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Company Takes New Direction with Custom Cabinets

While still maintaining a presence in the antique restoration business, Lockhart Woodworks is now focusing more of its resources on Custom Cabinets and Cabinet finishing. In the past months the company has hired an experienced cabinet builder and project manager to add to the already experienced team.

The focus of the company is on both home owners wishing to remodel their kitchen, bath, and entertainment areas as well as work with high end custom home builders for both kitchen design and cabinet constructions and trim out work.

Our new team offers the flexibility of computer designed layouts and extensive design layout work. With the help of a high tech cabinet drawing program we can now offer you design ideas on the spot, showing you how your new kitchen or bath will look with any changes you like.

Lockhart Woodworks offers complete design, build, finish, and install of cabinets. We can also quote Granite and other countertops including custom made butcher blocks.
In addition Lockhart woodworks now can offer interior doors and trim, crown molding and base molding - also stained, finished and installed, to complete your project.

Check out the many new cabinet installations we have done on our facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/lockhartwoodworks

New listing on Thumbtack

Check out our new custom cabinets and finishing listing on Thumbtack

Custom Cabinets and Cabinet Finishing

Custom Cabinets and Cabinet Finishing

Custom Cabinets and Cabinet Finishing

Deja- New – Where Vintage Meets modern

These two looks are being
married together
in this new and upcoming trend
in home decorating.

Nothing conveys a sense of style like mixing vintage furniture finds with contemporary pieces. Mixing eras — feels unexpected, whimsical, chic, and always gets a second look. The mix creates an exciting, and unexpected element to any room. The best thing about mixing up design eras is that it works so well in so many different contexts. Taking a room that is very traditional, and adding modern elements takes the room to whole different level and feels hip and evolved. A sleek modern space with contemporary pieces as well as a very large antique piece that is worn around the edges, feels funky and cool. In the end, mixing old and new is a great way to create interest in a room. But, it’s not always easy to mix things up. So here are a few tips to help you get started:

1.) Unify eras through color. There’s no reason that a Queen Anne chair can’t work with a sleek contemporary couch or a mid-century modern coffee table. The key is to use color throughout a room on different pieces to give the room a unified feel.

2.) Use abstract and contemporary art to offset straight-lace, traditional furniture pieces. A contemporary painting can instantly transport a traditional room into the here and now, as well as provide an entree into adding more contemporary furniture pieces.

3.) Choose one object that will help link the traditional and modern. For example, if you’ve got very traditional furniture, consider an acrylic chair as a way to add a modern touch. The chair’s traditional silhouette is also a good way to bring in a bit of the past into a modern interior. Other objects that can tie together the traditional and contemporary include lamps, chandeliers and sculpture with either modern or neoclassical lines, depending on your furniture mix.

4.) Make the traditional modern by using colors that pop. Combine modern fabrics and patterns with traditional furniture or vice versa. What about an English settee covered in a pink fabric? Or how about a Danish modern chair covered in a bright, contemporary fabric? How about painting a French classical chair in lime green? An unexpected color instantly makes the traditional feel modern.

5.) Go for an eclectic furniture arrangement that is balanced. When your furniture style varies, a symmetrical furniture arrangement will emphasize the differences.

6.) Pay attention to scale. When mixing furniture styles, look for pieces that are more or less the same proportion to one another. Look for styles that have a common design, for example, Shaker furniture has simple clean lines that could also work with mid-century and contemporary pieces.

7.) Don’t overdo it. when it comes to mixing, a few styles is enough; too many different styles in one space can be chaotic.

8.) Bring traditional pieces into a room in unexpected ways. Carved Indian doors as a headboard or a room divider can be a nice way to bring the richness and patina of antique pieces into a modern interior.

