OsBlog

A customer of ours was recently featured in Home Living, A magazine that makes a monthly appearance as an insert in the News Tribune, a Missouri newspaper.  Wayne Wardenhausen of Countryside Woodworks had recently done an extensive kitchen remodel, which Home Living featured on their front page.  Below is the press release Osborne issued concerning this event.

Wayne Wardenhausen is a contractor who understands how to provide value to his customers at a reasonable price.   Wardenhausen, owner of Countryside Woodworks, specializes in unique kitchen cabinet concepts, specifically tailored to individual customer tastes.  One of his most recent designs was the cover article featured in the March 2009 issue of Home Living magazine, which is an insert to the News Tribune, a Missouri Newspaper.  The photographs taken for the article include several items from the Osborne Wood Products line.

Wardenhausen believes that it is important to get excited about every job that one does.  In a time when many designs are generated on a computer, Wardenhausen’s concepts come from his imagination; the culmination of studying articles, pictures, and products combined with a high degree of personal creativity.  In his words, “The best ideas come from the imagination, not out of a computer.”
Wardenhausen utilizes components such as corner corbels, kitchen island legs, corner molding, and crown molding to bring his concepts from ideas into reality.  Osborne Wood Products is proud to be a supplier of many of these components.  when asked why he does business with Osborne, Wardenhausen stated that he can bank on on-time delivery, knowing his costs up front, and depending on people who know how to do their job.

Wardenhausen’s current kitchen project involves a set of cabinets with a design incorporating Osborne’s new Basket Weave corbels and kitchen island legs for a range hood and a corresponding flat-screen TV installation.  Sure that it will be a real “attention getter,” he reports that upon seeing it for the first time the customer exclaimed, “That is massive!”  It is reactions such as this which inspire Wardenhausen in his unique designs.  Similarly, it is feedback from customers like Wardenhausen that inspires Osborne Wood Products to constantly update our product lines, in order to help our customers continue to generate their artistic designs.

Wayne, keep those ideas coming!  We cannot wait to see pictures of your latest job incorporating the Basket Weave Components.  We will have new products in our next catalog for you to choose from, and we can only imagine what design concepts might be created utilizing these new components.

The better part of the reason for posting finished pictures of our products is that it is easier to see the potential a component has when you see what someone else has done with it.  For some it is rather easy to try different finishes and different furniture “on” a given leg in their mind’s eye.  For others, though, it is good to be able to benefit from someone else’s vision.

We have a wide variety of customers here at Osborne, too.  While it is true that many of our customers are kitchen cabinet makers/installers, there are also furniture makers, interior designers, and of course, artists.  Gregg Novosad (of Divine Design), for example, is both a furniture maker and an artist.   Creating furniture pieces in keeping with classic furniture styles, Gregg also weaves a storyline into each piece with painstaking attention to detail.

This week, Gregg emailed us a link to some photos of a Rococo styled cabinet he made with our part number 1119, the Tapered Mission Dining leg. First, you can find the story this cabinet represents here.

Now the dining leg.  The Tapered Mission leg presents a great deal of versatility in its simple and straightforward design.  The bold presence of a square leg combined with the almost delicate taper generates a unique yet subtle flair.  Add to these elements the vibrant color of Mr. Novosad’s Rococo cabinet, and a star is born.  This is a stunning piece!

First, the leg in its unfinished form:

Now, here is the leg in its finished setting, as a part of Mr. Novosad’s Rococo cabinet:

Today I received some pictures of our Husky Farm Dining Leg in my email from a man named Carl Kemp.  For the record, finished pictures are my favorite thing to receive in my email.  I love seeing the ingenuity and craftsmanship of our customers at work!  Carl called us with a dilemma, just after Thanksgiving.  He was building a Cypress table, but could not find legs in Cypress anywhere.  I very sadly informed him that we do not carry Cypress, either, but we could turn Cypress blanks if he could provide them.  Well, he had the boards for his table, but nothing more.
Carl sent me some pictures of the Cypress boards he had, and I saw a lot of (beautiful) color variation.  Ultimately I was thinking there was no way we could match this.  I saw the color and texture of Alder with the distinct grain patterns of Oak, and failed to think of a wood type that would combine the two.  So, I called our good friends in the warehouse and had them bring to me the leg in question.  He was looking for our Husky Farm Table Leg, part number 1121.  I asked them to bring it to me in Alder and in Oak.  I took pictures.  Lots of pictures.  I sent the pictures to Carl and asked him to choose between the two.  He enlisted the help of his wife, Jane, and together they chose the Alder.  A coworker of mine who shall remain nameless commented upon seeing the pictures, “I think they should have gone with the Oak.”

