The Heart Pine Table Is the Perfect Combination of Rustic & Sophisticated!

Osborne Wood Products, Inc. prides itself on the fact that customers are not limited to only stock wood types for their projects. Our customs department is always hard at work determining the pricing and lead time for items in different dimensions or different wood types than stock. Recently, customer Kip D. worked with our drafting department to create four custom Cabriole Dining Table Legs (1190) in heart pine instead of the stocked knotty pine. The tabletop and apron were “river recovered clear heart pine lumber” Kip bought for his project. The beautiful dining table legs, a gift for Kip’s wife for Christmas, can be seen here.

A Close Up of the Custom Heart Pine Cabriole Dining Table Legs

Because of projects like Kip’s and other customers who have requested custom wood types, Osborne Wood Products, Inc. has decided to expand the wood selection to include a new line of “Specialty Wood Types.” This new line includes Heart Pine so that Kip and other customers like him won’t have to request custom quotes for future Heart Pine projects. To view it and other new wood types, please visit our wood types page or click here.

The Islander Island Legs Are An Exceptional Addition to this Kitchen Island!

This week, we received two finished project pictures from customer Michael L. of Custom Cabinets by Design in Houston, Texas. Michael ordered two whole Massive Islander Island Posts (1452) and two half posts of the same for this kitchen application. The two whole posts can be seen here on the island, and the half posts grace either side of the stove disguised as spice racks. The beautiful Islander Island Legs are a best seller for Osborne Wood Products, Inc. for just this reason: they look beautiful in just about any application, and add a touch of simple elegance to any room.

The Contemporary Rope Island Legs Finish Off This Kitchen Island Beautifully!

The second picture seen here showcases our Contemporary Rope Island Legs (1483) in black walnut on this gorgeous kitchen island. Any island leg from Osborne Wood Products, Inc. is a terrific way to add a touch of class and elegance to any room of the home, business, or anywhere else! For more pictures like Michael’s, please visit our Facebook page or click here. To see more work by Custom Cabinets by Design, please visit their Facebook page or click here.

The Large Grape Applique Finishes JD Woodwork's Wine Bar Perfectly!

This week, one of our customers, JD Woodwork NY, was kind enough to upload a picture to our Facebook page of a wine bar they are working on. JD Woodwork purchased one of Osborne Wood Products’ Large Right Grape Cluster Appliques (7512) to apply to the front of their wine bar. What a beautiful finishing touch! To see more pictures by JD Woodwork NY, please visit their Facebook page or click here.

The Heritage Coffee & End Table Legs Look Terrific Here!

Customer Frank K. of Calera, Alabama, is proud to build tables, islands, and bars by hand. Recently, Frank uploaded pictures to our Facebook page of a recent project he completed using Osborne Wood Products’ Heritage Coffee Table Legs (1316) and Heritage End Table Legs (1215) in knotty pine. Frank used the legs to build coffee and end tables for a customer who, amazingly, never saw the tables until they were finished; she simply gave the instructions and was thankfully delighted with the result. Talk about talent! For further pictures of Frank’s projects, please visit his blog by clicking here.

The Color Variation is Barely Noticeable in These Beautiful Barley Twist Island Legs!

Customer Aaron A. of Littleton, Colorado, recently sent Osborne Wood Products, Inc. a finished project picture using our 34 1/2 by 3 1/2 inch Barley Twist Island Legs (1495). Aaron built a lovely side table using the beautiful legs which he purchased in soft maple. Though the legs are in our paintgrade maple, they still look very lovely in Aaron’s application for those who do not mind the slight color variation seen in the leg in the foreground. For other pictures like Aaron’s please visit our Facebook page or click here.

Rose's Grape Medium Applique is an Exceptional Finish to a Beautiful Kitchen Project

Recently, a finished project photo was uploaded to our Facebook page, and we wanted to be sure and share it with our blog readers as well! Customer Rose of RMD Designs in Hudson, Ohio, purchased one Grape Medium Applique (7312) in soft maple to compliment a range hood in her latest kitchen project. The paintgrade wood was a perfect and economical choice for the paint project, and the applique gives an exceptional touch to the hood. To see other projects from RMD Designs, please visit their Facebook page or click here.

The Specialty Wood Selection line at Osborne gives customers the chance to explore more wood options. Heart Pine is currently one of the most highly-coveted heartwoods in the Southeastern United States while Douglas Fir is one of America’s most plentiful softwoods with a superior performance against strong forces such as winds, storms, and earthquakes. The exotic Tiger Maple (also known as Curly Maple) is a terrific choice for customers creating custom furniture due to its distinctive wavy pattern.

“Various Lean Manufacturing initiatives in 2011 has allowed us to streamline large amounts of our product catalog through our product processes,” said Christian Smedberg, Director of Marketing and Customer Service at Osborne Wood Products. “The flexibility we gained from these improvements in our wood line, we would like to pass on to our customers by offering these new wood types.”

