Let’s play a game of hide and teak…
This client wanted to preserve the sleek look of his mid-century modern home.
This desk project was to be a very sweet gift to his wife, who like many working adults found herself wanting a more comfortable and functional office situation.
This is a story of customization taken to another level. I’m not talking just make these cabinets fit into this space…like make it exactly how the customer sees it in their mind.
The literal center of this custom project started with the TV. The TV is greater than 48″ wide so it would have required 2 panels of plywood for vertical grain. Teak plywood only comes in 48″ widths. The client didn’t want a seam there so we contacted a custom veneer shop to lay up the panels. This satisfied continuous grain for not only the TV panel, but for the entire wall from left to right, floor to ceiling. Admittedly, the grain pattern is not easily distinguishable but it adds to the overall vibe of the wall. The pattern is continuous even in the far back corners, but you’ll notice it most on the far right cabinet which matches from the toe kick up to the ceiling.
The client chose teak not only for its classic look, but to match the existing teak kitchen cabinets. Like most wood, the kitchen teak had aged and lightened in color. Rather than let time do the work, we took the custom panels to a stain matcher.
Now we have one of the most expensive species of wood….on custom sheets….with custom color. This is when you repeat the carpenter’s mantra :”measure twice, cut once”. Or in this case “measure 10 times, look back and forth over notes, take a deep breath, wipe your brow, squeeze the trigger of the saw but release to go back to the notes to check again because one wrong cut means thousands of dollars of custom material ruined…then cut”.
Adding to the difficulty was no trim. A lot of cabinets rely on scribe moulding to hide gaps between the wall and imperfect cuts/gaps. I chose to scribe these panels directly to the wall, eliminating the need for scribe moulding which looks more sleek, IMO.
Overall we were both satisfied with the end product and all of the special details we added. Even if you can’t directly see all of the special touches, they help make the unit something special and personal.
Noteworthy custom additions:
Hidden LED lighting
Cable management channel
Sliding monitor door
Push to open doors/drawers
Concealed drawers
