Tell me this isn't wrong

[smorgasbord]

Was down in Big Sur earlier today and stopped in the gallery across the road (Hwy 1) from Nepenthe. Saw this nice piece of furniture:
[attachimg=1]

But then when I opened the drawers and doors, here's what I saw:
[attachimg=2]
[attachimg=3]

Is it just me, or is it really so wrong to use kitchen cabinet visible on the side drawer slides and 35mm cup hinges? Should a piece like this have dadoes in the drawer sides for wooden supports in the cabinet, or at the very least hidden undermount slides? And, maybe Soss hinges for the doors?

 

[ChuckM]

I suppose the maker/seller has the general consumers in mind when they chose that kind of hardware for the piece. In other words, not people who know what to look for in terms of craftsmanship, dovetail joinery and quality cabinet door brass hinges or someone who has deeper knowledge of fine furniture or has had furniture making experience.

 

[squall_line]

Never mind the hardware, what's up with the plastic stick-on cover and the large white glob of whatever that is inside the cabinet door?

The doors at least appear to use solid wood, but the inside shelves look like edgebanded veneered plywood; the grain doesn't match at the corners.

Not that there's anything inherently wrong with that, but for what I'm imagining this thing was listed at (gallery-type pricing), ugh.

 

[jeffinsgf]

Nor did the maker have the sensibility to put the "C" face down on the drawer bottom and hide that horrid patch.

 

[Vtshopdog]

Personally the hardware doesn't bother me, but the patch type things on side of main shelf space are kinda "whuutt??"  What are those??

I think it's really beautiful and actually seems a fairly doable project if one were inclined to borrow the general design.

 

[Packard]

Once you decide to forego dovetails for the drawers, you really do need easy sliding drawers…

And the builder probably got tired of hearing, “What? Twenty-nine hundred dollars and no soft-close?  Forget about it.  Let’s check Ashley Furniture and also Bob’s Discount Furniture.  What the heck. No soft close!  What were they thinking?”

In fairness to the builder, someone sketch what conventional wood drawer runners would look like in the furniture box with curved sides?  I don’t see how it could reasonably be done.

 

[luvmytoolz]

I have no qualms with sliders, although I would have recessed the slides into a dado to improve the look, but the door hinges absolutely needed to be black if going for that sort of fitting!

 

[ChuckM]

Snip

In fairness to the builder, someone sketch what conventional wood drawer runners would look like in the furniture box with curved sides?  I don’t see how it could reasonably be done.

The drawers themselves are not curved (the false fronts are), so the curved case sides offer no added challenges to using wooden drawer runners at all. One side of the runners is square and the other shaped to or close to the curve shape of the case.

 

[woodbutcherbower]

I wouldn’t build that for one of my customers. It looks great with the doors and drawers closed, but a top-dollar piece should feature soft-close undermounts (I use the liquid-damped Grass Dynopro ones), and proper recessed butt hinges. Those lay-on hinges only belong on a kitchen cabinet IMO.

The oddball stuff on the cabinet walls is off-putting for sure - but what offends me the most is the raw plywood drawer base with a humongous knot in it. It’s almost like the guy ran out of time towards the latter stages of the build. It’s a shame, because the rest of it is really nice.

 

[kevinculle]

The interesting perspective is that dovetails evolved in drawer construction because they were essential to keep the drawer together when subject to the frictional stresses of wood-on-wood drawer slides under heavily loaded and insufficiently lubricated drawers.  With the development of ball bearing metal drawer slides these stresses on drawer corner joints essentially disappeared.  So now the dovetailed drawer corner is a vestigial feature...no longer required for structural integrity and thus reduced to a design flourish and artistic bona fide.  I personally don't bother with dovetailing drawer corners, and I much prefer the low friction and self-closing features of metal slides, but I do prefer undermount for the cleaner look.

 

[Cheese]

For me the most offending item is the white/silver "thing" on the inside followed closely by the shelves. The shelves look like they're made from melamine.  [eek]

After that, it's the round "patch" inside along with the kitchen cabinet hinges and finally, the slides need to be undermount.

The drawer patch is the least offensive because it will be hidden when someone actually uses the cabinet. That doesn't mean it's ok to have the drawer patch...it's just less offensive than the other items because you'll never un-see the other items. However, if the purchaser of this item doesn't actually put something in the drawer, then the drawer patch moves up to number 2 or number 3.

I also think an item at this price point should have differently constructed drawers.

Here are some very utilitarian built-in drawers I made to take advantage of the "extra" space behind a knee wall. Even they have dovetailed construction and undermount slides.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

 

[cider]

I don’t have experience marketing furniture, but my guess is we nerd out on details, but customers see the gestalt. They probably don’t even notice hinges or slides; they’re looking for something to match their taste and look cool in their home. Just a guess, though.

 

[peter halle]

I think that ultimately he either ran out of time or was building to a certain price point.  Most galleries will take a piece and then double their cost.  Ultimately they are only going to be able to sell it within a certain price range. The outside was far more important than the inside to him.  Probably, as already written, the "inside doesn't matter because it is just going to get filled up with stuff" made the interior decisions easy for him/her.    To me it looks like he used a figured bubinga for the carcase and shelves.  He certainly could have spent a few dollars more and veneered the drawer bottoms on both sides - for impact perhaps a different veneer.  The Fastcap hole plug could have been ordered in a different veneer unfinished and then stained / finished.  That stuffed hole was something he just forgot to take care of.

