Bar Cabinet

The Bar Cabinet reinterprets the spirit of American Craft furniture from the early 1900s through a distinctly contemporary lens. Referencing Craftsman-era furniture making manuals, the studio approached the piece with the mindset of an amateur craftsperson: asking how that vernacular approach might produce something unexpected today with a different set of tools and through a new era. Rather than simply reproducing the forms of traditional American craft, the cabinet takes its underlying logic – material honesty, ingenuity and hands-on making – to push it into a new language. 

At the center of the design is a piece of decidedly unfurniture-like hardware – a high-weight-bearing, industrial lazy susan typically used to rotate heavy machinery. This mechanism gives the cabinet its defining gesture, allowing its door to revolve revealing three interior shelves. Concealed within the India ink-dyed plywood construction, the hardware becomes both a functional device and a conceptual anchor for the piece – bringing industrial logic and function into conversations with the tradition of handmade furniture.

The cabinet’s exterior introduces an intentionally unexpected counterpoint. A custom pressed wildflower veneer, developed in collaboration with a German manufacturer, finishes the surface of the door. The studio wanted this surface treatment to feel more like a natural organic pattern than a conventional decorative veneer, ultimately turning to actual flowers. Pressed and left unsealed, the flowers retain their natural fragrance and will evolve over time, developing their own patina. The delicacy of the material creates an inversion of the cabinet’s industrial core, juxtaposing a machine-like interior with a natural exterior.

This is part of a larger new series from the interdisciplinary interiors, architecture and object firm - including the bar cabinet, a credenza, and a rocking chair - and likely more later down the road.