The way I usually start building a piece of furniture is from a sketch like this. It’s not necessarily the best way to do it, a lot of people use sketch up or draft it out. I can not use sketch up at all. It seems counter intuitive and when you’re finally done it looks like an MS Paint file. I’ll also change it as time or the build goes on if need be. Really it’s a loose outline even for dimensions. I liked the symmetry and a symmetry this cabinet offers, by having three doors, two of them paired for one the primary compartment. I drew it based on incorporating burl veneer, Oxidized walnut to contrast, and some inlay of other of pearl and abalone. You can see some of the idea behind that on the left hand side of this page. It’s a graduated mother of pearl dot detail above and below the pulls. The next step is to figure out the general dimensions and then determine final dimensions for joinery and milling.
I usually have a pretty decent idea of size and proportion, it’s easier when there are requirements and or restrictions. Like a certain width, height or what needs to be stored. Otherwise it’s just an open field of ideas and that can be harder to reel in. Since I usually build pieces only once I am really starting from scratch each time. And each part must be carefully assessed. A big question for this cabinet was how tall the case should be, what is the minimum internal storage depth, and how tall should the legs be in order to provide a delicate look while being sturdy enough to resist weight and racking. I was also trying to figure out how thick the legs can be, or rather what Dimension “square” they would start at before any kind of shaping. In order to answer all of these questions, I’ll begin with a basic full size mock up from scrap wood.
Here is the Mock up frame. Sometimes it’s full size and sometimes it’s simply a scale model. But for this I really wanted to see how large this was going to be, and more importantly, the height on the legs, overall height for functionality, and the shape/dimension of the legs.
Because my phone is trash, these images might be difficult to discern. But it stands 37” tall which does not include the thickness of the top. But more importantly once I began milling stock for the legs at 1 1/2” square I instantly knew it was too thick. Years ago I took a couple classes at Philadelphia Furniture Workshop with Mario Rodriguez and Alan Turner. None of these were purely about design, most were technique based. But what I took away from it was, if something can be made “thinner” or more petite, do it. As long as you aren’t going to compromise joinery or the overall structural integrity of the part.
So as that is always in the back of my mind, I went thinner on the legs. 1 1/4” Square. This ended up answering the question and became my final dimension, but now there’s shape to be added. I initially thought a taper to 5/8” would look nice. And it' does. But maybe I can take it a step further and make that taper with a subtle curve detail near the top where it meets the cabinet. So I had four chances to shape the legs on this mock up. Two are two sided tapers, one is very petite at the foot, and the other at 5/8” sq. The other-side has the tapered curve detail, one more petite than the other. Now I am currently torn between a plain taper and the curved detail. This is when the rest of the design of the piece comes into play. Will there be more curves? or more angles and bevels? What makes more sense in the end.
Curved Taper Near the top of the leg.