The Poplar Forest cabinet commission:

This cabinet was a commission from a person that grew up at Thomas Jefferson’s second home Poplar Forest. His family obtained the property and he had fond memories of living there while they renovated this historic building. My clients wanted a statement piece that represented the shape and structure of the building, that was inspired by the architecture, and that used heavily figured domestic woods. My clients had specific requirements for the interior dimensions of the cabinet, which was to be an armoire-style media cabinet. They did not want doors which would interfere with viewing the television or in the flow of the living room, and shared a hinge concept they had found so that the doors would fold flat to the sides. They also provided dimensions for the components they wanted to house in the cabinet.

We discussed finish options and selected ropey cherry veneer and walnut as an accent in the veneer, and I determined the cabinet should be constructed from lumber from a single cherry log to control grain and color in the finished product. My clients and I discussed using the octagon that Jefferson integrated into his building designs as a motif in the cabinet. I created a focal octagon for the front doors to represent the overall plan view shape of Poplar Forest and used an elongated octagon as seen in the Poplar Forest internal rooms on the veneered side panels. I also used an octagon as a design feature on the turned legs as supports for the Chinese Chippendale-styled shelf as a nod to this design which Jefferson incorporated into almost all of his fences and rail structures.

I created the panels from flitch-cut veneers all coming from the same log and book-matched with care to align and sequence the pattern through the entire front and sides of the cabinet. The front panel was created as one large sheet that was then divided and applied to the four doors to yield a seamless finish, with the grain running continuously through being paramount to the design. The crown top of the cabinet is a simple double-bead with a walnut rail to extend the visual scale and I made the base separate from the cabinet to allow easier moving and placement of the piece. The cabinet is finished with a clear lacquer that allows for easy cleaning and durability.

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