Share your craft projects
Make new craft buddies
Ask craft questions
Blog your craft journey
Ron Stewart
561 posts
and
20 followers
in over 1 year
in over 1 year
More from Ron Stewart
Sewing Supplies Cabinet with Inlaid Metal Tile Accents
Originally posted on September 5, 2021.
I built this storage cabinet to hold my wife's sewing machine and related accessories and supplies. It's made of 3/4" maple plywood with solid maple trim. It's roughly 39" wide and tall and 12" deep and has two adjustable shelves.
Each door is a plywood slab with two inlaid metal tiles, maple 'X' accent inlay strips, and maple trim. The door pulls are from Hickory Hardware (Streamline HH075280FO).
The metal tiles are the focal point of the cabinet. We bought them about 16 years ago from Carina Works in Austin, Texas (sadly, no longer in business as far as I can tell), and we've always loved them. We used them for a wall art project for our kitchen. We replaced that display with a photo gallery wall earlier this year, and we're glad we could reuse a few of our favorite tiles.
The finish is General Finishes Polyurethane Water Based Topcoat (flat sheen) toned with GF Water Based Whitewash stain. For the black pieces, I used Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch 2x Flat Black spray paint.
For construction details, please see my series of blog posts or the SketchUp Model on 3D Warehouse.
Thanks for looking!
11/20/2022 Update:
In the blog series, I mentioned that the slab doors warped a bit. At the time, I was able to compensate for the warp by adjusting the door hinges. Since then, the warping has worsened so the doors are "out of flush" by nearly a half inch at the bottom. I think what has happened is that the hinges are locking the outside parts of the doors, but there's nothing supporting the inside edges/corners.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the problem. I'm sure my wife would say to just leave it, but it bothers me every time I see it. I could just rebuild the doors (which will be a lot of work). I've also wondered about routing a set of parallel 1/4" relief slots in the backs of the doors (at an angle perpendicular to the curl), filling them with some sort of glue/sawdust mixture, and hiding them with veneer. That also sounds like a lot of work, and I risk ruining the doors if I mess up.
Have any of you ever dealt with this kind of problem?
I built this storage cabinet to hold my wife's sewing machine and related accessories and supplies. It's made of 3/4" maple plywood with solid maple trim. It's roughly 39" wide and tall and 12" deep and has two adjustable shelves.
Each door is a plywood slab with two inlaid metal tiles, maple 'X' accent inlay strips, and maple trim. The door pulls are from Hickory Hardware (Streamline HH075280FO).
The metal tiles are the focal point of the cabinet. We bought them about 16 years ago from Carina Works in Austin, Texas (sadly, no longer in business as far as I can tell), and we've always loved them. We used them for a wall art project for our kitchen. We replaced that display with a photo gallery wall earlier this year, and we're glad we could reuse a few of our favorite tiles.
The finish is General Finishes Polyurethane Water Based Topcoat (flat sheen) toned with GF Water Based Whitewash stain. For the black pieces, I used Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch 2x Flat Black spray paint.
For construction details, please see my series of blog posts or the SketchUp Model on 3D Warehouse.
Thanks for looking!
11/20/2022 Update:
In the blog series, I mentioned that the slab doors warped a bit. At the time, I was able to compensate for the warp by adjusting the door hinges. Since then, the warping has worsened so the doors are "out of flush" by nearly a half inch at the bottom. I think what has happened is that the hinges are locking the outside parts of the doors, but there's nothing supporting the inside edges/corners.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the problem. I'm sure my wife would say to just leave it, but it bothers me every time I see it. I could just rebuild the doors (which will be a lot of work). I've also wondered about routing a set of parallel 1/4" relief slots in the backs of the doors (at an angle perpendicular to the curl), filling them with some sort of glue/sawdust mixture, and hiding them with veneer. That also sounds like a lot of work, and I risk ruining the doors if I mess up.
Have any of you ever dealt with this kind of problem?
6 Comments
That is nice, and very thoughtful project for the wife. The tiles look great and too bad the supplier is out of business.
Main Street to the Mountains
Thanks, Eric. The last time I searched for information on the tile manufacturer, I found some info that seemed to indicate they were licensing the multi-layer paint process they used. So maybe they live on somehow in some other manufacturer's tiles. I hope so.
great combination of materials used.wifes gotta love it.
working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.
Thanks pottz. She does. She works in our dining room, and she used to have to go upstairs to retrieve her sewing machine and supplies. Then she'd have to cart them back up there when she was done. Now everything is a few steps away.
That's a really striking design!
For the doors - I'm wondering if you could fit a sliding pin to lock the doors to the cabinet (top or bottom). You could get some black hardware and use the black trim to have it blend in.
For the doors - I'm wondering if you could fit a sliding pin to lock the doors to the cabinet (top or bottom). You could get some black hardware and use the black trim to have it blend in.
Thanks, Steve, and thanks for the suggestion. I’ll have to see if that would hold the doors flatter, then see if my wife is okay with the idea.
More from Ron Stewart
