Dave Drury, Custom Shoe Cabinet (RECYCLED & RESCUED 2024)

Photos:

Dave Drury

Country:

Australia

Century old timber meets a smart design with high quality craftsmanship. This shoe cabinet shows what’s possible when you listen to your clients needs, collaborate with them on design and material choices, and are given the freedom to make it without pressure.   There are those that want their reclaimed timber to look like new and those that want to celebrate it where it’s at. This project is the latter. This cabinet is remarkable because I've designed something unique using timber that is more than one hundred years old and allowed it to stand up and shine. When working with old timber, I love nothing more than celebrating its past and preparing its future. This shoe cabinet has all sorts of feature nail and bolt holes, chisel marks and marbled grain that contribute to telling its story and making it uniquely remarkable. The height was determined for seat height, allowing the client to select their shoes and comfortably sit on the cabinet to put them on / off. The outer cabinet was made from century old warehouse beams from Sydney whilst the shelves were made from 70+ year old timber fence railings from Robertson. Both timbers revealed extraordinary characters once milled. The doors are made from spotted gum plywood. There is less chance for movement and when closed the natural horizontal grain pattern is breathtaking. The door handles were custom designed and made ensuring the user could open with ease without catching fingers on the sides. I sourced the very best tracks to ensure the doors glided open and closed - nothing worse than sticky doors. Some design details: * Waterfall edges provide that continuous grain look around the cabinet * The aeration feature on the side are for both function and aesthetics * Sliding door tracks make robust doors glide effortlessly back and forth * Shelf cutouts are purpose designed for the clients boots * Invisible shelving brackets to give that floating illusion * Angled legs applied at ends and middle to enable the cabinet to be both admired and used as a seat * Custom designed handles for function and aesthetics * 7mm spotted gum veneer backing for rigidity and surround aesthetics

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.