Art Deco vanity

I love this piece, beautiful.

-- I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso

That is some beautiful figure in that burl. Not my style either, but that’s a nicely done piece of furniture.

-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com

That’s a great looking vanity! The veneer is outstanding.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

What an awesome piece! I really liked your wine cabinet and the Bubinga bowfront hall table as well. Keep up the good work.

-- Chuck Bender, period furniture maker, www.acanthus.com

Hi Alan,

The vanity is simply beautiful and the veneer is, as you say, spectacular. Nice choice of topcoat as well.

Thanks for the post.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Speechless – that’s beautiful!

-- You can't get a hug from Facebook.

This is simply unbelievable! both the form and the veneer layup on this are perfect!

-- Brian, Folsom, CA http://www.brianfullerdesigns.com

Very impressive work, and veneer.

Wow, wow, wow….. wow again! Thank you so much for sharing!

-- When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt! Henry J. Kaiser

Fan-damn-tastic! Lovely work. Even though the missus hates it, Deco is one of my favs. Oh well, at least she has good taste in husbands. HA!

Keep up the good work, Alan.

always,
J.C.

-- "Imagination is more important than knowledge" -- Albert Einstein

YOW. That is very nice. You got skills. Thanks for showing.

-- Stevethepeeve -- I'm no rocket surgeon

really nice work.. congrats

-- making sawdust....

Whoa!! again just excellent work

-- Thos. Angle

very nice work

-- I love this site !

This is a great looking vanity. I really like this one. Wow, what a great job. Someday I hope to build things like this. Very nice, wow!!!!!!!!!!!

-- Davesfunwoodworking

hello alan C is very a beautiful piece congratulation very beautiful work

-- jeanmarc manosque france

hello alan would be it possible D to have more details on the vanity thank you and very good week end

-- jeanmarc manosque france

Hi Jeanmarc,
Actually the construction was pretty straight forward. I used birch plywood for the body, veneering over it where needed. The lower part of the top, below the step, is an open walnut frame and the top was screwed to it from underneath. Drawers were blind dovetail construction boxes with veneered fronts added. Handles are walnut dowels with holly caps. Legs were rabbetted to fit over edges of the carcase. The holly diamond was about 1/16th in. thick, set into a routed opening. Key point- no sanding of veneer until everything is in place and glued down. Otherwise you end up sanding some areas twice and can sand through- believe me, I found out the hard way on another project.
The mirror frame is 4 pieces, held together with glue and biscuits. It was rough cut on a band saw and finished with a router in a circle cutter fixture. The whole thing was held in place on a backer board until both inside and outside were routed. Tricky.
Hope this helps.

-- Alan Carter, www.alancarterstudio.com

Just an awesome piece!

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

thank you very much for the information

-- jeanmarc manosque france

that veneer is very beautiful. Nice job with this one. The diamond in the top almost takes away from it, but I’m not going to complain. This is a well executed, very nice piece. I’m adding it to my favs.

-- ~ Inspiring those who inspire me ~

Alan,

You stated that: “You can’t really use lacquer on a vanity because some cosmetics have alcohol bases and the alcohol will dissolve lacquer.”

How about precat Lacquer. It will give you the superior protection of a lacquer and none of the hassels of a wipe-on finish. I have used it on most everything I have ever made and have had no problems.

By the way, I hink you have done an excellent job on this piece. I love art deco, but there are just too few commissions for this style. in 19 yrs of building custom furniture, I have only had commissions for 5 pieces. My latest is my all time favorite
http://masterpiecefurniture.com/getitem.php?id=77&classification=classification=1%20AND%20enabled=1

I think I was thinking about nail polish remover, which has lacquer thinner it- or at least it used to. I got my advise on the finish from the forum at finewoodworking.com. Pre-cat may work just fine, but I didn’t want to take any chances. I’lll need to do more research on it in the future. Actually, I don’t know for sure if alcohol dissolves lacquer or not.

By the way, I really like your cabinet- a lot of work for $4900.00.

-- Alan Carter, www.alancarterstudio.com