# More from the MDF fan club



## tim (4 Dec 2004)

Well if we're showing things we've made recently in MDF....

Did this a couple of months ago for a boutique in London - mainly turn of the century vintage clothes and jewellery:












One would have been fine - but there were four of them:




:

With pullouts to display scarves and layout jewellery:






and windows cut in the silvering to show the jewellery at its best advantage:






Full of clothes etc:










All MDF except the hanging rails. The paint finish is a metallic scumble glaze (silver on cream) with two coats of lacquer which doesn't really show up well in the photos. I think I may have a sample board photo somewhere if anyone is interested

I was pretty pleased with the way they turned out - and very glad to have not broken one of the 36 mirrors :shock:  

T


----------



## ProShop (4 Dec 2004)

> I was pretty pleased with the way they turned out


 and so you should be pleased Tim, they look fantastic  .

Was that you design idea ??


----------



## johnelliott (4 Dec 2004)

That's some pretty amazing stuff. No wonder customers in London come to Hereford for your products. Did you design them as well?
John


----------



## johnelliott (4 Dec 2004)

In fact, I think you should tell us the full story, how you got the commission, how you transported and installed it, whether it was profitable etc etc
John


----------



## Keith Smith (4 Dec 2004)

Tim, very nice job, see what I have started, we'll be getting our own MDF appreciation ghetto/ forum soon. 

Keith


----------



## tim (4 Dec 2004)

Well on the full story thing - I will be brief but basically having worked in the corporate world for a decade or so (before doing this sawdust making malarkey) means I know quite a lot of people in London and this shop belongs to a friend's wife. 

Designwise I worked with a very capable and smart guy who was doing some freelance stuff (he normally does high spec hotels etc). Interestingly I asked for the design brief at the same time (just for interest - I knew he was going to do the real design) to see how I would respond to it. We came up with similar stuff although mine didn't involve £2k worth of mirror on each cabinet (all bevel edged at acute angles with washed out backings to see through etc). What was interesting for me was that I would always tend to design within my making capability whereas a designer works purely on the aesthetic so the making was a huge learning curve and I'm glad it was that way round.

Transport and installation - me, my father in law and a Luton van and a LOT of bubble wrap. I put castors underneath all of the tall cabinets just to help move them around for assembly but they are cranked up above this on adjustable feer

Each cabinet splits into 3 (like stonehenge) and then the angle panels are applied. You can see in the photo of the pullouts where one of them has not been put in. They had to be like that because the door into the shop is shorter than any cabinet dimension.

Profitable? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :shock: It was my first real proper commission and I knew that it was a good showcase potential. Plus I didn't have much else going on at the time. If I had done a full timesheet I think it would have been double the time anticipated but there was a lot of learning which is debatable as to how much customers should pay for. 

The biggest no - no for future was the tolerances needed over the cabinets. They are 9ft tall and the mirrors took 3 months to cut so I was working off one set of templates and they were working off another (that I had provided them) but because the door edges are flush with the cabinet sides and the shaped mirrors are bonded flush to the doors there is absolutely no room for error but because of timelines I had to make the cabinets and doors before the mirrors were ready :shock: 

Anyway thats it in brief.

T


----------



## Chris Knight (4 Dec 2004)

Tim,

That is stunning - a hell of a good project for your portfolio. I like the story - must have been pretty gripping at times - the tolerances etc would have made me a nervous wreck!

My heartiest congratulations I am simply wowed.


----------



## Newbie_Neil (4 Dec 2004)

Hi TIm

Well done, you must be very proud of your work.

Cheers
Neil


----------



## tim (4 Dec 2004)

Thank you for your kind comments. I forgot what was probably my most heart stopping moment:

Because of tight timing and the sheer size of them - the first time they got put together completely was during installation. Everything was going really well - all the doors had been prehung etc so it was just a case of clipping the hinges in when the cabinets were in place. 

Tried to open the doors - no problem. 

Carried on putting the rest of the panels on the face. Only 2 mm gap between panels was permitted to make sure all the shadowlines worked etc. So the last panels to be fitted on the front were the top corner mirror ones since they took their position reference from the side doors and the flip up top door.

Got them fixed in place with the 2 mm gap. Stood back to admire the finsihed job. Client walks in - very happy. 
 
Show her the doors - go to open one - doesn't open. None of them do!! :shock: :x 

Neither I or the designer had picked up the fact that with the top of the door sloping down, the back corner of the door would rotate into the edge of the piece above. :roll:  Best of all, he was in Munich. Much mobile phone call later with him finally understanding the problem (I think more to do with my less than calm explanation rather than intellectual shortfall) we decide on a course of action. 

So with block plane in hand I chamfer and trial fit all the doors (with the £600 mirrors attached). I couldn't take a huge amount off to be on the safe side because the chamfering would be visible from the outside.


All worked in the end but I did pretty much mess my pants!! Funny how for a lot of the conversation to Munich it must have been my fault!

Found that pic of the paint effect:







Cheers

T


----------



## frank (4 Dec 2004)

tim thats fantastic work , did you do the paintwork as well if you did can you tell us how its done .

frank


----------



## tim (5 Dec 2004)

Frank,

It was done by me using the Dulux Acrylic Scumble Glaze (Pearlescent) range. Its basically standard paint ie primer, undercoat, two top coats with a metallic glaze over the top and then lacquered to make it hardwearing. 

Its deceptively easy once you've worked out how you want to apply the pattern (I used a scrunched up plastic bag). I know it sounds very Linda Barker and I didn't specify it but because of the metallic element it looks pretty cool. There are a whole range of colours - the system specifies which paint goes with which glaze. If you go to the Dulux trade website and look under special effects it explains it all.

The only problem I found with it was getting the mix right in the first place - its quite an old system so the codes are half ICI and half Dulux and most paint counter guys have no experience of tinting the glaze - so it can involve lengthy phone calls at the counter to Dulux technical.

Cheers

Tim


----------



## trevtheturner (6 Dec 2004)

Tim,

Absolutely outstanding - many congrats!

Cheers,

Trev.


----------

