DETAILS…

Materials & Construction

• Hand made, wide stave (140mm boards) Oak worktops with up stands
• Durable, smooth face, white Melamine cabinets
• MR(moisture resistant) MDF custom Shaker style doors
• MR MDF face framing/lippings
• Butt & Bead, scribed to wall end panels  (not always possible with an off-the-shelf kitchen as the panels are rarely wide enough)
• Custom reinforced low 600 cabinet (with six feet!) to support an unusually deep and heavy Belfast Sink (56kgs!)

Hardware 

• Soft close/self close Euro/concealed hinges
• Half moon basket carousels

Finishing

• Hand painted doors, end panels and face framing/lippings
• Oiled worktops

HIKING TIP: Looking after a solid timber top is just like looking after your hiking boots.  Keep them dry and don’t allow water to pool, sit or soak. With regular use frequently apply a dubbing oil (usually the original finish) to keep them supple, stop drying out and provide a basic level of water resistance  -  A five minute process that’ll give you the milage.

So what do you do? Stick a console table over the top?

Well you could… or you could have a practical bespoke solution to compliment the period of the property and conceal the whole mess.

Lambs tongue skirting to match existing. This is set lower to allow for maximum access of the cabinet during electrical maintenance.

Clip on hinges enable doors to be easily removed for maintenance.

Oak top scribed to fit ‘wonky’ wall and dyed to fit in with existing timber flooring.

I’ve managed to grab a few shots from the event however it was hard to do justice  to the huge exhibition space buzzing with activity. Competitors are generally performing the same tasks quite often using different practices and equipment to achieve the same results (which I found fascinating!). It’s great to see some of the more traditional practices such as Stone Masonry and Carpentry holding their own and demonstrating their relevance to more modern practices such as Mechatronics and  IT Software Design. I can highly recommend this event, however it’ll be a few years before it returns to London.  If you do ever find yourself in a host nation whilst it’s on be sure to drop in, it’s usually free and well worth the time to visit!

Day One (left alcove)
The left alcove is prepared. Wall batterns are levelled and fixed to height to support the media cabinet top and upper book casing.

 The media cabinet is glued and assembled. Adjustable cabinet feet are then fitted. Once the Oak media top is scribed and cut to fit. A groove is routed (shown later) along the back edge to receive the lower back panel. The media top is then fixed to the wall supports with stretcher plates (angle brackets that allow for expansion) and the lower cabinet is positioned and fixed up in place. The upper cabinets are are assembled, levelled and adjusted for plumb before fixing in place and anchoring at the top to the back wall. A drop cloth is used to protect the Oak top. Here can be seen the wall scribes in place, these are cut to create a neat joint to the wall and the complete the fitted look. I got a bit carried away here and forgot to take photos, it might of been the caffeine rush from a constant flow of tea! There are some pictures of the wall scribing process captured on day 2 latter on, taken on a better camera! Lower cabinet scribes are cut round existing skirting and fixed in place. The floor joint will be concealed by the skirting. Left alcove fitted and ready for skirting. The shelves are installed on adjustable pins. The gap at the top will be concealed by the plasterer with plaster coving to match. This is the traditional way of finishing the top however there are alternative methods that can be completed using timber.

Day Two (right alcove)

The right alcove with fused spur for the lighting which (as can be seen later on) is moved down by the qualified electrician. The lower cabinetry is glue and screw assembled before having adjustable feet fitted. A level line is pencil marked on the wall to position the cabinets to. The cabinets are levelled and plumbed before fixing off in position to the back wall. The Oak top is roughly scribed to the wall and back cut to ease fitting before routing the lower back panel groove. Lower back panel and cheeks in position. The upper cabinetry goes in and is fixed and anchored as per the left alcove install. Here also can be seen the repositioned fused spur and cable runs at the top and mid right for the down lighting. Scribing the side panels using a compass (on shelf) to transfer the wall line. The scribes are jigsaw cut and fettled to fit with a small block plane.The middle rail is biscuit jointed and glued in position. This will help to stiffen the upper cabinetry and conceal the down light. The lower scribing along with a wall return (left), door, handles, locks and escutcheon fitting. Ready to receive the skirting.

