Krenov Style Cabinet and Stand

Item: Krenov Style Cabinet and Stand

Material: Eastern Soft Curly Maple and Padauk

Construction Details: Shortly after James Krenov’s passing, I was inspired by several of his books to tackle and design a krenov-style cabinet and stand. I felt that the only way to intimately understand Krenov’s philosophies and mannerisms around wood was to create something in his style.

The cabinet is curly maple, in which I kept natural irregularities within the piece to maintain its organic nature. Ambrosia maple was used for the back panel to establish depth. 18th century French restoration glass is mounted in the door and sidelights. The base is Padauk and its cabinet mount is inset so that the cabinet seems to float about the stand.

In Krenov style all small pieces – glass mounts, latches, bump stocks – are hand carved. No router profiling is used, rather the edges are hand shaped with a plane to provide a more natural ease. The finish is a mixture of polyurethane wiped on and then buffed out with black oxide papers, steel wool and carnauba wax in the wool.