Another brief update, showing some of the things I’ve been up to over the last few months. I have been doing some sub-contracting for a couple of my colleagues when they need a hand, which is good fun and a good way to get more experience, but the following are my own projects.
Drinks Cabinet
The largest and most interesting job has been the conversion of an old oak dresser into a drinks cabinet. The old oak dresser consists of a base unit of drawers, and the top piece looked like it was originally used for hanging coats behind two wide doors.
The drinks cabinet was to be mirrored, with glass shelving and lighting. One of the drawers needed to be repaired – it was split along it’s entire front face, a piece of the cornice was missing, the doors needed to be rehung as the hinges were worn, and it was going to be necessary for me to work within the existing structure which was not square in any dimension and all of the rails were heavily warped.
- I fixed the drawer face with a series of wooden pegs.
- I sourced an entirely new piece of cornice and applied some stains to colour match the rest of the dresser.
- I fitted new hinges to the doors and re-glued them for strength before re-hanging them.
- I added some flush magnetic latches to keep the inside of the cabinet free of protrusions.
- I then constructed an entirely new oak frame with panelling to fit inside the old cabinet. This provided a square structure to take the mirrors and the glass shelving.
- Finally, I added LED strip lights and LED downlights – all operated by a discrete switch placed inside the cabinet.
And photos are the best way from me to show you the results…
Bespoke Cutlery Tray
From a large piece, to a small piece; even cutlery trays deserve to be made bespoke. I made this one in oak, with just the right number and size of compartments to fit into the client’s kitchen drawer.
Seat Upholstery
Having no experience with the world of upholstery, I decided to undertake a short course in upholstery. I spent one week learning traditional techniques – webbing, tacks, springs, string, hessian, more tacks, thread, coir, more hessian, more tacks, more thread, calico, more tacks, dacron, fabric and more tacks. Upholstery is, I think, probably best left to the professionals. 🙂