Project completion

The project is completed and handed over to the client and the plasterer to fit the plaster coving (this will hide the light spill at the top). The electrician will be fitting a down light (on order) behind the middle rail. The wall edges are concealed with decorators caulk for a seamless fitted finish. Right alcove. Right alcove detail showing 6mm toughened glass shelving. Right alcove showing lower internal cabinetry and shelving. Right alcove detail to show handles and lock escutcheons. Left alcove with skirting. Completed and ready for plaster coving and carpet floor covering.

Home time and feet up

Comments and questions welcome.

The last part of the workshop process is the finishing. It is very important to put the preparation in before applying the finish. This involves scraping off excess glue, sanding out any saw marks, pencil lines, scratches and steaming out any knocks before keying or prepping the surfaces through the sand paper grits to a 180/240 grit finish.

Here we can be seen the MDF face frame components and the two beech frames (behind) being prepped. I like to apply two coats of WB (water based) acrylic primer one after the other and allow to dry overnight so the MDF edges go nice and hard. The primer is knocked back flat with 240 grit on the faces and 180 grit on the MDF cut edges. I am often asked how best to seal the MDF edges. The important thing is to harden them off so that when rubbed back you stop that perpetual fluffing or flowering of the surface. There are many ways to do this… wallpaper boarder adhesive, PVA, shellac sanding sealer, polyurethane varnish, acrylic varnish, wood stopping fillers… It’s all about binding those fibers so you can knock off the nibs (denib) to leave a smooth edge.

Pictured above are the finishing products to be used.

For the paint finish

• 2 coats of acrylic primer.

• 3 coats of water based eggshell.

For the Oak

• 1 coat of NGR (non grain raising) spirit based dye  (rubbing raised grain from a WB dyed would be a disaster!).

• 2 coats of Hard Wax Oil (a third coat is applied to surfaces that receive heavy traffic such as worktops and desk tops for example).

The highs and lows  of  VOC

Where possible we like to use WB (water based) finishes. They have a much lower VOC (volatile organic content) base making them kinder to the environment and less of a hazard to us in the shop! The quality of WB products have improved remarkably in recent years. However in some instances alternative finishes are more appropriate as long as they are applied safely and disposed of correctly (that goes for WB too!).

Applying the NGR (Dark Oak) dye which is left over night to dry.

The first coat of Hard Wax Oil is brush applied and allowed to soak in for 10-15 minutes before wiping of any excess with a clean rag. Addition coats are applied once dried, usually after 12-16 hrs depending on humidity and temperature (ideally 45-50% humidity and 22-25 degrees C).

It’s occurred to me that I forgot to get some snaps of the paint finishing! However this really is quite straight forward, if a little time consuming.  It’s important to be thorough with the preparation as rushing at this stage will quickly ruin a project! It still surprises me how time can disappear during the finishing process. Once primed and rubbed back to a smooth finish (as mentioned above) we apply the Eggshell coats by brush and roller (the spongey one).

Seen above is one of  the paint finished display case doors recieving 4mm toughen Pilkington glass. The glass sits on a bead of clear silicone (to stop rattles!) and held in place with pre finished PSE (planed square edge) glazing bead.

Handles & Escutcheons

Handles and escutcheons (key hole covers) should also be given some thought. They really can make or break a piece so it is important that the right design and finish is chosen or custom made to suit. There are literally thousands to choose from a couple of pounds to mega bucks and because of this I don’t usually include the price in a quotation unless a design is agreed during consultation. I can advise and guide a client on choosing a handle however the choice is often seen as a very personal one to the individual or project location . It’s not unusual for us to return to a project weeks later to change or fit the handles if the choice has been a particuarly tricky one!

