Under the Stairs

This Client wanted a better solution for hiding her storage area under the stairs in her loft in Chinatown. We designed and built this two piece rolling bookcase system. She was so excited to tear down the black curtain that had been hanging there for years! The result is a bookcase system that looks architectural. It blends in with the black stairs and has a visually interesting negative space effect.

A bit of a showroom

We finally have a small area to show off our creations. It's located in the shop at 4001 E 18th Street in Vancouver. We'd love to have you come by. Hours vary, so it's best to call, text, or email for an appointment. 503-784-4570 or swiftd@saratogawoodworks.com

Editorial Columns

This Client had always wanted to have a more substantial visual divider between her living and dining rooms. The top photo is the before picture.

The 1925 vintage house is a great example of bungalow architecture and the owner is a collector of vintage glass and furniture. She had a picture in her head of exactly what she wanted. I simply had to interpret her words and build it.

This is what we came up with. A simple column system that complements the original woodwork, and doesn't look like an add-on.

A View to the Finish

This house has an amazing view of the Columbia River, but the cabinets were nothing to look at.

They were, however structurally sound, and the owner wondered what we could do to update the look of her kitchen without the expense of all-new cabinetry.

I suggested using a tinted lacquer to change the color of the cabinets. We also added a matching cabinet where the fabric once hung, replaced the tired hinges, and added knobs for the doors and drawers.

We also added a flat display shelf above the upper cabinets along with s simple crown moulding.

It took around a week to refinish the doors and drawers in my shop and a couple of days to do the on-site work. The result was a great transformation, with almost nothing going to the landfill.

How are you going to do that?

When we were leaving the client's house after a design meeting, I showed Clint and Josh the photo that the client had given me.

"How are you going to do that?", Clint asked.

"I don't know yet."

But projects like this are the reason I love this business. I love the challenge of solving complex problems.

There were several design concerns with this project. I was going to be building a small bathroom vanity in the style of the large kitchen island in the picture that the client had given me. Even coming up with a design proposal that had appropriate scale would be a challenge.

Fortunately, I nailed the drawing on my first try. "Love it!", said the client.

Then there were the challenges of building the cabinet I had drawn.
Most shops would have taken simpler approaches to each of the problems, but we want our projects to be a level above "most shops".

In the end, we created the lattice work for the false front by dadoing small strips of lumber into a solid piece of alder.


The door is constructed much like a common raised panel door, but material is cut away to leave the diamond in the center. a cove is cut into the edges of that diamond. This makes a grain that stays consistent all the way through the panel. A simple applied lattice, or an applique for the diamond would have looked cheap and wouldn't hold up.

We couldn't be happier with the result.

The Tweener Cabinet

My Clients had always wondered what this space was intended for. Between the living room and the dining room, there was this gap. It was parallel to the entryway, and only a foot away so it served no practical purpose.

They decided that it needed a cabinet. The dining side would provide storage for wine and glasses, while the living side would be home to stereo equipment.

The primary challenge in this project was making everything fit. The depth was tight when we considered the amplifier and the wine glasses, but in the end, everything fit perfectly.

Note the unusual angled shelves for wine storage and the fabric panels designed to allow the use of remote controls.

dis mantle isn't working for me.

This mantle in a 30's era Vancouver cottage probably looked great at one time. The basic form was crafted from plaster. But the oak mantle top was dated (dated 1979, actually. It said 'Tom Petersen, master craftsman' on the bottom. The Heat n' Glo fireplace was added more recently, as was the green marble tile with the awkward square cutout around the damper operator chain.

The client wanted to update with a simple design that was appropriate in scale, and would preserve the operation of the damper chain.

From Swine to Spaghetti: A restaurant remodel

Saratoga Woodworks was recently honored to be involved with the remodel of a restaurant in Redlands, CA.

Originally, the building was built to house "Babe's Slim Piggins", a BBQ joint, but it became a part of The Old Spaghetti Factory's family of restaurants in December of 2009.

These pictures were taken during the remodel process; the pig references, ladders and tools have now been removed.

Saratoga Woodworks designed and provided the arched and inlaid mahogany doors below the Pigs Gone Wild Sign. We also provided the panels and columns above the arched mirrors behind the bar, and panels for the mahogany wainscoting.

The doors are 1" thick and feature applied moulding and corners that are notched out to give them a strikingly different look.

The panels above the bar are bigger than they look. The entire system is thirty feet long. It's difficult to see in the picture, but the final panel on each side is bookended by four spiraled columns. We really like the way the light plays off of the pyramid shaped onlays.

First Quarter 2010 Newsletter

Happy New Year! We've all survived another year in a challenging economy, and we'd love to help you on your projects in 2010. Here are some examples of work we accomplished during the latter half of 2009. You can read more about these projects and others on our blog or at SaratogaWoodworks.com

A project with 80% recycled content. This series of twelve bookshelves was constructed largely from material left over from the customer's demolition projects. We were able to design this project so that it could be installed in a working office in about an hour with a minimum amount of dust and disruption. A kitchen with a modest budget and unusual protrusions This kitchen was unique because of the pair of chimneys that intruded into the space. The limitations posed by the unusual nooks and crannies led to great storage solutions like this corner where an appliance garage, wine cubbies, and a corbelled open shelf combine to create visual interest. A Classic Hutch with hidden wine storage and broom closet This hutch was designed based on a picture in a realtor's flier. The hutch is made almost entirely solid reclaimed fir. Only the drawer bottoms are made of plywood. The left tapered column opens to reveal a broom closet, and the right contains a wine rack. The hutch is designed to be portable. The removal of eight screws allows the unit to come apart into five pieces for easy transport. A Space Saving Staircase/Ladder A client came in with a grainy photo of a similar staircase in Europe. We worked together to reverse engineer the angles and dimensions to produce this unit designed to access a loft.

