Success Stories:
Gordon's Blog
Check out my recent work posted on my blog. My work centers around custom cabinetry and woodworking for the home and office.
Design on the Fly
How an idea evolves into a design, which then evolves into a physical object.
Cherry Everywhere
Bob and Mary loved Cherry wood. So how does one create built-ins that fit the room that is Cherry from floor to ceiling?
Teapot Display
These homeowners desired maximum use of wall space without completely obliterating its horizontally applied western pine paneling.
About Me
For more than 30 years I have been designing and constructing custom cabinets and casework.
Gordon A. Hastreiter
8979 Bailey Drive
Woodruff, WI 54568
(715) 356-2169
The Teapot Display
The process of ordering, designing, constructing and installing a fairly sophisticated cabinetry project is actually not as complicated as you might assume. I like to encourage my clients to let their imagination and creativity run freely!
I have chosen a 'Teapot Display Case & Storage Cabinets Project' as an example to show you how I interact with the client in a truly custom built cabinetry project.
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Photo #1 Click image to enlarge |
In this instance, when Bob and Mary built a large addition onto their house, provisions were made for the display of a collection of teapots by inserting a 2' deep by almost 12' long alcove into a long and wide hallway (Photo 1) which connected the main entrance of the house to the primary entertainment and living area.
I received a call from Bob during which he described to me what their ideas were for displaying the collection and asked if I might be interested in taking a first hand look at the available space and possibly commit myself to take on the project.
During our first meeting at their residence Mary did most of the talking. She showed me a few of the splendid one-of-a-kind teapots. Using her hand, she drew imaginary lines on the back-wall of the alcove to indicate the arrangement of shelves and the outline of the storage cabinets. Very quickly it was obvious she had given a lot of thought as to exactly what she wanted. Bob and I agreed that what she described would very tastefully serve the intended purpose.
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Image #1 Click image to enlarge |
Next we made a simple outline drawing of the entire wall that contained the alcove. This was done to a scale of 3/8 " = 1'-0". As Mary retraced the imaginary lines, Bob and I took measurements and plotted them on our scaled drawing. When that was done Bob and Mary directed me to move some of the lines one way or another until the overall arrangement satisfied their sense of proportions. Next, in order to define shelf frame thicknesses, door frame dimensions, etc., they drew lines parallel to those already drawn. Using an architects' scale ruler it was now possible to confidently determine actual working dimensions. Image 1 is a down-sized reproduction of the actual front elevation drawing based on that initial meeting.