The earliest example I have ever seen was dated George III – which would place it at the end of the eighteenth century or beginning of the nineteenth.  Canterbury type pieces have been produced to the present day but the ones that always seem to command the highest prices are those from the English Regency period – approximately 1800 through 1825.  The typical Canterbury is a rectangular piece with average dimensions of 20” wide by 15” deep and 20” high.  The legs are usually fitted with casters and a single shallow drawer is placed below the slotted area.  There are often three to seven slotted areas designed for sorting the reading materials and these may be arranged side-to-side or front-to-back depending on the design.  The examples for this week’s blog are taken from sellingantiques.co.uk.  This is the best online site I know of for becoming familiar with the current prices for English furniture.  These prices are going to be somewhat lower than normal retail as shipping costs to the States would be additional.  Also, the prices are given on the site in British Pounds: multiply these by 1.6 for the value in U.S. dollars at today’s exchange rate

As I mentioned: the Canterbury has been produced from at least the end of the eighteenth century to the present and it is one of the pieces that will often reflect the design aesthetics of the period during which it was produced.  A Victorian piece, for example, will frequently show exuberant turnings and scrollings and be presented in rosewood, a favored wood of the period.

An Edwardian Canterbury is an excellent example of the highly refined elegance associated with that period as displayed in tapered legs and hand polished walnut finishes.  But the Regency Canterburys seem to always be the favored ones.  Typical examples may have tapered and reeded legs or turned legs.  In either case there is always a sense of delicacy about the legs; they are never heavy or overly ornate.  The range of Regency examples include designs where the legs rise as a single piece into which are joined the pieces that form the support for the slots but equally represented are pieces where the legs are attached independently below the box that carries the drawer with the slotting cabinet work attached independently to the top.  Mahogany is the wood most frequently associated with the Regency Canterburys, and the drawer pulls may be something as simple as quiet wood knobs or as embellished as the Regency cast brass laurel wreath pulls.

Occasionally one will find examples where the tops of the four corner posts have been embellished with cast brass rosettes.  At a time when the value of antiques has generally been fluid, Canterburys have settled around twenty percent below their high values of ten to twenty years ago.  During the 1980s and 1990s one expected to pay around $4,500 for a prime example of a Regency Canterbury.  Highest quality Regency Canterburys are currently available for around $3,500.  From a woodworker’s perspective, replicating a Canterbury from the Regency period – or any of the periods – would be a fun project that is different from the more usual table project.  Osborne Wood Products offers an interesting selection of feet in their Cabinet and Furniture Feet category that would work extremely well with Canterbury designs where the legs are attached below the drawer area.

To begin with, people in Toronto are generally more open to contemporary design elements than is usual in the States.  For example: in the United States we see a great deal of edgy design appearing in our magazines but seldom encounter it in real life outside of a hotel room or other commercial setting.  But Toronto residential design appears to reflect a very current look as opposed to something that is overtly traditional, so we had to keep this in mind when assembling our booth.

We decided early on in the process to create about 80% of the booth in a two-tone black and cream color scheme.  The remainder would be relieved by about 15% of green ranging between emerald glass and wasabi colored fabrics, and the final 5% would be steel colored elements.  The quick choice for the background would have been either cream colored walls or an exotic abstract wallpaper pattern.  We felt that would be too obvious, however, and instead chose an early 19th century Scalamandre document pattern that has a repeat so large (36” vertical repeat) that it almost becomes an abstract pattern.  We chose this paper in black and cream.

Front and center in the booth is a traditional mantelpiece with some extremely updated features.  Osborne Wood Products is going to begin offering legs in 2011 that include metal elements as part of the design.  We used one of the prototypes – a large tapered leg with an egg-shaped element in brushed aluminum – in place of the traditional fluted or reeded leg that is expected on this Adam-esque mantel that is finished in black matte.  We then surrounded the firebox with cream colored marble and had a pair of traditional brass andirons plated with nickel to tie back to the aluminum elements on the legs.

Above the mantelpiece we designed an octagonal mirror to be made from our hand-carved acanthus leaf crown molding.  This too is finished in black matte.  The success of this mirror is entirely a reflection of the skill of the Atlanta cabinetmaker, Fred Lindall, who meticulously membered the hand carved pieces in such a way as to have a perfectly integrated pattern around the perimeter.
We also included a very traditional small bookcase in walnut that uses our vanity corner legs in a way that is not expected.  The traditional aspect of the bookcase is interrupted with contemporary wasabi green fabric upholstery in the back of the case.   Above the bookcase is a wall bracket shelf that utilizes one of our carved corbels.  This piece is finished in black matte and supports a green oriental double gourd vase.     Opposite this is a table-stool with an upholstered top in green.  The right foreground shows our reeded column with hand-carved Corinthian capital.
We have enjoyed a good response from the Toronto design community.  These exhibits typically have a ten month life before being refurbished.  In late March of 2011 – about six months from now – the booth will serve as backdrop to a talk for Canadian designers that Osborne Wood Products will sponsor.  Osborne sponsored a similar talk this past spring and it is hoped that this will become an annual event.