The client has an 1829 house with a small kitchen and asked me to create a base cabinet with shelves above it in a corner. The back wall is about 35 ” and the walls are not plumb or quite square to each other, but with careful measurements,
I was able to make the base cabinet in my shop so that it fit when I installed it. She wanted a hand-made look for the cabinet with traditional doors and a large, strong drawer. I could not find tongue and groove boards with a flat side, but she said she would like to see the v-groove side.
The client showed me a photo of sculpted sides on shelves and asked if I could make that. I’m generally not a fan of unnecessary scrolling, but I suggested that shaping the edges of the shelves and the uprights would be a more classical look. This involved tracing and cutting semi-circles with a jigsaw, smoothing the edges, and then using a router to shape the edges. Routing and smoothing the circles was perhaps the most time-consuming part of the job because of the grain.
Gordon Harris 