There is plenty of space to roam around and discover things.  Your comments are invited and welcome on both the site and the content.

Combined with our customer service, we offer a unique product. We cooperate with designers, owners, contractors and tradesmen to complete the whole picture, while doing our level best to keep all involved informed and part of the success we fully expect to deliver.

Serpentine Staircase

A serpentine Walnut staircase is finished off on site.  This stair features two diminishing curves, in opposite directions.  Each curve is a segment of an ellipse in plan.

Curved staircases are complex,  therefore built in the shop, under controlled conditions.   When complete, we dismantle the staircase for transport & installation.

This Paneled Wall section will match the historic panels from 1914. Some of the curves are compound curves - curving in plan and elevation

Serpentine Staircase in the shop, prior to application of curved wall panels

Serpentine Staircase in process

Maple Sofa Table

This table is almost fouteen feet long, and was commissioned to to fit behind a large upholstered piece. Maple solids and veneers unify the finish and clean look.  The photo angle shortens the perspective.  The legs and aprons do taper to the inside, a play on the Hepplewhite standard where the outside tapered to half its mass at the floor.

Frame and panel doors evolved in the 1600’s in Central Europe, descended from the heavier plank doors commonly used.  The frame isolated the seasonal movement of wood, and allowed the panels to float.  Almost immediately, this design was adorned, and the panels became design elements that permitted carving and embellishment as not seen in previous work.

Today, the frame and panel door remains as the design standard of traditional architectural elements.  It is important to remember that the friendly familiar look of a panel door is the result of technical evolution and not decoration.  Therefore, frame and panel doors all have the common the common ancestry of the accepted and familiar design.

Mahogany Door Sidelights and Frame

We begin every project with a new blank page. This allows the customer’s needs to take precedent.  We can help you select your standards and expectations independent of pre-determined design constraints.  Working with your design professionals to realize your efforts is just part of the benefits we offer.  Our resources are extensive, our experience varied, and approach is professional.  As true professionals, we undertake lifelong learning in our craft and enjoy the challenges inherent in unique work.

We understand, and we take pride in exceeding expectations.

White Oak Entry

This entry features a White Oak door in a painted frame with transom and sidelights that accommodate Art Glass panels along with the energy efficiency and code compliance of temepered insulated glass units.

Audio Cabinetry in Padauk

These cabinets in quarter-sliced Padauk veneers and solids are designed to house an audio system and provide display shelving.  The electronics are in a ventilated cabinet with a temperature triggered fan to keep things cool when the temperature exceeds 90 degrees.  The wall shelves float on the wall with hidden supports.

Cherry Audio Visual Cabinetry

This Cherry wall unit is made of sequenced matched Cherry veneers, with Quilted Maple horizontal bands. The grain of the wood flows vertically and matches horizontally across the width. The technical design called for integrating television and whole house audio into the unit, with electronics, media and miscellaneous storage. The aesthetic design sought to unify all the functions in an attractive contemporary look with a natural Cherry finish. Acorn worked closely with the electronics vendor to insure fit, access, heat management and user friendliness were all maintained to the customer’s high level of expectations. A close look shows that this cabinetry is shallow on the left – several inches deep only – while increasing to about 24″ deep the right side. This solution avoided disrupting the flow of the room and made the large unit much less intrusive in a family’s casual living space.

Wine Celler Door

This simple Mahogany Wine Cellar door is a nice example of a contemporary interpretation of the classic old door.  The door and frame are insulated with passive weatherstrip to insure the stable temperature of the room beyond.  This simple provision does not detract from the appearance or function of the door. Clear insulated glass complies with Building Codes, but does not have the unsightly stamp often seen in mass produced work.  The glass is also divided light, long the standard of good practice and craft.