As I’ve said before, working with my clients to create one-of-a-kind pieces is what I enjoy most in my profession. Some clients are very specific on the aesthetics, where others are more concerned about how the piece functions. But all in all I’m able to use my creativity to marry the two into one cohesive piece.
This particular client’s instructions were that they wanted the bottom bank of cabinets to look like wainscot. They wanted open shelving flanking the television, and the wife was tired of seeing her husbands work-out equipment, including his exercise bike, in the living room. That was the basic design direction I received and this is the outcome.
For starters, in our conversations, I found that she didn’t always want to see the open shelving and when they have company she definitely didn’t want to see the TV. So I designed the unit to have sliding doors. When open you see the television and when closed you see the shelving.
Next was the storage capability. As you can see, the height of the lower cabinets was determined by the height of the bike. But I don’t know if you have ever had to move those bikes around but they can be quite heavy. So to make it easy for him to store the bike I created a pull out platform that locks into place when it’s fully extended. That way he can easily put the bike on the platform without it sliding back and forth, then he just unlocks it to push it back into the cabinet. The rest of the storage held his exercise ball, mats and weights as well as a separate section for their TV trays.
They were very please with the final product and said that I had exceeded their expectations.
Woodworking has been a life-long love of mine, but combining the beauty of wood with functionality to create unique pieces that is specific to the clients needs is my favorite.