jhigby

Let me start by saying it's a very nice piece! I love the look of the canary wood!! I've never seen it before but will be on the lookout for it now!! From a critique perspective I have the following personal observations: The mahogany base doesn't quite flow from a color/grain perspective. The canary has a strong grain pattern of browns and creams. The mahogany has the red tint without any grain pattern (as least compared to the canary!). For me I think it's more the colors than the grain pattern. Maybe as the mahogany darkens over time the two color patterns will be contrasting enough to look even better! The bottom shelf is extremely functional but a bit plain. The pattern you have above is very bold and maybe having some reflection of that on the shelf could really add impact? On the other side of that equation is doing that type of change might have made it look too busy and the shelf less functional? I don't honestly think it's in any way bad/wrong/not right - just something to consider (assuming you hadn't!). Still, a very nice piece and you should be very proud of the work! Clearly it will become a family heirloom for a very lucky person and family!

I built this queen size murphy bed for my sister to go into her 1920's house. My primary design concept was to trick the eyes to make you believe it's an old armoire that had mission/shaker influence. The really nice part of this project was that my sister was paying the bill (fairly unrestrained) so I had real freedom to add touches that weren't at all functional. For example - door & drawer handles, door hinges and even the crown molding. For me the whole trick was about concealing the outside edge where the murphy bed drops from the main frame that's attached to the wall. The fake door hinges really help there. I also used a commercial version of murphy bed hardware that included a metal tube frame along with heavy duty mounting hardware/springs. It wasn't cheap ($700?) but I didn't want to have to worry about any slop/racking which allowed me to minimize the gaps around the edge. The whole fake front (solid walnut) was attached to 1/4" walnut plywood (stained to match the front) which was then attached to the metal bed frame. Finish: 1 coat of orange shellac (brings out the warmth of the brown in the walnut) followed by 2 coats of satin/semi lacquer.