In The Details: Flutes in the Sitting Room

After we settled on the flutted detail for the master bathroom, I went on a rampage and probably pissed off my cabinet maker throwing him a curve ball with the sitting room bookcases. I wanted to carry the fluted detail into bookshelf faces. Initially the design was to have two large reeds to make up the flute faces but to keep with somewhat of a budget, we worked with the tools available with to cabinetmaker. Yes, you can get exactly what you want but order a custom tool to be made for one job is pricey.

The layout we choose was two smaller reeds with a sing squared of block running between the two reeds. In the end, the final design looks similar to the custom crown molding I designed 12 years ago for the kitchen and which was mimicked in the tv room. Another feature to the sitting room is the bookcase being carried over the doorway to the hallway. Now if I had caved into Clem’s demand to add one foot to the ceilings on the first floor. This little bookcase would have turned out just like inspiration photos I had found on instagram and design books. I was more focused on not adding another $100k to the budget. I did throw out there taking one foot from second floor to making both floor heights 9 feet. But the cost is was still going to increase.

When adding the bookcase surround to the sitting room entry, I was going back and forth on how to finish off inside of the surround. I played around with designing a prairie or deco wainscoting but the detail would look strange standing alone and the walls weren’t similar included. At the same time I was also designing the mantle for the sitting room fireplace. My initial sketches for the mantle kept including a fluted wood insert on the legs of the mantle. The obvious choice was to carry that over into the surround of the entry. Our cabinetmaker SW Cabinets stepped up to the plate and delivered exactly what I was envisioning. I love this detail because it not only adds to coziness of the room but it also gives the room more character.