How to tell if your piece is an Antique

Many people wonder if there piece of furniture is an antique. There are several ways you can spot an antique. The first giveaway is the joinery; machine-cut furniture wasn't made until about 1860. If the piece has drawers, remove a drawer and look closely where the front and back of the drawer are fastened to the sides of the drawer. If a joint was dovetailed by hand, it has only a few dovetails, and they aren't exactly even; if it has closely spaced, precisely cut dovetails, it was machine-cut. Handmade dovetails almost always indicate a piece made before 1860.
Now, look carefully at the bottom, sides, and back of the drawer; if the wood shows nicks or cuts, it was probably cut with a plane, or a knife. Straight saw marks also indicate an old piece. If the wood shows circular or arc-shaped marks, it was cut by a circular saw, not in use until about 1860.

Exact symmetry is another sign that the piece was machine-made. On handmade furniture, rungs, slats, spindles, rockers, and other small-diameter components are not uniform. Examine these parts carefully; slight differences in size or shape are not always easy to spot. An original piece is not perfectly cut; a reproduction antique with the same components is, because it was cut by machine.

For more information on dating antiques check out this website
http://www.antiqueweb.com/articles/antiquefurnitureageguide.html

For a very in depth guide to dating antique furniture take a look at this web site
http://www.efi-costarica.com/dating-antique-furniture.html

Replicating the "Restoration Hardware" look

Question
I would like to know how to replicate the look of the Saint James furniture and French Casement cabinets displayed on the Restoration Hardware web site. French Casement is described as "a soft weathered finish that has the look of driftwood". Saint James is described as “A weathered, distressed patina

Restoration Hardware’s Answer
The finish is the "look" and we go to great lengths to develop unique and hard to copy techniques to produce a "look" that can't be easily copied. It is accomplished with a multi step process that is very difficult to reproduce....that's by design.......often this type look is created by a blasting treatment using high pressure air with glass beads, walnut husks, garnet sand, etc...which creates the weathered look and feel of the wood, blasting away the softer grain and allowing the harder grain to appear raised. This creates a "weathered" look in a few minutes rather then several years...then a pigmented wash is used, often on top of a stain technique, then glazes and sealer coats are used to enhance the finish, protect it and add durability. These finishes can have upwards of 10+ individual steps, with proprietary products...{they want you to desire their finish enough to make you buy the pieces}....most finishers would have to study this finish in person, to even begin to deduce how it was done.... All this stuff is produced in Taiwan, China, Indonesia, etc.....

Lockhart Woodwork’s Answer
Lockhart Woodworks has unlocked some of these secrets and can produce a very similar look to Restoration Hardware’s “French Casement” and ‘Saint James” style pieces.
The French Casement look can be accomplished on new white Oak pieces or cabinets. The Saint James look can be accomplished on new Pecan or Hickory furniture or cabinets. The process is not easy and requires many more steps than standard finishing, however the results are very very similar to the Restoration Hardware pieces and at substantially less cost. So if you are in the market for a cabinet with either of these looks, consider having Lockhart woodworks build you your piece and apply this finish technique.

A sample of these finishes is available to see at Lockhart Woodworks.

Glazed cabinets- the newest way

Traditional methods of applying glazes involve dry brushing on glaze, and wiping it leaving a haze of glaze on the finished piece with heavier glaze in the recesses adding accenting- although still used, today's popular trend is pin-point glazing or the newest term called inking.

What is Inking ?
Glaze “inking" or pin-point glazing is a very clean glaze look applied to the recesses and profiles of doors, trim and moldings. Inking is different than traditional wipe on glazing because it leaves absolutely no trace of the glaze on the top flat surface. It results in a clean contrast between the cabinets and the glazed areas and is becoming a very popular look on cabinets and furniture. On white or cream cabinets, as in the photo, we use a Van Dyke (dark) brown glaze to create this clean line contrast.

pin-point glazing is difficult, labor intensive and time consuming to achieve, especially when a dark glaze is used on a on light color. Thus there is a cost increase on cabinets finished this way, but the results are well worth the extra cost. Not only is the process difficult but the glazing steps need to be performed after staining or painting and after the seal coat. Then an additional final clear seal coat is used to seal in the glaze, increasing the number of seal coat layers as well.