Over Sink Light Fixture -- Cabinet Coordinated

A recent commercial kitchen remodel required a new light fixture over the kitchen sink, and in order to coordinate perfectly with the cabinetry, it was fabricated from the exact same finished wood as the cabinets themselves. This wood is readily available from the cabinet manufacturer by ordering a spacer piece 3” wide by approximately 8' long, requesting the same wood and color finish as the cabinets. Thus a perfect match is assured! The 3” wide spacer stock was fabricated into a simple 4-piece mitered frame joined with glue and biscuits. Four “L” brackets attached to the top of the frame are screwed to the ceiling. The frame surrounds two 24” long dual bulb T-5 fluorescent fixtures which are separately attached to the ceiling and connected to the electrical supply.

The trick is getting a luminescent panel, which rests on a ring of 1/4” square wood molding, into such a small opening. This was accomplished by first routing, before any mitering or assembly, a dado 3/4” wide by 1/4” deep into the inner surface of the 1x3 just slightly above the 1/4” molding. This extra clearance allows the panel to be maneuvered into place on its molding. The molding was cut from other stock and stained to match, not at all a critical match as the molding is small and not readily noticed.

The fixture is approximately 28” long to allow for clearance at either end of the fluorescent fixtures and 11” wide so as not to protrude beyond the 12” deep plane of the upper cabinets. The low 3” profile means the fixture will not block any light or view from the kitchen window. The 4 T-5 bulbs provide plenty of light for the kitchen sink area and beyond. Cabinet manufacturers would certainly sell these if they thought to make them.

Singular wooden ware + hand carved teaspoons at:   FlyingCircusStudios.Etsy.com

Café Shims - Table Leveling

You are sitting with your lover; it's a lovely sidewalk table on Place du Tertre in Montmartre. The waiter has just brought your wine, red wine, of course. The glasses sparkle in the fading Paris sunlight. You gaze into your lover's eyes and lean forward for a little kiss. Suddenly the force of your elbow finds that one leg suspended off the plane of the other three and voilà: first the seesaw down, then the recoil up. The glass of red wine tips and spills into your lover's lap. The deft lover, however, would have surreptitiously tested the table upon arrival, slipping his (or her!) café shim under the offending leg and avoided such unpleasant surprise.

Everyone has been annoyed by a rocking restaurant table. Still you probably won't have a cafe shim with you, but if you did, you would certainly impress your companions. Andrew Knowlton wrote in the April 2016 issue of bon appétit, speaking of a Beverly Hills restaurant, “They solved the single biggest annoyance in restaurants: wobbly tables.”

The set of six is made of random hardwoods, hand-sanded and oiled, not hardware shims at all! They are 1 3/4" wide and 3” long, a little smaller than a business card, and taper from 3/16” to near zero.

A novelty perhaps, but shims are useful: leveling furniture and pendulum clocks, securing hammerheads, locking Hungarian shelves, etc. 

Singular wooden ware + hand carved teaspoons at:   FlyingCircusStudios.Etsy.com