Owl Cabinet

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The main source of the wood is resawn
mahogany taken from the casings and
other trim from a Hyde Park apartment.
I carved an owl on both sides.  The dark 
lacquered top (veneered MDF) is from
a cheap Chinese piece of crap which 
repeatedly fell apart and the drawer is from
a set of three salvaged by my friend Zena.
Thanks, Zena! Thanks, Rick! 

Crown Returns

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A number of the crowns over my ancient doorways were
missing the returns. So sometime ago I bought a special
router bit which closely matched part of the profile. So with
some judicious routing and sawing of salvaged mahogany I had
suitable pieces to use. I added some square bead and also
literal beads…Mardi Gras beads which I shellaced and painted
to imitate the original wooden pearl bead. 10 feet up the new
returns are indistinguishable from the original crowns.

Book Shelves Plus

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The client desired book shelves which would span the wall to accommodate his sprawling collection. But baseboard heaters also lined the wall, so we had to allow air passage at the bottom which we masked with grilles. We also ran electric behind the whole thing so a receptacle is available for a lamp or whatever at the center. A rolltop conceals a center desk area with pigeon holes for papers. The flanking sections have lower cabinets, drawers, a fixed shelf and two adjustable shelves.

Front Door Re-casing

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I have this nice leaded-glass transom, but it was all rather plain,
so I decided to punch it up with some new casing. The corbels are
sculpted in Sculpy and set into wooden housing. I then made molds
and cast numerous copies in plaster. The woman represents the
warm season and the man represents to cool season and the
emblems above them echo that. The emblems are carved, sawn
and glued wood. The grooves on the vertical casings were
produced on the table saw. Some of the trim is store-bought
millwork and some I produced, like the dentil.