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Scappoose, Oregon, 26 Sep 2007—After my first project in the shop, I turned to doing something useful for inside the house.

My wife collects American hand-painted china from the early Twentieth Century. The bulk of her collection sits in a pair of enormous dining room display cabinets (not my work), but she still had oodles lying around in plastic tubs. Obviously, an upstairs china cabinet was in order.

First, the scale drawing plan I worked up after trying others. This is done in a little program called Image Composer from about 1999. Sue and I both still use it.

 

The cut list.

The schedule of materials

Here's a look at the finished maple display cabinet. This unit was very tough to build because the design came from scratch, requiring that the case fit on the top of the lateral file at a height that would allow for four shelves plus some room at the top, with just an eight-foot ceiling. Here is what resulted from about three months of on-and-off work (mostly off).

We had the glass and mirror done by a local shop, specifying that the glass shelves had to have plate grooves. The sides are glass too. I dadoed the side panels and doors for the glass, the shop installed it. Up top, I added two can lights with a cord switch that hides out of sight just behind the left side.

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Thanks for looking, and I hope you enjoyed your visit.