Well, after receving the pictures, I have one thing to say:  Carl and Jane chose very well.

They sent me these beautiful pictures, and the pictures showed two things very clearly: 1) the wood was a perfect match, and 2) Carl is quite the craftsman.  The legs do match the wood type well, but the finish on them is a significant part of that, and Carl chose the finish well and did a fine job constructing this table.
Also, the Husky Farm leg was a perfect fit for this table.  With the length giving it a slender appearance and the width giving it substance for a nice sturdy table that looks simple, but not at all plain.  Not lacking in beauty, the rich colors and the glossy finish contribute even more to the overall look.

Without further delay, here are the pictures!

I just love warmth and the depth of these colors!

The spool here, just below the top block, is my favorite part of this turning; it is detailed, but not overdone.

Again I was really amazed at the match.  These two wood types look like they were meant to go together!

Here, you get a taste of what I meant when I was talking about the dimensions.  The slender turning adds length to the leg, keeping it from looking stocky.  At the same time, its width helps to make a very secure foundation for this table.  Of course, Carl’s tenoning here is also a very secure construction (the first thing Mr. Osborne noted when I showed him these pictures!).  How securely the skirt assembly is done has a direct impact on how sturdy the table will be.
Carl and Jane, thank you for sharing your pictures with us.  The table is gorgeous, and we are pleased and proud to be a part of it!  Many blessings to you both.

This week’s Product of the Week is the 1755 - the 35 1/2 inch version of our Grand Island leg (part 1455).  This leg is truly versatile, lending itself to a variety of applications.

Barbara C. of Virginia ordered 4 of these legs from us in Cherry for her kitchen island.  She sent us back the finished pictures and they look wonderful!  They finished so well - not so dark that you cannot see the natural grain, but not too light, either.  But there was something about this picture that was different, and I just couldn’t put my finger on it…

Finally I realized what it was: Barbara and company had a great idea!  They flipped the leg, noting that it looks just as fitting right-side-up as it does upside down.  Part of the unique appearance of the 1755 is the very long top block.  But the reverse is also true: a very long bottom block still results in a unique and stylish look.

Great thinking, Barbara!  And thank you for sharing the results.  One of the main reasons that we feature finished products is to give customers new ideas for application and design.  Your picture definitely accomplishes this, showing how lovely the results can be when you are willing to think outside the box!

We are hoping to get a few decent photos ourselves, but this is a picture that graced the front page of The Toccoa Record (our local newspaper) last week.  The courthouse downtown was recently renovated on a grand scale; and all the cream-colored spindles (or balusters) you see in the photo were part of two custom jobs we did for the project.  This picture was taken during the rededication ceremony held on Sunday, November the 23.  We are very proud of the work that our production crew did to create these beautiful pieces.

Though we have quite a wide variety of stock items, we also do quite a bit of custom work.  What we need from you is a picture (preferably with dimensions), wood type, quantity, and description.  Call or email us, today  for more information.  Or, you can submit your custom quote here.

Recently a customer sent us a few pictures of our 8015 Corbel, the Venice Corbel with Acanthus Leaves.  Her corbels were painted to match one of the rooms in her house.

The vivid contrast of the bright white, shimmering gold, and pale blue definitely accent the fine details of the delicate acanthus leaf carvings, while simultaneously highligting the slenderness and length of the corbel itself.

The corbels were used as supports for a small shelf which held a candle enclosed in a hurricane lamp globe.

When stained to match cabinetry, the Venice Corbel with Acanthus Leaves is often used to support a rangehood or an archway between cabinets, such as you might find over a kitchen sink.  You can an example of that in our post on TNT Cabinets.