I built this cabinet after reading a book by James Krenov. His writing gave me a whole new perspective on building cabinets and furniture. After building a new workbench and buying some new hand tools, it was time to build. I remembered seeing one of Krenov’s cabinets in a Fine Woodworking magazine in the” master class” section. I liked it a lot, although there where no drawings or measurements. I can’t take much credit for the design. After playing with some measurements, I made a sketch and started the stand.

Mortise and tenons were used to assemble the stand. I gave the front legs a forward sweep and taper and a small cove around the top of the stand so that the cabinet appears to float on the stand. The cabinet carcass was put together with dowels, the inner workings with sliding dovetails. After dry fitting the carcass and standing the doors in place, I realized that butt hinges didn’t work for me…they drew your eyes right to them. So it was time to try knife hinges. I had never used them before so I was a little nervous about doing so. But after some careful measuring and marking, they turned out fine and I was happy with the look and fit.

The inside of the cabinet was finished with a homemade mix of half and half varnish and thinner. On the exterior I added linseed oil to the mix to bring out the figure in the cherry. I have since started to build a second cabinet on stand that is not yet complete. About 10 years ago we had a hurricane here in Halifax that took down a lot of old growth trees in a public park. I was fortunate to get a couple of squirrely English elm boards. I re-sawed one for a pair of book matched door panels in that cabinet.

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