Well the boss has tasked me with a different project than the bedroom. Last year we put laminate flooring down in the dining room and our office in preparation for putting builtins in the office. Nothing has been mentioned of them lately, until I started designing the bedroom furniture.
Originally we were going to use kraftmaid cabinets to do the rooms, and I had a pretty nice setup…
But I wasnt really happy with all my options and things we had to do 'sort of'....
so I have taken my plans and started designing my furniture for it in sketchup. I usually do this to first get an estimate of how much wood and the expense…then I start refining it for actual dimensioning and such.
This is the base of the cabinet on the left side of the room as you look at this picture. I would be on the right wall as you enter the room. It will NOT take up the whole wall as the window is kind of close to the wall on that side, plus I have some network patching over there that is still in use as well as some other things that wont be moved.
So as before is the sketchup file. I am looking for criticisms on the design of the furniture. Not really how I could make it prettier in sketchup or anything…Things that I may be missing(other than the drawers ) or ways I could do it different. I will be adding shelving to the top of this piece. But that will be in a later blog.
Looking at the vertical section through the raised panel doors you can see that the plane of the door sits in the same plane of the trim. This is an atypical configuration. If you take a close look at the lower front corner of the image you posted you will see how the door projecting out and over the fillet looks.
Additionally, you might want to reconsider some of the basic proportions.
Should the width of the rails and styles be equal to the height of the base?
Does the proportions of the raised panel suggests a more simpler aesthetic
and the trim suggest a more refined aesthetic?
Is the top's trim consistent with the rest of the detailing?
The vertical placement of the door is such that there is a 3/16" reveal at
the top and a 1/16" reveal at the bottom. Is that intentional?
Hopefully you will find these comments useful, good luck with the project.
at first I didnt understand what you meant about the door, but you are saying that the door should be inset instead of an overlay? or I should have more spacing between the trim elements and the door then it will look ok?
I am not happy with the reveal, but I am not sure exactly what is appropriate for the overal height of the base unit when it is going to have additional shelving on top. It may be such a thing that I have the unit too short. Right now its 31 inches high…which is a little taller than the desk I am sitting at now…any help on dimensioning would be a great help.
I guess could do a lipped overlay as well…I just need to even up the reveals on the top or bottom. Though some input on height would be great…
The fillet is used as a visual transition between two surfaces, think of it as a 'step' between the two planes. So the idea of using the fillet to 'step back' to the carcass and then have the door overhang the fillet defeats the purpose of the fillet and creates a visual awkwardness. Look at the worm's eye view and see if you don't agree.
A lipped overlay door would reduce but not eliminate this condition. One solution would be to extend the base (as shown below), however, this leads to another awkward detail at the corner because the door is not a full overlay door. If the door was changed to a full overlay the corner would be cleaned up. The other solution would be to make the door an inset but this is a more challenging type of construction.
I wasn't suggesting that you change the overall height of the unit (30"+/- is pretty standard). My proportion comments were regarding the parts to each other not the whole lower unit as it relates to the upper shelving unit. While there will be disagreements regarding proportions, I think a couple of things can be said with some certainty. Proportions are inherently hierarchical. This generally leads to various differences in dimensions and allows a design to develop a richness that is considered desirable. For example the height of the unit's base should relate to the overall height of the unit. The dimensions of the rails and stiles should relate to the size of the door and (in some way) to the overall dimensions of the unit. If you play around with the unit's base, making it taller and shorter, you should be able to determine a preferred (for you) height. The same exercise can be done for the width of the stiles and rails and the raised panel. My sense is that the base is to short the stile and rails are about right and the raised panel is too wide, however I am not the designer you are, so you are going to have to determine these things to your own satisfaction. Good Luck.
Just a clarification…do you mean the field of the raised panel is too narrow? If so I got that feeling too. But this was the first time I tried to raise a panel in sketchup, and I know my angles are off, the slope is only about 5 degrees and I think normally its supposed to be around 15 right? So it is my goal to get that cleaned up. I do agree with you that the door looks odd and is a design detail i will definately have to wokr out. I was basing my elements of some of the furniture I have in my office now, but that is all inlaid doors so the elements are different.
The field of the raised panel is too narrow is one way to look at it, however, when trying to determine proportions it is always one dimension in comparison to another dimension. For example, it can be the height of the piece in comparison to its own width (as in the case of the field of the panel) or it can be the width of the rails in comparison to the height of the base.
I tend to focus on the bevel when trying to determine the preferred proportions of a raised panel but obviously the bevel and the field have an direct inverse relationship (enlarging one reduces the other). As to the geometry of the bevel, I don't believe there is a firm standard of 15 deg but traditionally it is a range between 5 and 15 deg. There are other types of bevels as well and given the fillet detail and the other trim on the piece you may want to consider some type of simple cove bevel instead of the flat bevel.
Using an existing design can be a good way to establish the proportions of a design, however, you must make adjustment based on differences in the reference design and your new design. Also, it is important to use the proportions (not the dimensions) of the the reference piece. For example if the reference piece has a door that is 12" x 24" the door has the proportion of 1:2. If you have designed a door that has the dimension of 14"x28" it also has the proportion of 1:2 and thus the 2 doors have exactly the same proportions (but different dimensions).
Hopefully this answers more questions than it creates….
yep…that was awsome…ill just have to play around with it in sketchup some more as i get time…it was my first attempt and was a bit in a hurry…when I have some actual time ill go back over it….thanks again for all your input
Bob Rozaieski over at Logan Cabinet Shoppe has two (part 1 and part 2) very good blog posts discussing proportions as it relates to cabinet design. You might find them useful.
Is this better looking? I went back to my original scale drawing of the entire office, and I discovered my measurements for this unit were off. So its a bit longer now(75"Lx30.75"Hx24.25"D)
I think I like the doors on this one better. I dont have the endpanels done yet, but you still get a sense of proportion. I think maybe I have the grasp of how to create the raised fields better now.
so what do you think? do you want me to post the model so you can tear through it too?
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