Botanical cabinet

Tall cabinet suitable for bottles and glasses

158cm tall x 60cm wide x 36cm deep

Hand-dyed sycamore veneer, fumed burr oak veneer, fumed English oak

The idea for the Botanical cabinet stems from a Levada walking holiday on the Portuguese island of Madeira early in 2019.  Levadas are narrow irrigation channels bringing water from the west and northwest of the island to the drier southeast, with most incorporating maintenance paths that can also be used for hiking.

Strong green and yellow hand-dyed veneers reflect lush vegetation and verdant forests and the levada theme is represented by a thin irregular green band around the sides and top of the cabinet.  Thin strips of veneer on the doors are manipulated to show the rise and fall of the hills and mountains in the interior of the island and the pattern is laid over an undulating surface to enhance this notion.  The surface finish has been kept deliberately coarse and rough to the touch, as in the nature of a wilderness, and the coloured veneers are set against deep brown fumed burr oak to create areas of dark and shade found in the forest.

The colour themes continue to the inside of the cabinet with delicate drawer handles repeating the colours of the doors and lustrous green hand-dyed figured sycamore giving the impression of leaves and fern-like growth. Combining these with the fumed oak interior creates an intimate and seductive inner space that is arranged with two small dovetailed drawers, two adjustable glass shelves and illuminated by unobtrusive LED lights operated by a switch below the cabinet.