Krenov-inspired Cabinet on Stand

A recent cabinet on stand inspired by the work of James Krenov and his philosophy. The story behind this particular piece follows. I originally created a similar furniture piece to this a few years ago and looked forward to making another a few months later.

Original cabinet on stand designed and created. Door and side panels are veneered with figured Big Leaf maple, interior is soft maple, stand is cherry.

The design adheres to the principles of Krenov, construction follows his methods and philosophy, and the aesthetic is clean, minimalist and devoid of ornamentation. This has also become my furniture making style in the past 14 years or so. I discovered the work of James Krenov about 14 years ago and read his books quite regularly, each time extracting a new nuance or so. This was the age when learning from woodworking books was the preferred method of understanding woodworking. I followed Krenov's writing and tried to glean as much technical information from the grainy black and white photos in several of his books. A little while later, I attended a furniture making school that was founded on the principles of James Krenov and College of the Redwoods. It was one of a very few schools in North America espousing the tradition of hand work. This experience opened my eyes to a slower form of furniture making where the focus is on the wood itself and attention to detail is paramount. Where am I going with this? Well, between the years 2012 and 2019 I pursued a few other interests, mainly wood sculpture, furniture design, video production, writing books and developing woodworking and furniture making courses. As well as returning to school to follow a one year business program, my woodworking continued.

My woodworking (2012-2024) follows a different path where I embrace modern, contemporary design. In this intervening period, I have entered furniture design shows with very contemporary console table and chair designs. I yearned to revisit that original Krenov-inspired cabinet on stand and hopefully make another. I had even developed a set of plans and drawings of the cabinet at the time thinking it would be a matter of a few weeks before I could start on another. Fast forward and I finally set aside time to fulfill this build. The following are progress shots. This version of the cabinet on stand has a slightly modified interior layout than the original. The stand is configured differently only because it was possible to do so and I wanted it to be both different and unique. A couple of new additions are a hidden, secret compartment, inlay on the front apron of the stand and the cabinet floats on the stand. Otherwise, the design follows the original piece.

Installing knife hinges in recent version of cabinet on stand

Fitting door panels an creating lip and rabbet where they join.

Interior layout of new cabinet mocked up on cabinet base (using a few of the tools I design + make).

Cabinet mocked up and drawer fronts fitted. Hidden compartment visible below right-hand drawer compartment.

New set of three dovetailed drawers created (at bottom).

New dovetailed drawers fitted into respective drawer compartments.

Legs, aprons, rails for stand mortised and for loose tenon and dowel joinery (using a modified horizontal mortiser).

Progress checklist (whiteboard and dry erase markers) on one a wall-mounted hand tool cabinet

Creating mortises for drawer and door pulls ( cocobolo heartwood and sapwood combination)

French Polish process for door panels and cabinet sides.

New version of cabinet completed. Note the dropped front apron with inlay and floating cabinet on side rails.

Cabinet with figured Big Leaf maple door panels and cocobolo pull. Cherry stand with inlay. Back panels and inlay are Ambrosia Maple.

Interior of cabinet, compartments are flipped from earlier version. Secret compartment behind the small turquoise cup at lower right.

New cabinet on stand seen here. Final detail was addition of a single, small bullet catch at top of right-hand door.

So I've fulfilled my requirement of building another Krenov-inspired piece of furniture 👊😉 I now offer a class Cabinet Build Class ($50) on this build with extensive detail, plans and exact dimensions of exterior and interior components. Also, the WOODWORKING: DESIGN TO MAKING (eBook, 236 pgs.) is included with class.