Coffee Machine Stand No. 2

   I guess this is actually the third version but the second one was really only the first version after an encounter with a circular saw.  We decided that the space beside the counter was 19 in wide and the new stand is to be 16 inches deep, so that it is the same depth as the IKEA china cabinet.

  There is always a battle between heart and head when we look at furniture.  In my heart, every piece of furniture in our home would be hand made and one of a kind.  In the fore ground of the photo is the rolling kitchen island that I made shortly after we moved into the house. The island has an amazing piece of granite on top of basically a rolling plywood box.  The box holds  six wine boxes on shelves on each side, the boxes have a long history with us and so after a bit of sanding and some varnish they and the granite top are the features of the rolling island, not the wooden box.  So, the box is real basic.  One day, maybe I'll make a nicer box, but it will still have to be painted white to match the cabinets in the kitchen.  

  The kitchen cabinet are very plain, easy to clean and sort of commercial looking.  It was a head decision, neither Eva or I was interested in the amount of time it take to keep fancy raised panel cup boards clean in a busy kitchen.

  The coffee stand is sort of a head/heart decision. This version is made from red elm, I started with rough lumber and ended up with a nice piece of furniture. I wanted the satisfaction of making a nice piece of furniture.  But again the feature is another wine box and the shelve needs to be sort of invisible.  Probably I will end up painting the stand white to match the cabinets, but I made it using quality materials and pocket hole joints even though it was going to be painted and could have been made with butt joints and nails.  

   The battle between heart and head is an on going battle that will probably never fully resolved. 

Coffee Machine Stand

This is a shelf unit that I built two years ago on which sits our coffee machine. The unit sits between the end of a our kitchen counter and the china cabinet, it is a prototype and so built from plywood and not very refined.  The unit was created in a hurry to fill a need with the intention of me making a nicer piece once I had time, and we decided exactly what we wanted.  Since it is a new house the layout of the kitchen/dining room needed time to solidify. We are not really house proud and so decorating takes place in stages, all subject to delay by nice weather, holidays, grand children etc. etc. etc. so we have been in our home for 3 1/2 years and things are still developing.  

  I did not rush to build a beautiful piece.  We finally decided that the shelf unit was too big.  This is a photo of the same unit cut down to size so that the china cabinet could be moved over.  The china cabinet had to move over to make room for: 

  my wife's Christmas present.  The clock had to hang there because it was the only place that it could be seen and was protected from drafts when the doors are opened, (that pendulum is amazingly sensitive and the breezes from the open door can stop the clock) and that I could drive a couple of long wood screws deeply into a stud to hang it.  I do not want the clock to fall down. (ever)


   So, I took the big shelf down to the shop and shazam, it was made into a little shelf.  It is still plywood and still looks pretty rough, but now we have decided on a size and soon I will make a nice piece of furniture;  a: to prove I can and,  b: to compliment all the other nice things in our home.