March 2019 - Bath Furniture Makers

Charles Rennie Mackintosh Style

I made this serving hatch for a client in 2008, they were very much into Charles Rennie Mackintosh and wanted a carving of his famous rose. I sourced a fantastic plank of quarter sawn oak and produced these doors. The photo is recent March 2019.

carved architrave with inset resin rose casts

The clients provided a kitchen door knob with the Mackintosh rose on, which I suspended in silicone rubber and then cast these insets for the corners and middle of the architrave.

Recently I was asked to make a cabinet to compliment the hatch on the kitchen side, the budget was not enough to cover any carving so I made a simpler styles that still has a similar theme, again they were very lucky as I came across some beautiful figured quarter sawn oak again.

Secret Bookcase Doors

There’s nothing more intriguing than a bookcase with a secret door, through out history England had and still has many grand houses with secret compartments, priest holes and hidden panels concealing escape routes, tunnels and hideaways.

Hidden-bookcase-door-Great-Pulteney-Street

These secret doors still have a place today, they can make an excellent place to hide valuables, after all if a would be burglar broke in looking for a safe he’s never going to look over at the bookcase, they can even be used to access panic rooms if you live in such places that you feel you need one, don’t believe we need them in somerset but I could be wrong (I hope not!).

secret bookcase door uk — secret bookcase door

Having said that I find it odd that the Americans seem to dominate the secret bookcase door world, after listening to clients it strikes me that I am the UK’s leading secret bookcase door guy, if you google it there all in the USA, I have now done nine doors all different which is good, I don’t like repetitive work. A few have been used as access into new extensions.

Some of the link’s take you to a couple of my other sites in a new tab, sorry for the confusion.

Real oak beams to hide RSJ’s and steelwork

oak beam cladding for rsj steelbeams - wide view — oak beam cladding for rsj steelbeams – wide view

Steelworks and RSJ’s are an essential part of modern building practices these day but they look so awful in older cottages I came up with a way to clad the steel beam using real oak planks, glued together in such a way as to create the appearance of a solid oak beam.

oak beam cladding for rsj steelbeams - disstressed oak — oak beam cladding for rsj steelbeams – disstressed oak

Sometimes I will make metal straps and apply polyurethane and earth pigments to imitate old rusty straps, these straps are a great way to hide joins especially when the beam is long as shown in the photo’s.

oak beam cladding for rsj steelbeams - pegged tenon — oak beam cladding for rsj steelbeams – pegged tenon

In certain situations I will make fake joints to imitate a second beam at 90 degrees to another as in the photo above, this also provides interest in long expanses of wood.

oak beam cladding for rsj steelbeams
oak beam cladding for rsj steelbeams – wide view
oak beam cladding for rsj steelbeams – metal strap
oak beam cladding for rsj steelbeams – 3
oak beam cladding for rsj steelbeams – 3
oak beam cladding for rsj steelbeams

Luxury solid oak dog cage and oak dog bowl stand

Solid oak dog cage with hexagonal brass bars

Tired of looking at our metal old cage I decided it was time for an upgrade, part of the reason also was the size of cage we needed was in-between the shop one’s.

I had some beautiful figured oak which I used for the corners and bought some hexagonal brass rod for the bars.

Solid oak dog cage with hexagonal brass bars - in the making — Solid oak dog cage with hexagonal brass bars – in the making

I made the cage table height so that our big Labrador cross Boxer dog could use it if his old leg problems came back and we’red have to turf the Jack-a-poo’s out. A bonus was I can use it for a desk instead of having the laptop on my lap

Solid oak dog cage come desk with hexagonal brass bars - — Solid oak dog cage come desk with hexagonal brass bars –

Whilst in the mood I also made a solid oak dog bowl stand for our old Lurcher cross.

solid oak dog bowl table