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.