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Whimsical Cherry & Quilted Maple Bed |
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Whimsical Cherry & Quilted Maple Bed |
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(Click any photo for a close-up view)
(Click any photo for a close-up view)
In attempting to characterize this unique bed design, the only term that I could think of is "whimsical". The details of this project slowly evolved throughout a series of design conversations and sketches with the client. One of the early design influences came from the popular Lord of the Rings movie trilogy - in particular, some of the fanciful architectural and furniture designs that were shown in the Elven culture in those movies. Those designs were very organic, with very few straight lines or square corners. From this starting point, the design progressed into the notion of the headboard and footboard panels being "windows" through which the outdoor world was being viewed. Thus, on the headboard, we seem to be looking out a window through some tree branches, and into a golden sky with shining sun. Similarly, on the footboard, we're also looking outward, in this case seeing both the sky and a horizon with rolling foothills.
To accentuate the effect of items in the foreground versus items in the distance, the "tree branches" were fashioned from small curved pieces of solid cherry, which sit in front of the sky pattern in the background. In this project, the golden sky pattern was created through the courtesy of Mother Nature herself - by using some highly-figured quilted maple veneer with a warm golden coloring and 3D grain effect. Lighter colored streaks in the quilted maple give the effect of beams of sunlight shining down in patches throughout the sky. On the footboard, the foothills were created with some mottled tigerwood veneer, providing the impression of earth-toned foothills with a large variation in dark brown coloring. Finally, to create the Sun and sunburst effect on the headboard, solid curly maple lumber was applied to the surface of the quilted maple veneer, which really makes the Sun stand out in the headboard design. All of these "visual effects" are framed within beautiful solid cherry borders, with the four bedposts shaped into long, gentle, organic curves cut from 4" thick solid cherry lumber. Those corner posts flare out at the bottom and also slightly at the top, suggesting the shapes of tree trunks where they meet the ground and where they begin to branch.
The completed king-sized bed also includes a drawered pedestal assembly, providing very sturdy support of the mattress and box-spring as well as 6 extremely large drawers for storing clothing and linen. The drawer boxes in the pedestal are constructed from solid aromatic cedar lumber with dovetailed corners and ride on full-extension heavy-duty drawer slides, which permit easy access to the contents of the entire drawer. The drawer fronts and end panels of the pedestal are built from cherry to match the rest of the bed design.
84" long, 80" wide, and 60" tall.
For other bed projects, please visit the gallery of Bed designs.
$3,200 for the king-size cherry bed shown above, including the drawered pedestal.