Contemporary Shelving

This project was quite an undertaking. I had no idea what I was getting in to when I started it, but it turned out great and I’m glad I got to do it. It taught me a lot about a number of techniques. As you’ll see from the pictures, these shelves were made to hold up a pair of 90 lb. vases. The problem was that the client didn’t want any supports and no visible hardware. He also wanted the shelves to be elliptical so that nobody would catch on the edges passing by. So… this meant that I had to weld up a steel subframe and mount it with lagbolts to the studs. The subframe would be drilled to allow the screws to hold the piece from below. I also had to do a bent lamination and build a form to clamp everything together properly. Since I knew the glue wouldn’t hold on the end grain I used small triangle pieces on the inside to act as “kerfing” to secure the front to the top. Oh yeah… and the toughest part… matching stains. He wanted the project to match as closely as possible to the chairs at the table. Eeeek. All in all… I need more projects like this. It taught me a lot. I love a challenge. If I could change anything I would cover up the bottom or paint it darker so that it was less noticeable from below, but he didn’t want to do it because from just about every normal angle he went to in the room you couldn’t see the bottom. Only if you got on the floor and looked up…. so oh well. It turned out nice, and we’re both happy with it.

-- Thomas Porter, Phoenix, AZ, www.thomasporter.com