For this project the client has specified Oak button knobs stained to match the scheme, below can be seen the escutcheons being custom made to match in the shop.

Once the finishes have cured the components are checked ready to be assembled and installed. The green stack to the right are the wrapped  glass shelves. Centre are the hinges, knobs, escutcheons and other bits of hardware. Bagged up to the left are adjustable cabinet feet for levelling (click picture to view large).

Installation

The majority of twin alcove installs take approximately a day and a half to fit. I like to allow a diary window of two days for any unforeseen circumstances. The final two days of week 3 will be used for the install.We like to get projects out of the shop as soon as they are ready as this avoids any knocks in the shop, frees up space and keeps the accounts in the black! However sometimes there can be delays such as prior groundworks to be completed on site, which a pain as they are can’t always be helped.

The final post in the Alcove Furniture WIP series will be the site install which takes place next week.

Once cleaned up the Beech doors are hung and the rebates are measured for the toughened 4mm glass and ordered along with the 6mm toughened, polished edge shelves. These will take a few days to be manufactured and BS stamped at the glass factory.

With the doors in place the locks are marked out and fitted.

A cuppa Yorkshire Tea and it’s time for a trip to the timber yard to select the European Oak for the cabinet tops. Each board is carefully picked from the pack checking for defects, cupping, twists and bows. I also want a consistent wide stave of around 150mm. Sometimes this can involve quite a lot of fishing and along with yard staff banter it’s not long before a good hour slips by!  Marked with red dots (Photoshop) are the approximate positions of the pieces that were selected. Back at the shop the boards are cut to approximate lengths to a ROD (full size template) of the media cabinet top that I had roughly marked out on the cutting bench’s sacrificial top. Ignore the random lines to the right. These are through cuts from the panel/rail saw, previously made whilst cutting up sheets.

The boards are faced and edged (like the Beech in Week 1). You can see the results of the first plane pass here and the figure of the grain revealed from the rough sawn board. This is a really enjoyable part of the process .

The faced and edged boards are back on the ROD, numbered and marked up with biscuit joint positions. The triangle mark acts as a reference to return to after jointing.The boards are glued and clamped. Two straight edged pieces of timber help to keep the top flat and stop the sash clamps from cupping the top whist it’s under pressure during glue up. Due to the size of the top this assembly was done in two stages. Below shows stage two, the last 3 staves being glued onto the back of the front 5.After glue up the assembled top is scraped to remove the excess glue. A belt sander  (in a frame to maintain flatness) is run over the top inline with the grain.

The ROD is transferred to a more accurate paper template to layout details onto the prepared top before dimensioning. Seen here is the cable grommet positioning along with an addition +25mm edge to allow for wall scribing tolerances on fitting (i.e. wonky walls!).The cut out tops. Picture foreground shows the media cabinet top and behind it the right alcove top. Radius’ (radii?) are run round the corners using a 9mm MDF guide template and a top bearing twin flute cutter in a hand held router. Both tops have 4mm chamfers run around the edges. Behind can be seen lipped shelves which were assembled earlier whilst waiting for the glue to cure on the tops (construction details below).Detail showing lift out cable gromit.

Preparing shelf lippings with a rebate. The lippings help to  support the edge from sagging and give more presence to the shelf design.

Shelf glue up.

Left alcove bookcase shelving cleaned up, dimensioned, chamfered stacked up and ready for rub down and finishing next week.Tea time before week 3.

Once reaching stage three of the Commissioning Process I can place an order for the timber, sheet stock, hardware and finishing materials. First to arrive is the sheet stock. 4 Oak veneered and 4 MDf standard.

The first step, and possibly the most important, is to draw up cutting lists for the components and mark out any necessary rods (full size drawings/templates) before dimensioning the sheet stock.

There’s no hard and fast way of doing things but I like to rough cut my panels with the rail saw to a workable size before accurately dimensioning them on the sliding panel saw. I find it’s easier on the back! Some pre cut panels can be seen next to the vice in the background. (BTW the radiator doesn’t usually stand on the bench! )

Once dimensioned and labeled up (remember this is going to be a BIG jigsaw, so best to avoid any headaches later on!) the panels have grooves routed to accept their backs.

