Thanks to the wonderful architects at Alterstudio who designed this kitchen, I was fortunate to be recommended for this project as cabinetmaker.  Normally I do not provide counter tops and finish hardware, but because of the tightly nested design, I engineered and supervised the fabrication and installation of all stone & stainless steel counter tops/backsplash and stainless finish hardware.

The client liked "Shuffle."  Shuffle wouldn't work in this application due to the function needed by the client and tight space limitations imposed by two doors and a staircase.  It needed to hold it's own in a house with a lot of one-of-a-kind artisanal pieces.  What better way to stand up for yourself than a cabinet made from a big chunck of walnut?

This is a custom design and fabrication for great customer of mine here in Austin. All the face veneers on the cabinetry were hand cut from one piece of walnut in my studio. There is a solid walnut blotter inset into the steel at the desk opening.

I took off all of July and August of this year to build out my wifes new store in East Austin, Take Heart. It was a lot of hard work but really fullfilling on so many levels. All the door and cabinet veneers were hand cut and vac pressed from a pile of old vintage pine skins I had purchased earlier in the year.

Walnut credenza with tambour doors and leather drawer pulls.  clandestine writing desk pivots from corner when needed. 

The BigLittle Series is a dynamic line of furniture that's playfully named for it's union of large and small volumes, Chronically off-center, it features bold colors and a range of customizable configurations.

And BigLittle treads lightly on the environment, with choices that include formaldehyde-free materials and low-VOC finishes.

The Taj is shaped to a point at the top with kerf bent plywood and solid - template cut - maple trim.

For the client -a UT Professor's - tea pot collection.  

A client approached us about a year ago wanting a bar and back bar for a veritable man-cave he was adding to his residence.   His initial concept had grown from his original idea of just adding a garage for his classic car collection when his wife asked that he also include an exercise room for her.  With his addition being on a cliffside, he thought he might add a 1,600 sq. ft. recreational room below.   His first purchase for this room was a 1890’s Victorian style pool table.   Originally, he talked to us about creating a bar to complement this Victorian design.  But he had leanings toward Art Deco and his love for the elevator doors from the Chrysler Building in New York ultimately drove the design of the bar.  We collaborated with the client’s designer, Etty Brish, who envisioned and then actualized the room’s décor.  We chose veneers of birdseye maple, tamo ash, exquisite walnut burl, bubinga and ebony to lay out the Art Deco design for the front of the bar.

This big of a project called for a BIG board.  Wanting a continuous board for both the bar top and the back bar top, we selected a 55-inch wide by 19-foot long board of bubinga from an importer in Pennsylvania.  The almost 600 lb. board was shipped to a friend’s shop where we would have the space to maneuver the board around.  The board was cut in half along the length and edges were folded along the length for the rounded edges of the bar tops.  After the finish work on the veneer bar front and the combination of the curved bubinga panels and wenge beads to create walls and doors, we were ready for the first phase of installation.  The assembly process began and at last the first phase was complete.

In the work area behind the bar, the cabinets for the glassware and stemware have doors that are made of the same curved bubinga and wenge.  Even the small refrigerator’s stainless steel door was replaced  with a bubinga & wenge door front.   A small wooly mammoth ivory dot in the upper corner of a door marks the spot for opening with a simple touch.  The final phase of installation was of a curtain effect of the bubinga & wenge panels to tie the back bar in with the back wall.    The curtain effect and the wenge frame leave one expecting a movie projector to start a show at any time.   The owner is commissioning an Art Deco mural painted in this space speculating that a stylized Austin skyline with perhaps a whimsically added Chrysler Building would be an appropriate tip of the hat to the bar’s inspiration.

The Evans home  is a very modern structure -  built on a cliff in the Northwest Hills.

The project started with a wall to wall shelving system for the Weaving Room.

Downstairs a home entertainment center equipment cabinet  was built to fit a long list of components.

A Living Room niche cabinet held the cable box, newspapers and magazines.

Outside of the guest bedroom - a Privacy Screen Fence made of ipe was built to spare the guests from a view of the neighbor's drive way....

The client requested a Period Style "Eastlake" vanity for a white marble bathroom.  

Eastlake was a purveyor of popular opinion in matters of style and taste in the early 19th Century.

  His influence in regards to  decorative elements elevated the cultural tastes of the time.  

The antique  model shown was created about 50 years after Eastlake's popularity ended.