We tackled Stephan's media center a few months ago and from there, we began to do more — and more. From the initial media center to a console table, a coffee table, and a set of brutalist shelves, the projects have been both varied and fun. Stephan is a musician and lives in the Mission District in an immaculately restored Victorian — every detail is considered from the hinges to the faucets and it's been a thrill to contribute to the project. He's a fan of contrasts — between lights and darks, rough and polished — and humble materials handled with a deft hand. This is where we come in.
[In this shot, you can see the shelving, the coffee table and just a corner of the media center]
This set of box-shelving was inspired by another one of Owen's pieces and is made from the same material as the media center and the coffee table. It's also one of the most accurate drawing-to-reality pieces I've done. It's made from 2-ply fir plywood (1in total thickness) faced with fir blocking. All are stained with a matte aqueous coating for protection. They stand about 85in tall — each unit being 17in tall.
[The initial drawing and the pieces being assembled and staged in the workshop]
The coffee table
The inspiration was a piece by Rick Owens that Stephan was a particular fan of. We wanted to size it for the room, specifically, so we came up with an 18 X 47in overall size at 13in high. The top and middle shelf are 3/16in brass with a custom acid-salt applied patina — the workshop was a chem-lab for a week. The box bases are 4-way mitered cubes with a dado-slot for the center shelf. The top coud have been but-jointed, but given the high/low idea, the "cube" style miter seemed appropriately detail oriented. The entire fir ply cubes were stained black with a light matte finish for protection.
The console table
This is a black-stained mahogany console table that replaced a table that Stephan's father had made years ago. When we started the project he wanted to alter his dad's table and my response — "No way, tour dad did that — leave it as-is... we'll make another"... so we did.
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