Bill Arnold
01-02-2006, 3:29 PM
Hi All.
Long time, no post -- just not enough hours in the day any more, it seems. Anyway, I just delivered my first 'real' commission! One of my doctors asked a few months ago if I could help them with a situation in their family room. She's our primary care physician and he's a plastic surgeon (nah, I'm beyond hope when it comes to plastic surgery!).
The situation is that he has 'his' computer in the family room so he can watch the big screen TV while working at the computer. His monitor and keyboard are on a sofa table behind a sofa that sticks out from a wall. There is another sofa along the wall. They had a small table for a lamp with his computer and printer under it. She wanted things hidden away so the cabling was concealed. He just wanted her to be happy! By the way, both are artists and do beautiful work in oils, etc.
An enclosed cabinet would, of course, create a heat problem and they didn't really want a fan running all the time. My objective was to create a cabinet that appeared fairly 'normal' (whatever that is) while taking care of the heat. The solution was a totally open bottom to provide the air supply and a lattice in the top half of all side and door panels for heat escape. The attached photos show the result.
The exterior of the cabinet is solid honduras mahogany with interior panels and stretchers made from sandee ply sprayed to resemble mahogany. Transtint 'Dark Mission Brown' blended with NC lacquer provided the toning, with all components shaded resulting in an appearance that is mindful of sunlight playing through the leaves of a tree.
If you haven't already figured it out from the photos, the computer sits in the tray on the right, printer in the tray on the upper left and the two drawers are for whatever. Cabling is fed through the bottom of the cabinet to and between the various components. Drawers are poplar toned with Transtint mixed in shellac.
I probably spent as much time determining how I wanted to resolve the open weave at the top of the panels while retaining structural integrity. I didn't like any of the metallic solutions, nor was the doctor particularly fond of that, either. Wicker, chair cane and such were also reviewed but I wanted something more substantial. After determining that a 3/8" pattern would probably be a good compromise between appearance and functionality, I began to experiment with some scrap. The result was what is best described as a 'Lincoln Log' assembly which can be seen in the photo kcab1_latraw.jpg.
I look forward to your comments.
Regards,
Long time, no post -- just not enough hours in the day any more, it seems. Anyway, I just delivered my first 'real' commission! One of my doctors asked a few months ago if I could help them with a situation in their family room. She's our primary care physician and he's a plastic surgeon (nah, I'm beyond hope when it comes to plastic surgery!).
The situation is that he has 'his' computer in the family room so he can watch the big screen TV while working at the computer. His monitor and keyboard are on a sofa table behind a sofa that sticks out from a wall. There is another sofa along the wall. They had a small table for a lamp with his computer and printer under it. She wanted things hidden away so the cabling was concealed. He just wanted her to be happy! By the way, both are artists and do beautiful work in oils, etc.
An enclosed cabinet would, of course, create a heat problem and they didn't really want a fan running all the time. My objective was to create a cabinet that appeared fairly 'normal' (whatever that is) while taking care of the heat. The solution was a totally open bottom to provide the air supply and a lattice in the top half of all side and door panels for heat escape. The attached photos show the result.
The exterior of the cabinet is solid honduras mahogany with interior panels and stretchers made from sandee ply sprayed to resemble mahogany. Transtint 'Dark Mission Brown' blended with NC lacquer provided the toning, with all components shaded resulting in an appearance that is mindful of sunlight playing through the leaves of a tree.
If you haven't already figured it out from the photos, the computer sits in the tray on the right, printer in the tray on the upper left and the two drawers are for whatever. Cabling is fed through the bottom of the cabinet to and between the various components. Drawers are poplar toned with Transtint mixed in shellac.
I probably spent as much time determining how I wanted to resolve the open weave at the top of the panels while retaining structural integrity. I didn't like any of the metallic solutions, nor was the doctor particularly fond of that, either. Wicker, chair cane and such were also reviewed but I wanted something more substantial. After determining that a 3/8" pattern would probably be a good compromise between appearance and functionality, I began to experiment with some scrap. The result was what is best described as a 'Lincoln Log' assembly which can be seen in the photo kcab1_latraw.jpg.
I look forward to your comments.
Regards,