Finn Juhl 1955 TV Cabinet.

Although this piece looks like it would fit perfectly into a modern day setting, it was in fact designed sixty five years ago.  Finn Juhl studied architecture and was exploring the functionalism movement by creating clean, geometrical buildings.  He considered himself an architect of the interior as well as the exterior and felt that furniture should complete a house.

Materials

1/16" Basswood sheet

Acrylic Paint

Satin Vanish

Wood Glue

Wooden/Bamboo Skewer

Cutting List

Top - 150 mm x 38 mm

Bottom - 146 mm x 38 mm

Sides x 2 - 38 mm x 31.5 mm

Back - 146 mm x 30 mm

Divider - 29mm x 36 mm

Drawer Front - 45 mm x 33 mm

Drawer Bottom x 2 - 45 mm x 30 mm

Sliding Door No 1 - 50 mm x 30 mm

Sliding Door No 2 - 55 mm x 30 mm

Base No 1 - 130 mm x 34 mm

Base No 2 = 129 mm x 33 mm

Step 1 - Making the body of the cabinet.

Cut from your Basswood, the top, bottom, sides and divider and gently sand with a fine grade sandpaper.  Try not to round your edges in order to keep those nice, sharp lines.  

I prefer to stain my pieces at this point and the reason for this is that if you should have any excess glue on the wood, the stain will not take to these areas and will leave you with light spots.  I used a light oak stain but a walnut stain would be true to the original.  Stain one face and all sides.  I put a piece of masking tape on the back as a handle while painting or staining.

Add glue to one long edge of the bottom piece and place on your workspace with the stain facing down.  Attach back to the glued area making sure the stain is facing out.  Allow to dry.

Add glue to the left and right edges of the back and bottom piece.  Attach both side pieces, making sure they are level and square and the stain is facing out.  Allow to dry.

We will not be adding the top until later.

Step 2 - Preparing and assembling drawers and sliding doors.

Cut the drawer front piece from Basswood using the template below (apologies for my wobbly lines) and sand all edges.  I chose not to have drawers and sliding doors that work as I felt that I would have compromised the sleekness of the design on a miniature scale.

Cut the sliding doors from Basswood and gently sand all edges.  You will notice that one door is larger than the other, this is the overlap where the two will be glued together.

Next paint door no 1 (the smaller of the two) and the drawer front.  I used white acrylic paint.  Apply a couple of coats to the front and edges and leave to dry fully.

With masking tape, mask off the top drawer leaving a straight edge along the bottom as in the picture below.

Paint the second drawer and sliding door no 2.  I used a pale blue.  Again give it a couple of coats on the face and edges.  Allow to dry fully.

Remove the masking tape and apply a new piece to the second drawer again leaving a straight edge along the bottom.  Paint the bottom drawer, I used Mediterranean blue.  Cut out the drawer bottoms and lightly sand.  

Apply glue to one long edge of the drawer bottoms and apply to the back of the drawer front, at the bottom of the top and middle shelf.   Allow to dry.

Add glue to the drawer front bottom and right side edge and to the back and right edge on the drawer bottoms.  Fix to the right hand side of the cabinet assembly.  Hold in place for a few minutes or hold with masking tape and allow to dry.

Add glue to the left edge of the drawer front and to the left edge of the drawer bottoms.  Also add glue to a long and short edge of the divider.  Attach to the cabinet next to the drawers.  Allow to dry.

Add glue to the left and bottom edge of sliding door no 1 (white door). Position on the left side leaving a 1 or 2 mm space at the front.  Make sure everything is squared correctly and leave to dry.  

Add glue to the right edge and bottom of sliding door no 2 (pale blue door) and also add glue to the overlapping area of the two doors.  Apply so that the right edge butts to the divider, the door overlaps behind the first door and that everything is square.  Allow to dry fully.

At this point it is a good idea to sand the top edges to make sure they are level before gluing the top.  I do this by using a fine sandpaper which is laid flat on the worktable.  I then turn my cabinet upside down and in one direction, run along the sandpaper.  I repeat this until all the edges are level.  Apply glue to all the top edges of the cabinet and place the top making sure all edges are square.  Use masking tape to secure while drying.

Step 3 - Making the base and legs.

Cut out the two base pieces from Basswood and lightly sand the edges.  Glue together so that the smaller piece is central to the larger piece.  Secure with clothes pegs and allow to dry.  

The effect we are trying to achieve is a thick bevelled edge. Holding your base with the smaller piece face down and at a 45 degree angle, pull along your sandpaper in one direction. Continue until you have a smooth, bevelled edge.  Cut 4 legs, 7 mm in length from your skewer.  Lightly sand top and bottom of each and make sure they are the same length.  Mark where your legs are going to go.  I marked mine 5 mm from the long edge and 20 mm from the short edge.  Make sure you are marking them on the smaller surface of the base.  Apply glue and leave to dry.

Paint the base and legs with black acrylic paint and leave to dry.