Once grooved I biscuit joint the panels. These handy little loose tongues help to strengthen the construction by increasing the glue area as well as assisting with locating the joints and edges.

The cabinets are dry fitted and temporarily screwed together to check the fit and act as a reference for the doors and shelves etc.. Later on we will be disassembling to finish and finally glue before installation.

All the cabinets are stacked up and ready to be used for referencing the rest of the project. The Left alcove cabinets are on the right and vica-versa (go figure!). You can see some cabinets have plain backs, these are going to have a custom paint finish – the beauty of bespoke! There is also a cut out in the small cabinet’s back, the AV media cabinet with all it’s cable runs.

Insert tea break somewhere around here

Next up are Shaker style doors. These are cut on the table saw with tongues and grooves (T&G’s) shaped on the router table. 75mm stiles and rails jointed with stuck T&G’s and a 9mm centre panel.

All glued up (even the back panels as there’ll be no movement concerns in the MDF). A quick measure across the diagonals checks for square… another cup of tea?

Once cleaned up I run a chamfer around the arrises (edges). These doors are being fitted on soft-close concealed hinges, so 35 mm  holes are cut into the door stiles to receive the hinges before fitting to the cabinet cheeks. Did I mention that this project is bespoke? Should you prefer traditional butt hinges we can fit these too.

Next up are the door frames for the glass display case. For a stronger construction and to allow for the glass rebate these are machined out of Beech. I usually use Poplar wood but choose the beech as it was already in stock and with it’s tight grain is nicely suited to the job.

First off is to check the boards for twist, wind, cupping defects etc. before roughly selecting and marking out the components.

The boards are then cut to manageable lengths before machining to thickness.

Facing the boards flat.Squaring the edges.

Checking the edges for square and getting an average thickness before dimensioning the boards to the final 18mm thickness.

Running the boards through the thicknesser.

The prepared boards are ripped along the grain to 75mm and trimmed to length for the door stiles and rails.

Cut to length the stiles and rails are laid out and marked for faces, rebates and Domino loose tongue joints.

Domino joints cut. Note the arris chamfer runs before glue up. I like to emphasise the joints but we can conceal them too.

After glue up a rebate is run around the inside of the frames and the corners are chopped square with a sharp chisel to allow the 4mm toughened glass to be let in.

A quick clean up with the block plane to remove any light saw marks before cleaning up and making ready in the shop for week 2.

We looked into various timber options and decided as the shutters were to be internal and paint finished that Poplar/Tulip wood could be an ideal candidate. It’s not necessary the most attractive timber as it has little figure and tends to vary from yellow-grey-green where heartwood meets sapwood. However its stability, price, machine ability and paint finish quality made it the perfect choice

It’s amazing how a big stack of timber can disappear. Three of these 3.6m lumps went into the project! It’s also feels great when you compare the picture to the final product. Wood really is a fantastic material!

OK, we’ve skipped a few steps. It was one of the coldest UK winters (2010) and before the shop was insulated so WIP shots were the last thing on my mind :/ Essentially once the timber was dimensioned, frames were made up with sashes (a frame within a frame) to hold the the louvres. All the louvres are splayed on the four edges so they close nice and tight. A sort of diamond shape in section. Each louvre pivots on two 5mm shelf pins with a vertical tie rod performing the open/close in a simple operation. You can see how the colour of the timber can vary from green to a pale yellow and how little figure is in the timber (photo above).

Here we can see the middle pair for the splay finished and ready to fit. Finishing was quite a time consuming process. 88 louvres to prime, sand and finish (2 coats)!

The shutters were fitted and scribed with a capping piece and end panels. The sashes are hung on black hinges with bullet/ bales catches holding them shut within the frames. This allows them to be opened for the cleaning and opening of the windows.