Made with birdseye, maple, and purpleheart, 28″h x 25″w x17″d.

I named this cabinet because it began as a picture frame…after cutting some stepped strips for the frame I realized that they interlocked and slid with very little friction. I immediately thought ‘drawer guides’. A few sketches showed the potential of a 4 sided  piece that could be different and functional. The drawers would work in a similar fashion to a stick matchbox. The drawers could also pull out and be reversed in the cabinet frame for multiple contrasts of wood and detail.

The function drove the design…columns are necessary to support the entire case structure which is through dovetailed and tenoned into the column mortise. Both the case and the drawers themselves become drawer guides. The case is a hollow beam structure untill the inserted drawers become sides. The effect is that nothing is wasted, each part of the whole is decorative as well as useful. the basic design took only an hour or two. Small details like the pulls and curved feet seemed to just pop onto the paper…serendipity!

Of course, during construction I was never sure if the work would actually function. The tricky parts were wood selection, tight tolerances, and the drawer dovetails where a normal side evolves into a drawer guide. It was also necessary to invent a reversible stop system so that drawers will close flush and not fall out, if desired. Carving the feet and pulls also had some challenges.

Thanks for looking!

Launch Gallery