Breakfast nook
Take a piece of wood and expose it to heat (steam) and the lignin that holds together the cellulose fibers will soften. When the wood is placed in compression it will bend (within the confines wood species fiber elasticity) to a new shape. When it cools and the lignin “hardens”, the piece will retain the new shape. This characteristic has been used in chairmaking (Windsor chairs bow backs are a perfect example), boat building, cane making, archery bows and other furniture. Bending allows furniture to escape the rectilinear format and enter the visual curvilinear space.
The window bay breakfast nook provided the space to create a suspended table using bend legs because the customer wanted to eliminate the looks of “legs”. The kitchen had oak floors and cherry cabinets so the approach to have the table “grow” out of the floor on oak legs as a means to support the cherry table top resulted. The “leg tree” attachs to the floor. Each leg used three steam bend 1-inch white oak planks that were then glue laminated and machined. The table top is solid cherry that attaches to the wall. The top and legs were finished to a matched the corresponding surface in the kitchen.
breakfast nook table installed. the stripes are from the light coming through the windows