Cherry Hutch with rat-tail hinges

 Here's a piece I finished awhile back.  I really have to do a better job of posting and putting pieces on my site, but at any rate here it is.  It's a cherry hutch that I have wanted to build for a time now to store out plates and such.  The piece is solid wood, which does present some challenges but it really is better than plywood.  I think, and this is just my opinion, that over time you get a deeper red, a deeper color with solid wood than you do with plywood.

On this side shot you can see the pegs used to hold the shelves in place.  They hold the piece securely and provide some visual interest to the side.  Over time, the cherry will deepen and the pegs will become more subtle.

Here you can see the reproduction glass I used on the piece.  The waves and imperfections add an authenticity that modern float glass can not replicate.  Of course it costs more, but few things look better than old glass.  And few things look worse than modern float glass.

 This is called a rat tail hinge.  The tail at the bottom has a small wood screw that goes into the stile and the top has a ring with a threaded stud that goes clean thru the stile and is secured on the inside with a small nut.  The flag part is screwed to the door face.  The hinges weren't really hard to install, just fussy.  In the end they look spectacular...they really pop the piece, definitely worth the time and effort, and cost.

 Here you can see more the hinges and how they frame the doors.  You can see also the handturned knobs.  By turning them myself, I can ensure a color match and I can also graduate the sizes, that is to say I can make the lower ones larger and the upper ones smaller.  It's a subtle difference but it does help make the piece better.

More hinges.  You can see the base design too.  I think the acorn style cut out adds a little flourish.

As you can tell, I really like the hinges.  We went to Kings Landing yesterday, a historical settlement that serves as a living history site.  I hadn't been there since I was a kid.  They had a scores and scores of Windsor chairs.  The curator wasn't there, but I do hope to contact him so that maybe I can go back.  I was told that they have many more Windsor chairs and furniture pieces that are not out in the houses.  I would love to see them all someday.  The blacksmith at the site said that he had made these hinges before.  I would like to see that.  If you live in the area, you should go to the settlement.  Our 6 yr. old had a good time there... as long as they have horses, she's all set.  It's about 30 min.  from Houlton, Me.