On the exterior I wish he would have narrowed the two doors by about 2 inches each and widened the drawers.  The drawers just look too squatty for me.  I do give points for the fact that the cabinet / piece of furniture is not in the cookie cutter mentality.

My guess is that it will sell if its price isn't too stupid.

Peter

 

[ChuckM]

Mainstream consumers may fall for the pseudo reverse sticker shock if that piece, say, is not moving with a price tag of $4,500. Put a new price tag on it: " Original $6,189. Now reduced to $4,614. Last chance."

Don't be surprised if it eventually sold for $4,450 after some counteroffers by an interested customer. (All prices hypothetical.)

This pricing strategy is routinely used by furniture stores for nice-looking (mass-produced) imported pieces.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

There's a lot going on with this, in the pics and the comments.  [blink]

I agree with most of what has been said. It just seems mixed/confused. From the outside, it looks fine, a rather bold aesthetic, which is purely in the eye of the beholder. There really is no judging that, it's an individual choice.
Inside however, is a series of things. Some will be an issue to us and people of similar expectations and some that would go totally unnoticed by the average consumer. Some of what we notice would be deal-breakers, others just mildly annoying.

For me, scrolling down the pics, the first thing I saw was butt joints going the wrong direction. Regardless of the joinery method or strength, this is never acceptable to me. It just screams wrong.
Second was the drawer guides. In a piece like this, I would expect wood, but would not be offended by undermount metal.
Next, the cup hinges. Again, I would expect almost any other form, exposed leaf hinges being the least desirable. Soss, knife, or some other un-obtrusive would be far better.
The FastCap style patch/plug is most offensive because no attempt was made to disguise it, no stain....nothing.
I would assume that the "extra hole" was a first position of the shelf? which was changed? or even an alternate, that we can't determine from the photo?
I have no problem with the concept of veneering, especially on interior parts, but the grain direction?
It has to be going the same way as the bottom.
Bottom of the drawer, no problem with the plywood, but not with the patch. I wouldn't consider the "it's covered up in use" as acceptable either. Cover it up with a piece of leather.....ok. Veneer it too? better.
I also dislike the sizing and location of the drawer pulls. It seems odd that the longest pull is on the narrowest drawer. The spacing seems disproportionate too.  For me, they either need to be equal or centered on the vertical dimension.
I'm thinking that an edge treatment of some kind was a missed opportunity. Maybe a cove? That might be too much, but it would be worth a test.

I sure hope [member=77266]smorgasbord[/member] didn't build this and come at it with a story of "seeing to somewhere".....he will never talk to us again...... [big grin]

 

[ChuckM]

Snip.
I sure hope [member=77266]smorgasbord[/member] didn't build this and come at it with a story of "seeing to somewhere".....he will never talk to us again...... [big grin]

Yes, he might (and probably would) block each and every one of you guys ... except me because I offered him a way out (for the piece to be sold at more or less the original asking price)!!! [tongue]

 

[Crazyraceguy]

[member=57948]ChuckS[/member] I deliberately stayed away from the money aspect of this. It can be so variable from one area to another that comparisons are not fair to anyone.
Something that sells easily in one place would never sell in another, even at 1/2 the price. People like us, who could make it for themselves, might take inspiration (and modify to suit our needs) but wouldn't buy it either. "Value" is relative.
Those materials would be pretty expensive, to start with, so this could not be reproduced cheaply.
Either way, I wouldn't spend $4,500 on a single piece of furniture.....ever.

 

[ChuckM]

Before I took up woodworking, as an admirer of fine furniture, I spent these amounts 25 years ago or so:

Ethan Allen
- Recliner  x 2, $1835 & 2200 Cdn

- Curio Cabinet, $2,500 Cdn

[attachimg=1]                            [attachimg=2]

Drexel Heritage

- Pierced bed (#1), door dresser (#2), chairside chest x2 & linen chest  -- All together of 5 pieces $8,000Cdn

[attachimg=3]                                [attachimg=4]                        [attachimg=5]

Most, if not all, major furniture pieces bought for my household were made in Canada or USA. Of course, since my taking up woodworking as a hobby, I've avoided buying any furniture, and everything is proudly Canadian.

 

[Packard]

The butt joints in the cabinet box not only looks wrong, it stresses the fasteners in the wrong vector.  For that construction, builder likely either used dominoes or dowels.  In any case, the entire weight of the contents of the cabinet are stressing the fasteners in shear.  If the butt joints were in the “correct” direction, they would not be stressing the fasteners at all.

The butt joints on the drawers should be the other direction too.  Constantly pulling any glued fastener in tensile is a no-no in my book.  If it was the other direction the dominoes or dowels would be in shear, a stronger, longer lasting joint.

Of course everything looks veneered to me.  So maybe he used screws under that veneer.  Even so, screws would be stronger in shear than in tensile.  So still the butt joints are in the wrong direction.

 

[smorgasbord]

So many great comments - I’m away from my computer so I’ll respond more later.

But, no, it’s not my piece. It would be weird to make something and post about how wrong it is, dontchathink?