Chairs from Tiernan Roe Fine Woodworking 23/05/2006

Here are a few photos of some chairs that I designed and made recently. The client wanted a chair that was comfortable, simple, light, robust and unique to them. Everything that a chair should be really. They came to me first looking for some shaker inspired chairs but after a lengthy design process I came up with these chairs. The strong vertical elements in the back were something that the clients liked. All of their current chairs had this element. We choose to make the chairs from cherry as they wanted a light coloured wood that had some figure but wasn't over powering. Also each chair has the name of one member of the family carved on it. I used an ancient irish script called "ogham" which consists of horizontal lines on a vertical line. Apparently this script was based on the names of trees e.g oak in irish is daoire and represents D.



In the photo to the right it shows that although the back is made from two flat pieces that are sawn to a curve when joined at an angle they create an almost perfect curve for a chair back. To enhance the comfort of the chair the seat slopes back at a 3º angle. The triangular shape of the seat gives ample support to the buttocks as the body is supported on only two points of the pelvis that are remarkably close together. In fact there is a traditional type of chair in Ireland known as a Sligo chair that has a triangular seat which provided some of the inspiration for these chairs.




You can see in this photo that the back legs of the chair are joined to the seat using relatively massive through mortise and tenon joints that are fastened with wedges. This jointing arrangement was used as this joint on the chair experiences quite amount of racking and as they were designed for a family with four young children it is inevitable that at some time some one will tip them back onto their two back legs. All the other joints are pegged with hand made Holly pegs. The finish is hand rubbed Danish oil.

Bespoke office furniture made by Tiernan Roe 9-05-2006

Here are some photos of an bespoke executive office suite that I completed at the end of last month. Only just got round to downloading the photos this evening. The client wanted his office to be comfortable, functional, look greatand to last. All of the furniture is hand crafted from American White Oak and has an natural hand rubbed Danish oil finish. I even fitted a secret drawer but of course I won't be telling you where it is. There was a lot of work in this project as the drawers feature dovetailed joinery and all of the frame and panel sections are morticed and tenoned with solid oak panels. I used Southern Yellow Pine for the drawers boxes for stability and to provide a contrast with the oak.

The file cabinet above is the heaviest of the three pieces of furniture and we were just able to squeeze it up the stairs. The drawers are all on full extension runners so no problems getting at stuff at the back. The file cabinet is low and narrow but can still hold a lot of files.

The desk is V shaped to allow the user have a computer on their left and writing space on the right. The V shape also created an overhang which the customer wanted, so that clients could use the desk as well, to sign or review documents. Here is another view.


Finally the client needed somewhere for a printer and stationary supplies which are housed in this dresser unit. (They're called hutches in America) The cabling for the computer equipment in the desk runs underneath this unit to the power point and internet access.

Traditional wooden furniture

Just got back from a Trad music festival in Louisburgh Co. Mayo, beautiful place and great weekend was had by all. I was at probably one of the best traditional irish music concerts this year an all American ensemble of Billy McComiskey, Brendan Dolan, Joannie Madden and Brian Conway were amazing. Anyway here some more pictures of fine furniture I did a few years ago for a luxury restoration project here in West Cork.



This plate rack was made to store a 60 piece hand crafted dinner set so it had to be quite strong. The wood used was ash with pine dowels. The rails are all through tenoned and wedged for the upmost in strength. The whole piece when finished, then had to be cut to fit in against the undulating wall. The plate rack was then finished with hand rubbed danish oil.








The dresser to the left is a multi purpose piece in that not only does it provide storage it incorporates a table and settle; but also with the use of the two stools and some bracing it can become a temporary bed. It was also made for a luxury medieval restoration project and had to assemble din the room beacause the access points to the room were too small. When finished it was painted to look old by two fine art decorative painters.