The Habinet (fold away bed cabinet with maple diner table and rolling side table) was installed this past weekend and I couldn’t have planned a better installation. My good friend Douglas (who you may remember from the earlier post- Inner city Lumber Jacks) and I rented a cube van on Sunday morning and delivered the cherry, maple and walnut monolith to my clients condo. Somewhere between ‘Bob’ the friendly concierge, who let us into the most amazing loading dock area ever and putting the elevator on service for us, to the scrumptious snacks and micro brew offered up by my clients,  the install was as stress free as I could ever had hoped for.

Kristen waiting for her new table top to be attached! The paper and blue tape are wrapping two strap hinges that allow the table to fold up and fasten to the bed.

Pictured is Kristen, one of my clients who is showing the unit in ‘diner mode’. The maple table top isn’t attached here but the photo illustrates the feature as it folds down from the bed bottom and nests onto the side table support. Two people living in a small space need furniture that serves dual purpose and allows multiple use of valuable floor space- this design does just that.

Through the day the maple diner table is folded up and out of the way, creating visual interest in the walnut-framed cut-out perhaps somewhere to display a special piece of art work or just allowing a focused view of the cherry behind it?

Then when its time to chow down you simply roll the side table into place and un-latch the table top, gently lowering it down to nest onto the walnut lid of the rolling side table.

When supper is over you simply fold the table back up into place, roll the side table out of the way and fold down the bed for some sweet dreams…the side table now doubles as a night stand and this is why I chose to have one drawer accessed from one side of the small table and the other drawer on the opposite side. The walnut top has a cork ‘plug’ under neath it that lifts off allowing access to more storage space within the upper portion of the side table.

I’m just putting the finishing touches on the second part of the design, a large storage closet incorporating drawers and doors and using the same three wood types through out. It’ll live next to the Habinet and add lots of much needed storage space in my clients home. Some final tuning later this week is still needed but I thought I’d share this early picture with you here.

Designing and building custom furniture is an incredibly rewarding process but its not only those enjoyable hours hand planing aromatic cedar for the drawer interiors nor is it applying those final coats of natural orange wax for that final gleaming finish.

No, the real charm of this kind of work is giving the gift of comfortable living to people that put their trust in you and have chose to support local craft people and not just stroll into the local big box store to buy their furniture. Seeing the expression on their faces when you finally deliver the piece – that same ‘vision’ you sat down and sketched together onto scrap paper all those weeks ago; the input they gave you along the way and the creation you work through together and developed for their own specific requirements…that’s the real charm and the hidden beauty in custom furniture construction.

stay tuned for more…

cheers!