Saratoga Woodworks offers period appropriate cabinets, custom furniture and high quality custom cabinetry for any home. We offer design services and work to provide the highest quality products possible with the least environmental impact. What can we do for you?

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Saratoga Woodworks - 4001 E 18th Street, Vancouver, WA 98661
(503) 784-4570
Saratoga Woodworks

In Oregon, we're Saratoga Woodworks LLC CCB# 183449 WA LIC # SARATWL921PW

The Pastor's Study

This daylight basement serves as the Pastor's office. It originally had a set of twelve mahogany plywood doors that opened to reveal a long damp and poorly finished storage area.

We were able to reuse those plywood doors to build these beautiful self-cased bookshelves. The solid lumber in the face frames and shelf edges is reclaimed lumber from a deconstructed building owned by the same church.

This project is pretty unusual because we used douglas fir and mahogany together. We overcame the differences in grain and color characteristics by using a stain and glaze finish process with conversion varnish.

Overall this project contained over 80% reused material (by weight). Even the glaze was saved from the Hazardous waste stream.

The problem with Melamine

A potential client recently asked me if she could "upgrade" to melamine interiors. Wow. There's power in marketing, and the big cabinet factories and melamine manufacturers seem to have convinced people that their product is better. It's not.

One of the problems with melamine is that it has very little internal structure. It is particle board coated with a very thin layer of plastic. In the picture at the left, you can see how much these lightly loaded shelves have warped. Plywood won't do that. Plywood consists of sheets of veneer that give it superior strength to solid lumber. And how long do you think those shelf support holes will last?

The melamine people will tell you how easy it is to wipe clean. Oh yeah? Ever try to remove the scuff marks left by your canned goods? If you've had melamine interiors, you know how dingy they look after awhile. Clear coated Plywood interiors do wipe clean easily, and scratches and chips can be repaired.

The third problem with melamine is water damage, especially under the sink. If you ever have a leak, and it only takes one, the particle board under the melamine will swell up, cracking and ruining the melamine coating. When that happens, you can either live with the ugly result, you can replace the cabinet, or you can try to repair a product that wasn't meant to be serviced. You probably won't like the result. If the leak goes on unnoticed for a few weeks, mold can start growing and can spread to the paper surface of the wallboard. Mold thrives on pre-digested wood products like particle board and paper. A clearcoated plywood cabinet interior is much less likely to show any damage, and if it does, It can be fixed by the homeowner with sandpaper and a can of spray lacquer.

On a side note, you'll see "green" cabinet makers advertising that they use wheat board. Wheat board is a product that uses wheat chaff as the primary ingredient for the particle board. It smells like a farm, but it's still particle board with a melamine coating. If a product has a severely limited lifespan, is it really green?

So why is Melamine so popular? Simple...Follow the money. Large new home builders try to squeeze out the most profit possible by asking their suppliers to provide products at the lowest possible price. Melamine is less expensive than plywood, and it's already finished so there's less work for the cabinet maker and finishing crew to do. Which means that the cabinet factory can still make a profit. Since the big cabinet shops set the industry standards, most smaller shops have followed, and have been able to provide cheaper cabinets. And when I say cheaper, I mean 5-10% less expensive.

When you need cabinets, you'll want to be informed, and you'll want to consider whether quality and longevity are worth a 5-10% price change.

After: What can we do with this?

So here's what we came up with. Pardon the dust and the blue tape.

If you haven't read the previous blog post, you might want to. It has the before pictures, and it describes the problems and limitations of this particular project.

One unusual feature of this kitchen is the use of wood panels to cover the existing chimneys. On The refrigerator side of the kitchen, the wood panel allowed me to bring the entire side of the kitchen into a single plane. Usually, I look for ways to add some texture, but this kitchen had already had too many different nooks and corners.

The counter top beside the refrigerator is only 12" deep so that I could maximise the drawer space available in the big drawer bank. Those puppies are 28" deep, rather than the 22" that you usually see. The corbeled shelf adds some practicality, and adds a lot to the overall look of the kitchen. To the left of that shelf, there is a small vertical wine rack and an appliance garage.

The wood panel beside the microwave will have a pot rack mounted in the wide space at the top.

The wood is clear finished unselect Alder. The countertop is granite tile, and the backsplash is slate.

Before. What Can we do with this?

Sometimes, you wish you had a little more to work with. This kitchen is in a great foursquare house in a nice neighborhood, but yikes! What to do?

The layout of this kitchen was a mess. Soffits all around, but at inconsistent heights. Two chimneys jutting out into the kitchen. The walls on either side of each chimney were in different planes.

The homeowners were trying to get the house ready to sell, and they wanted to do it quickly. No time or budget for soffit removal or knocking down the service chimney. Budget wise, knew they needed custom cabinets because the space was so chopped up.

Next post: I think you'll be amazed at the solution.

Home Show

We're doing the home show this year! It's at the Oregon Convention Center for hours and a $2 off coupon, follow this link

We're sharing booth space with Josh Farrand of Eight Inch Nails Construction, and Clint Howes of Revive Construction. We hope you'll come by and say hi.

We have a few items displayed at the booth. The top picture is of the big old-timey hutch with the wine storage in the columns, colored glass and inset flush doors and drawers. This piece is made almost entirely of reclaimed fir lumber.

The second picture is of a dark stained alder cabinet with a clear finished alder top.

The third picture shows Josh's eyebrow dormer. Josh took a class from an East Coast craftsman to learn how to build them, and we've received a lot of positive feedback about it at the show. You can also see Clint's reclaimed fir garden bench which is being raffled off. Second prize is a bird house.

Between the three of us, we can build almost anything. No visitor to our booth has stumped us yet.