Each of us has likely had the experience of going to the residence of a friend or family member that is nice but cold and austere. Within our own private spaces, we all know what we like and what we dislike when it comes to interior decor. Unfortunately, most of us fall short when it comes to successfully blending warm with form and function. Read more… …
We love wood – all kinds of wood from pine and oak to cherry and mahogany. We panel our walls with it, make furniture and home accessories from it and even frame our walls in it. It is probably near to impossible to enter any home in the USA and not find wood somewhere. Read more… …
A local residential light company asked me to turn these columns for them. They make custom chandeliers for local builders and residents. They have artisans that finish them to make them old looking. The column on the left was finished by them. Pretty neat I think. They asked me to make 10 more based on the original.
I had to glue them in halves with a 1/2″ chase through the center for wiring. They will add the protruding arms for the lighting fixtures at the base of the column – about 6 feet in diameter.
I really love working with mahogany. It is one of the classic woods for fine furniture and millwork. Unfortunately South America has poorly managed its resources and world wide demand has overtaken supply (my take). Consequently the quality of South American Mahogany has gone down while the price has continued to escalate. I paid dear for for the wood that went into the newels below and treated it like gold. These went to a stair company in North Carolina for their customer. They found a picture of a stairway in a magazine. We up sized what was in the magazine and came up with these.
The larger size is 7inches at the squares.
Alder has become more and more popular in the last few years. I suspect it has to do with the price increases and limited availability of other more common domestic wood species. Some have called alder a cherry substitute. I suppose that is possible – they both are pinkish in color. There is little resemblance after that, however. Alder is softer and even the select grades are prone to have small knots. Many customers like the rustic look of Alder and specify the cheaper knotty grade (larger and more plentiful knots). Alder turns quite well and has a really nice fragrance. I’ve included an image of a few alder island legs that I made for a customer some time back.
In this little video I am turning two different large (2 1/2″) stair balusters. the first was for a customer in Mississippi. I really love the heavy vase shape with the one inch pin tops. They are in poplar.
In the second part of the video we are turning red oak balusters for a customer near New Orleans. The red oak used was from his own property. He had been saving it for some time to use and finally got around to bringing the wood to me. I had turned a similar pattern in 1 3/4″ but modified the pattern to accommodate the larger 2 1/2″ size.
A customer in California ordered these newels recently and I thought they were an interesting combination for his stairway. The larger (8 inch newels are my design N108 on my Architectural Turnings site). The pin tops are mine as well (the newels with the 3/4″ dowel). The one inch tops though are his adaptation. They will be inserted directly into the handrail. I’m hoping to get a few pictures of the finished stairway.
These stair newels were turned for a customer in Aspen, Colorado. I know they look like Greek columns. But this is what they wanted. The flat tops will make a nice place for the things you should be putting away somewhere else. The challenge for the installer is to cope the handrail to the round column since there is no where else to attach it to. Sometimes Architects can be impractical
Redesigning the interior décor of a house is such a worthwhile adventure. However, it can also be tiring and bothersome if you are working on a limited budget and don’t plan ahead with precision. Of course, no one can tell you what decorating style will work best in your home – only you know that with certainty. What we can say with certainty is that there are several industry tips that will help you make the most of your interior design project budget, and be happy with the end result. Read more… …
The 8 inch X 8 foot fluted columns are crafted in poplar. Pictured with my youngest son, the columns went to a home in the Baton Rouge area.
Architectural Columns can make a strong design element to your home. Interior Columns like these can be used to visually separate and define spaces.
