Max McGurl (ID ’13) recently submitted to us his Kitchen Island, a table inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. Like Wright’s furniture, it has a physically imposing presence due to its large size and dark stained wood. Also similar to Wright’s furniture, the edges of the island are chamfered to provide a more finished and solid look.
With two shelves below for storage, the island stands slightly above waist height, making it comfortable to work at while standing or sitting on a stool. Currently, the top is not an optimal surface for cutting, being made of birch plywood. In the future, McGurl hopes to make either a granite top, or a butcher-block top for the island, so that it can be used more extensively for cooking.
Over the course of the two months it took to design and produce the table, McGurl went through several pages of sketches before creating life-size, orthographic drawings of the table. These drawings proved to be extremely helpful later in the process.
In McGurl’s own words:
The table is primarily made of poplar because it is an inexpensive wood, and I needed large amounts of it for this project. After buying the rough-cut boards, I needed to make each one square and cut them into more manageable lengths. The island is held together by primarily mechanical means. The legs and stretchers are all connected using floating tenon joints, which rely mostly on precision fitting the components instead of using glue. The top of the table is half-inch birch plywood framed in a poplar.
The stain used was a water-based antique cherry stain, applied to each separate part before the table was assembled. After several coats were applied, four coats of semi-gloss water based stain were applied to protect the surface. The stain was highly successful in disguising the inexpensive poplar and giving it the appearance of walnut, or another dark hardwood. The plywood top was left unstained to provide contrast and and showcase its interesting grain pattern.
Posted by Isaac Blankensmith | Date Posted: 06 February, 2012
