A Custom Made Kitchen

Although we typically specialize in building free standing pieces of custom furniture, it's not uncommon for us to also do built-ins and cabinetry such as kitchens.

One current project is for clients who are looking for a custom kitchen that is more "furniture-like" than what is currently available in the market. In other words: they're looking for something more refined than melamine boxes with doors.

For this project the cabinet interiors are to be finished in maple ply, with all drawer boxes being made of dovetailed solid maple running on Blumotion linear ball bearing slides. The cabinet exteriors will be finished in a 2-tone solid urethane.

The following series of images will show the progression of this project from the completion of the renovation stage through to the final installation.








At this stage the contractor is nearly done with his work. All electrical, plumbing and gas lines have now been located, and the drywall is mostly set in place. Once the hardwood floors are installed this room will be ready to receive our cabinetry.








The hardwood floors are now installed and the finishing touches have been made to the drywall. The appliance guys have already plunked the massive stainless steel fridge in the far corner, which will make it all the more difficult for us to do our work.








The lower boxes are set into their approximate locations, and a great deal of effort then goes in to making sure everything is square and level.








The upper cabinets, range hood, fridge enclosure and headers are now installed, and the fridge and oven have been set in place. The photos that follow show the completed kitchen, including counters, appliances, backsplash and crown moldings.

Typically when people talk about having something custom made they're referring to having cabinets made to a particular size, faced with doors of a certain style that have also been finished to match a specified colour or stain. In our world building something "custom" means providing addition service that, hopefully, also exceeds a client's expectations. For example, for the kitchen island we pointed out a minor detail in the fine print of the wine fridge specifications that required an additional .25 inches to be added to the overall cabinet heights to allow for sufficient ventilation of the fridge. This change was made at no extra charge, and provides adequate ventilation to enhance the long term performance of the wine fridge.

Also on this particular kitchen the client wanted to have the window faucet centred on the main window so that she could look out into the yard and easily see where her kids were playing. Although it is the base cabinets themselves that are usually centred under the windows, we were able to make the changes necessary to ensure the client ended up with the kitchen of her dreams.

When it comes to having something custom made it is often attending to the smallest of details that makes all the difference for making a client happy.

Custom Commission - Kidney Shaped Desk

What follows is a series of photos of a recently completed custom commission for a Kidney Shaped Desk. These images will form the basis for a series of blog posts that will explain this desk in great detail, explaining not only the various holistic woods used but also the process for making the gold, copper and silver inlays that have been fitted into the pencil drawer.




This is the initial walnut blank with recesses cut to receive the gold, copper and silver inlays. After the inlay work is complete this piece will become the lid of the box located inside the pencil drawer.




The gold and silver inlays were cast using a lost wax process. This image shows the mold and wax casting for the silver Turtle inlay.




The mold and wax casting for the Eagle inlay, which ended up being made of gold.




Benchwork on the Turtle inlay.




Benchwork on Eagle inlay.




Cleaning the casting of the Eagle inlay.




Polishing the Eagle inlay.




Handscraping the copper Tree inlay. Since it is not practical to cast copper, this inlay was made of bar stock that was seamlessly soldered together.




Preparing to fit the inlay into the wood.




After much polishing and finessing by hand, the final fit is achieved.




The wood lid can now be sanded in preparation for gluing the inlay into place.




A protective Lanolin finish is carefully applied by hand to the Black Walnut lid and sculpted inlay pieces that will function as finger pulls under the drawers. It is highly relevant that these pieces are all located in areas that will be frequently touched, since this will allow the active holistic molecules of the Black Walnut wood to come into direct contact with the skin of the person using the desk.




The finished lid and finger pulls, ready to be fitted into desk.




Front view of the completed desk.




A closer view of the end detail of the desk.




Detail view of top, showing Macassar Ebony top apron and inset of black Tuscany leather.




Detail view of side drawer.




Pencil drawer - closed.




Pencil drawer - open.




Interior of pencil drawer, showing inlaid lid of Black Walnut. The trays on either side are made of Sassafras, which is a holistic wood known for its aromatherapeutic properties. The box portion below the inlaid lid has been crafted from a wood called Hawthorn, which is also known for its aromatherapeutic and Ayurvedic properties.




Detail view of inlaid finger pull below one of the side drawers. The finger pulls are made of a special cutting of Black Walnut wood, which has traditionally been used by Native American medicine women for its holistic properties.

The properties of all of the holistic woods, and the story behind the gold, copper and silver inlays in the lid, will be explained in greater detail in a subsequent post.

