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Posts tagged with “SketchUp”

A Side Gate

…with appreciation to the Katz bros.

It all started when my wife decided we needed a new gate on the side of the house. The existing gate worked, but being 20 years old, it needed more than just a facelift—it needed a structural lift, too. I’m sure you know what I mean!

Linda found a design on the Internet—an Arts and Crafts gate with a cloud lift for the top rail (you can guess where she found that!). I had never made one before but have faced a lot of tougher challenges in my life. Read the full article…

Greek Revival and Italianate Trim

Years ago, in a Fine Homebuilding article, I explained how to build corbels for an Italianate mirror frame. I ran out of pages in that short article before I could discuss how to layout the pediment. I have plenty of room here, so I’ll cover that part of the story, and I’ll include all the material that we couldn’t fit into the Fine Homebuilding Master Carpenter article. Read the full article…

New Wooden Gate

In early 2008, an elderly woman drove her car through our back yard and took out a chain link gate. Her vehicle raced across the lawn, just missing a beautiful 30-year-old tangelo tree and a water fountain, eventually crashing into a fence where the corners of four properties met. Her insurance company paid us fairly to cover the total cost of damages, and so began my Great Gate Project. Read the full article…

Closet Shelving Layout & Design

When I started out in the building business, interest rates were low, money was easy to borrow, and custom homes were the way to go. But six years later, in the early 1980s, that all changed. Interest rates went over 15%. No one could afford, let alone qualify, for a loan. Economics and demand dragged us into multi-family housing—we started installing finish work on apartment complexes, condominiums, and townhouses. The work was hard, the prices competitive, but the profits were good if you had your act together, if you were fast and didn’t make mistakes. Read the full article…

Building a Chinese Chippendale Balustrade

Once you figure out the math, the rest is just glue and sawdust.

“You want what?” You’re kidding!”

That’s what I thought when some very good clients asked me to build a railing for a second floor deck above a living space. I hesitated — I normally do interior finish work, not decks.

But when they said they were thinking of a Chinese Chippendale balustrade, they got my attention. In general terms I knew what Chinese Chippendale design was — I’d just never built anything with the geometric fretwork patterns that mark that style. It’s beautiful stuff. Read the full article…

An Introduction to SketchUp for Finish Carpenters

It works the way a carpenter thinks.

If you are tired of working out trim details on a scrap of wood or making shop drawings with graph paper and a ruler, SketchUp is your answer. Unlike most computer-aided design programs you may have tried, SketchUp is very intuitive and works the way a carpenter thinks.

SketchUp has a simple set of tools that you can use to create anything from a rough mock-up to a very detailed drawing with 1/64″ precision. How much detail you want is up to you. The ability to convey your ideas to customers quickly and to produce working shop drawings is what SketchUp can do for you. Are you intrigued? What if I told you that it’s FREE! Read the full article…

Terminating Versus Supporting Moldings

If I were to say: “Hi are how you? Brent I’m Hull.” You might wonder what I drank for breakfast. I mean, you’d recognize the words, they’d sound familiar, but the way I used them wouldn’t make any sense. But if I said: “Hi, how are you? I’m Brent Hull,” you’d respond without a hitch, my words would make perfect sense (depending on what you drank for breakfast!).

Well guess what? There is a language to classical design, too; a vocabulary that’s dependent on moldings for communicating purpose in a room. If you speak the language, all your finish work—your, bookcases, mantelpieces, doorways, and ceilings―will communicate fluently with your customers. Read the full article…