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This China cabinet was inspired by an Ethan Allen cabinet in their catalog. It is custom sized for the client. It made from solid Cherry hardwoods and Cherry veneer plywood. This is a very special piece. It took a long time to build but the final product was second to none.
The case splits apart into a lower and upper section. Both pieces are extremely heavy, especially the top section (the glass must be removed in order to lift it) This photo shows the detail of the molding between the two sections. Also shown is the beading around the doors and drawer fronts. Not shown are the solid maple dovetail drawer boxes which added a level of quality. Below is a close up during the construction of the cabinet.
The Crown shown here was actually purchased over the web and only came in solid Poplar, however the after staining the unit with a custom wiping stain made by Sherwin Williams industrial finishes, you can't even tell it's a different species.
Here we are once the casework was completed. The doors are just the frames before the mullions, drawer construction at this point was still underway. The fun was just beginning
The most difficult aspect of the build was the upper glass doors. The mullions were templated and created individually. I used 1/4 MDF to make the template, making each mullion longer than needed due to each one needing to be fit to the door frame. I used a 1/8" round over bit to create the profile. The Hinges are solid brass true mortise hinges from CH Briggs Co. A small trim router and a chisel were used to mortise the hinges into the frame and doors.
Once each mullion was blanked out the fun really began. Because the inner profile of the door is a 1/4" round bead and the mullions are a 1/8" round bead the back of the mullions were coped using a 1/4" cove bit and sand paper on a 1/4" dowel. I made a small table saw sled to rough out the size of each piece. Nailing multiple guides of scrap to the sled to reproduce the same part more than once. After each piece was created I marked and created half lap joints at all intersecting pieces. The picture below is a close up of how precise each joint was made.


Final piece turned out perfect and the client was very pleased.

Gallery

Comments

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16,235 Posts
Beautiful! Amazing!
 

· Banned
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8,402 Posts
Awesome work. Getting that poplar to match is pretty incredible. That takes a real eye - besides the skill required. I'm a big fan of Thomas Johnson Antique Restoration videos and he does some real magic matching colors as well. I'm jealous.
 

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294 Posts
That is very very nice. GREAT job!!!
 

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10 Posts
Excellent work!
 

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510 Posts
Great job. The glass areas are way ABOVE great.
 

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7 Posts
Very impressive, especially the glasswork and beadingg on the doors.
 

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8,402 Posts
Two Daily Top 3's on the first day of membership - and well deserved ones. Is this some sort of LJ first?

Congratulations!
 

· Premium Member
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36 Posts
Very well done china cabinet. Your attention to detail and level of craftsmanship are really displayed here. I'd love to see more pics if you have them. Great Job. Congratulations and welcome to LJ!
 

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3 Posts
I can't add to what has already been said about your work, it's just beautiful. Congratulations on daily top 3. Welcome to LJ's.

wcp
 

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2,984 Posts
That is a fantastic looking china cabinet! I can see why the client is very pleased with it!
 

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5,339 Posts
cant go wrong with cherry its such a beautiful wood especially after sun darkens it a bit ….GREAT JOB :<)) GRATZ TOP 3
 

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122 Posts
This project is out of any competition -so amaizing cabinet. Those lights are magnificant too.
 

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908 Posts
Extremely nice work!. Great job matching the colors. Too bad you couldn't keep it for yourself.
 

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4,714 Posts
Ditto with all above!
I like cherry too.
 

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62 Posts
Outstanding piece of art. I'm very impressed by the mullions.
 
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