There’s nothing quite like a challenging custom order to keep us all happy here. I can safely speak for everyone at Huston & Company and say that if we didn’t have unique orders to build in our shop, and instead had to build the same thing over and over again, we wouldn’t be here. And while we have our own design vocabulary and our own unique style, it is with great pleasure that we take on those projects that are out of our norm, are larger than life, and really challenge us.
When an interior designer from a large DC architectural firm contacted us this past August with an idea for a client, she noted that it might be an unusual project for us, but that she knew we were the right ones to build it. We’d worked with her many times before and were interested to see what she had in store for us.
She sent us some sketches and soon Bill had the shop drawings all worked out.
Shop Drawing of Custom China Cabinet
The finish, pulls and light fixtures were all decided and Saer did some imaging for the client.
3D Imaging of China Cabinet
Ethan was assigned the project in its entirety. If you follow us on Facebook, you may have seen this image that we posted as Ethan got started on the doors.
Cabinet Door Under Construction
After many, many, many hours, he assembled the completed cabinet in the workshop, fitted the doors (still without glass), lighting fixtures and switches. He checked the smoothness of the drawers and added the levelers. Then he took it all apart again and sent it up to the finishing shop.
The next week, Ethan and Jason worked diligently on the ebonized finish. Ebonizing is a multi-step process with finicky materials. It takes patience and time on large, flat surfaces. It takes twice as much patience and time on intricate parts such as the trims on these doors.
Today, it was “all hands on” at the finishing shop. Ethan added the glass panels to the doors and tested the lights and switches one last time. Bill and Saer and I cleaned, dusted and Windexed the entire piece. Then we took pictures.
Ethan with his Finished Work
Bill Photographs the Cabinet to Show our Client
We spent some extra time with this piece, which is due in Washington DC by Christmas. Instead of rushing to have it ready in time to fit our shipper’s pick-up schedule, we drove it down to the shipper ourselves, which gave us a bit more time to make it all perfect.
