Pantry Cabinet

[Joel H.]

Thanks Phil, I used 1/2 tsp Walnut dye in 16 oz shellac.  Amazing how different the color comes out with just a small amount of change in the dye.and that ARS is great stuff.

George, I didn't realize the old fashioned ice boxes were that big.  I always thought they were 3 doors only.  Yeah an authentic old ice box would be worth a lot.  I just liked the look of it and LOML said she could use the extra storage space.

Joel

[fredhargis]

You really did a nice job recreating that piece. Very well done! For me pic #2 and 3 don't show up, but the others do (?????).

[Joel H.]

Hey Fred, thanks.  3 out of 5 ain't bad, eh?  Not sure why that happens, all the photos are in a Google "shared" file now.

[Bill Holt]

You really did a great job!  I love how small bead work dresses up a build.

[Steve N]

I may have corrected the problem of the pictures not showing up.  I hope so.

In early June I was visiting my daughter in Jamestown, RI.  She took me to see Vanderbilt's Marble Mansion in Newport, RI.  In the kitchen area they had a cabinet that I assume would have been used for a pantry.  Here it is:



I knew I had to build it.  Here are some progress pics:  

The inner unit in poplar:



The red oak face frame with the doors fitted and a side:



Front view of finished cabinet:



Oblique view:



The wood was dyed with TransTint Walnut in Blonde Shellac.  Topcoat was Arm-R-Seal.

The dimensions are 55 1/2" wide by 56" tall by 22 1/2" deep.  The wife is putting her larger pots, turkey pan, crock pots, etc. in it.

It was a lot of fun to build.  

Joel

You really did a nice job recreating that piece. Very well done! For me pic #2 and 3 don't show up, but the others do (?????).

I have 5 pics. lemme see if I can put them on so everyone sees them all, crossing fangers.......

   

   

   

   

   

Ok, I can see all 5, hopefully everyone else can too. I used the "add attachment" function now available on every thread that you hit the reply button on. Males it easy to post any pic under 1000kb, or an accumulation as I did here as long as total wasn't over 1000kb. So it works easily, unless you have MONSTER pics. That means I copied Joel's pics to my hard drive, but they are keepers for the idea farm  

[Joel H.]

Bill that beadwork was a lot of work.  They are 1/4" thick x 3/4" around all the door openings and 1/4" x 1/4" on the inside of the door and face frame panels.  Once I figured out I could use wood strips instead of clamps on the inside ones, it was a breeze.  

Thanks for the assist George, I need to learn that trick.

Joel

[FloridaRetiree]

Great pics and a great job you did.

Vanderbilt created some great houses with magnificent period craftsmanship. About 20 years ago visited his house on Long Island where he kept his expedition yacht.

Of course have been to the Biltmore estate near Asheville several times when camping in the area.

He also had a house near here on the Palm Beach island which I didn't realize.

Again about 20 years ago, I got a call from a guy saying his house needed replacement of four exterior doors which had severe damage from rotting.

When I went up there and met the guy, who turned out to be the estate manager, he showed me up to the bedroom where the doors were. I said to him how astonished I was and had never seen such craftsmanship.

That is when he said this house had been built by Vanderbilt using some of the same workers as at Biltmore.

Anyway, the French doors were about 8 feet tall and had rotted basically due to lack of maintenance.

They were 1 3/4" thick and made from vertical grain redwood. Since those guys knew their stuff I was guessing it was air dried.

I told him I would go back to my shop and do some research and calculations to build, replace and install, and call him with a price.

Long story short I found a company in Texas that had air-dried vertical grain redwood that could be planed down to 1 3/4 inches. I also had to have some custom moulding machine knives made to match the original profiles.

Told him the four new doors, built, installed using the original glass panels and brass hardware, and finished in marine spar varnish (don't think the originals had any finish?) would be $36,000.

I got a call the next day from the current owners wife telling me I was f...in nuts.

The owner at the time was a billionaire type who owned some professional sports team and a 4-star hotel up the road, . . . plus many other things. The wife fancied herself as a knowledgeable interior designer.

I said, "Ma'am do you realize this is a Vanderbilt house and probably on the National Register?"

CLICK!

End of story.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Am guessing they got some local millwork company to build fir veneered doors and slap them up for a fourth of fifth of what I quoted.

[Steve N]

No problem Joel. If my brief description didn't make sense, PM me, and I'll answer questions one at a time. Recently with PhotoBucket going all, give me cash or forget your pictures, a lot of people were swapping. At the same time the forum allowed us to post off our computers for the first time. I never have "housed my pics online" I have every pic I have on Pbucket on a disk, or hard drive, and only used Pbucket, because the forum would not allow for hosting pics.

Instead of jumping onto a burning raft (I think if Pbucket is successful with this high dollar pic posting, then shortly all of them will be charging MEGABUCK$) I decided if they would let us, I would use this. To be truthful if you have the pics on your computer, or a disk, drive, or other that can connect to your computer it is quicker and faster using the forum, than PB ever was. Size is the biggest issue, files must be less than 1000 mb. Resizing files can be done easily on a lot of FREE software. Your computer probably already has something installed that will work.