm with you on the paint I like the look of wood. Be glad you didn't use cherry!

[frank shic]

nice job, fred! i'm dying to know how you did the arches - router trammel or bandsaw/sanding?

[Jim Becker]

Fred, they look wonderful. You did a great job on this project. I'm not generally a fan of painted furniture, but do think that this is one built-in cabinetry application where it's working well from an interior design perspective. And, as you know, the poplar was reaching the end of it's usable life and wouldn't have worked out well for a dye's project, either.

Who'da thunk that that big pile of poplar would have turned into so much nice furniture over the past 5 years! (With more to come, I'm sure, since the pile isn't gone yet...)

[Fred Voorhees]

nice job, fred! i'm dying to know how you did the arches - router trammel or bandsaw/sanding?

Frank, the main mountain to climb with this project was the arches. In my line of work as an industrial and commercial insulator, I make use wing dividers quite often in laying out different patterns for cutting and the like. It is a fairly easy method to lay out quadrants of an arch. All I basically needed was the total width of the opening that I was filling and divided by 2 and that is what I set my dividers at. To try to describe the process of the rest of the layout is much more difficult than actually showing someone. If your really curious, I can do a quick lesson with pictures. The process should take no more than six or seven pictures to describe the process.

Once I had the correct dimension for a quarter (quadrant) of the arch layed out, I transferred the shape onto some harder material and then on to a 1/2" piece of mdf which was used to make the actual pieces of poplar that made up the arches. I used the mdf template and a flush cutting bit to shape the pieces after rough cutting them down to size with the bandsaw. I also used the template for routing the inside rabbit and the profile on the outside. Once they were milled, I used bisquits and glue to attach them to each other with an elaborate clamp assembly so that they stayed on a flat plain. It may sound a bit complicated, but in actuality, it turned out easier than I had envisioned beforehand. I was happy with the turnout and glad that I took on the challenge of the arches. I won't hesitate to attempt them again now that I know it's within my limits.

[Brent Harral]

"If they are happy than I am happy"....that's what it's about! I think they look great and seems I'm in the minority here... I like painted cabinetry. It's pretty "in" right now and in a traditional setting it won't go out of style, imho.

Great job.

[Steve Clardy]

Looking really good Fred!!

[frank shic]

fred, i've got the process pretty well visualized now but i'm not sure if i could pull it off as well as you did! would LOVE to see a pictorial on the procedure nevertheless.

[willie sobat]

They look great! They look straight out of Colonial Williamsburg. I am a traditionalist. In that era they would have been painted, and for their application I think the finish is perfect.

[Fred Voorhees]

fred, i've got the process pretty well visualized now but i'm not sure if i could pull it off as well as you did! would LOVE to see a pictorial on the procedure nevertheless.

Frank, I wish that I could have seen this post earlier today (Sun) since the NASCAR event was rained out. I could have probably accomplished that today. Tell you what, I just might "Git'er done" tomorrow after work. It really is a simple process - as you will see. Hopefully, I will have the photo's taken tomorrow, hop onto the computer and add a few pointers and such to the pics and post up a thread tomorrow night.