Can't You Hear Me Knocking?

Although today is a long weekend I was in my shop finishing a special project for one of my clients. Because there's a good chance that this client also follows my blog I won't be posting pictures of what I was up to just yet - to maintain some air of surprise.

In the meantime I'm posting a link to a song by the Rolling Stones. It came on the radio today, and it's a song I haven't heard in YEARS.

It's such a great tune!

For the record: I'm a lousy dancer, but I was dancing a mean boogie to this song today, but only because no one was in my shop to see me doing it.

Edgar the Tree

Yesterday's post showed an image of fruit blossoms that have surprisingly appeared on a PawPaw tree in our backyard.

Today's post is of a maple tree that is growing nearby.



Several years ago, after a visit with friends, I found my parked vehicle covered in hundreds of maple keys that had fallen from nearby trees. On a lark I gathered handfuls of these keys to plant them in small starter pots to see what would happen.

In short order the bulk of these seeds sprouted into tiny seedlings, and over the course of the Summer I either gave away or transplanted all of them in various locations. The empty pots (including those of the seeds that didn't take hold) I left at the side of the house, and subsequently forgot about them.

Months later I was surprised to notice a gangly seedling in one of the "empty" pots. This little guy was obviously a late bloomer, and now that it was late in the season I was hard pressed for ideas on where to plant him before Winter set in.

Without much thought I decided to place this seedling in the middle of the garden at the back of the yard, to see if he'd even survive the first snow. Survive he did, and by the next Spring it was growing by leaps and bounds.

In just a few year's time this tree has grown to over 20 ft. tall, and is now a permanent fixture in the yard. This tree's shade is especially welcome on hot Summer afternoons.

This tree has also been named. We call him: Edgar.

The PawPaw Tree has Blossoms!

Two weeks ago I posted images of some lesser known species of trees that were starting to bud with the coming of Spring.

One of these trees was a PawPaw, and it's a particular favorite of mine because a) it's extremely rare in this area, and b) it's survival is critical for biodiversity since it's the only tree capable of hosting the larvae of the Zebra Swallowtail butterfly.

Today I made a fascinating discovery about this tree, because it is now showing fruit blossoms as well. This has me thrilled beyond belief, because this PawPaw is supposed to be years away from being mature enough to bear fruit.

This moment reminds me of something Nelson Henderson once said, in that:

"The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit."

The Tree Swallows have Disappeared

In 2001 we located our Shop to a rural location roughly 1 hour north-east of Toronto. One of our first orders of business was to place nesting boxes all around the perimeter of the property.

Because of our rural location there are many open fields and, for a while, there were also large numbers of Tree Swallows to be found. The purpose of the nesting boxes was to provide habitat for these birds.


A total of 20 of these nesting boxes were made, and in the first few years it was not uncommon to see more than half of them occupied by nesting pairs of birds.

During warm summer days it was a joy to see these birds zig-zag and divebomb their way across the property to catch their staple meal of flying insects.


About 5 years ago the numbers started to decline, and I was puzzled as to why fewer birds were coming back every year. The decline in numbers is now complete, because this year not a single Tree Swallow has returned.

But at least now I know the reason why.

It's corn. Fields and fields of corn. With the heightened awareness of global warming in recent years (and the ramped up production of biofuels such as ethanol) most of the farmland in this area has now become converted to the growing of corn.

What this means for the Tree Swallows is a loss of the diverse meadows that once provided an abundant supply of insects for food. Crops for biofuel has now become big business in this area, as is evident from this nearby expanded storage facility.


While it's true that farmers feed cities, these days it seems that more and more of them are finding it profitable to feed gas tanks instead.

Spring has Sprung - Finally !

Today we enjoyed some warm and sunny weather. Finally !

Probably the best indicator that Spring has sprung is seeing the trees starting to bud.

When I relocated my shop to its current location in 2001 one of the first things I did was to plant some trees on the surrounding property. I opted to plant several lesser known and indigenous species of trees, including a few that are considered to be species at risk in this area.



This Shagbark Hickory is clearly wasting little time getting its buds out into the light of the Sun. Other species including Butternut, Swamp Oak, Pin Oak, Black Walnut and PawPaw remain mostly dormant.



This PawPaw is one of my favorite trees. Although not considered to be a particular species at risk, this tree is extremely rare in these parts since we are located more to the north of its usual climate zone.



I felt inspired to plant some of these trees, largely because the PawPaw is the only tree able to host the Zebra Swallowtail butterfly.

On so many levels it is essential to do what is possible to help sustain biodiversity.