Glue the base to the cabinet making sure it sits centrally.  Secure with masking tape and leave to dry.

I finished my cabinet with a couple of coats of satin varnish.  The sliding door handles gave me a sleepless night and I spent a few days searching my house for something suitable.  In the end I used some sewing eyelets which I painted with enamel paint to try to match the wood.

I marked where I wanted the handles on my doors and drilled a hole.  I glued them with a small amount of super glue.  Here is where I sought the opinion of my husband.  He suggested that I fill the hole in the middle and paint it.  This made the look more authentic.  In hindsight I think it is probably easier to make these from a polymer clay.  Let me know in the comments your solutions to this problem or any embellishments you have come up with.

Happy Modelling.

Paimio Scroll Chair by Alvar Aalto.

Ok, here goes my first tutorial. Wish me luck! 

I am a huge fan of laminated, bent wood furniture and this piece is simple in form and elegance. It is named after the town in Finland for which Aalto designed a tuberculosis sanatorium in 1931 and was used in the patients lounge. The angle of the chair was designed to help the patients with their breathing. The frame was laminated birch made from one continuous length, which was bent into a closed curve with solid birch cross rails.

Materials needed:

Cardstock
Sharp cutting instrument or Cricut / Scan ‘N’ Cut
Mat board or foam board
Wood glue
Paint
Gloss & satin varnish
Rubber bands
1 Wooden stir stick

Step 1 – Making the forms 

The first step is to make forms to laminate your card stock around in order to get the delicate curves required. Below are the patterns that you will need. I have included an inch square that you will need to use to scale your pattern correctly.

There are several ways to make the forms required. The method that I used is time consuming, but I wanted a form that was solid and could be used many times without being damaged or falling apart. I will talk about another, quicker method later.

Let’s do the seat form first. You will need to trace the pattern on to mat board 30 times and carefully cut out. This is the tedious part and I cheated and used my Scan N Cut to do it.
Glue the pieces, stacked one on top of the other carefully aligning each piece. Your form should look like this and measure about 45 mm across.

Another and quicker way to make the form is to use foam board. Glue several pieces of foam board together until you have a thickness of 45 mm. Glue the pattern to one face of the foam board and using a band saw or scroll saw, cut out your form. You could also cut them out by hand but I had trouble keeping the form accurate when I tried. 

The next form we need to make is the frame form. You can make two of these or make one and use it twice. I chose to make two forms because I am impatient. 

Once again trace the pattern on to mat board but only eight times, four for each side. Carefully cut them out and glue them together in two lots of four.

You should now have three forms or two if you are using the same form twice.


Step 2 – Making the seat 

Measure and cut four pieces of card stock 42 mm x 160 mm. The seat will only measure about 132 mm length but we will not cut this down until the seat has dried in the form. The reason for this is as we laminate around the curves, the outer layers will require more card stock length. 

The next bit can be tricky. Spread the glue on the back of the three card stock pieces. Mould the unglued piece to form. Note - we are not glueing to the form. Add one of the glued pieces of card stock to the piece on the form, making sure the edges are level and moulding it to the curves. Leave excess length at each end. Add the next piece, pressing against the form as you go. Finally add the last piece, again making sure the edges are level. 

 
Secure in place with three rubber bands and leave overnight to dry. 

When dry remove the seat from the mould. You will need to trim the seat to size at the points shown on the diagram below. 

When trimmed it should look like this.

Cut 2 lengths of 50 mm from your stir stick and attach them to each end as shown in the picture. leave an overhang at each end of 4 mm. This is where you will attach the seat to your frame.

Your seat is now complete and ready to be painted. I used acrylic paint and painted both front, back and edges. Another alternative would be to use coloured card stock and avoid the need to paint.


Step 3 – Making the frame 

Cut 6 or 8 lengths of card stock 5 mm x 280 mm (I used the length of a sheet). Mould the first piece around your form and when it meets itself start to add glue and stick it to itself. Continue to the end of the strip, moulding it as you go and making sure the edges line up. Add another length where the first ends and continue until you have gone around the form 4 times. Trim off any excess card stock.  I always start and finish at the bottom for neatness.  Secure with a rubber band or two.  Leave to dry overnight. 

Remove the frame from the moulds. They should look like this.

Cut four strips of card stock 5mm x 42mm and glue together. This is your cross rail. 

Take your two frame side pieces, hold them both together and make a small mark at the back, halfway up on both pieces. 

Glue the cross rail to the two frame pieces with the mark central. 

When dry lightly sand with fine sandpaper and paint to look like a light, birch wood.   Painting the wood effect is not my forté so I will be trying different techniques on future models.  For this model I used ivory acrylic paint with a tiny dot of cinnamon brown mixed in.


Step 4 - Assemble the frame and seat.

To assemble, you need to glue the seat tabs to the frame as shown below.

Secure with clothes pegs while the glue is drying.

I finished the chair with a gloss varnish for the seat and a satin varnish for the frame.

Happy Modelling.