This is an unusual variant of the kinds of things we do. The clients were very much enamored of Bauhaus Architecture and of the well known post modern artist Piet Mondrian.

I, too, much admire this artist's work and many of my own paintings share elements of his style and sense of Design.

After our first meeting, I went shopping for different kinds of materials and colors that seemed to go well with their decor. I made up about thirty different sample blocks to look at.

During our second meeting, we agreed on a color scheme and picked oak as a base material, with accents in cedar and birch plywood pickled with a gold finish.

The clients also had purchased some ancient Cambodian doors which they wanted refitted into the overall scheme, so we agreed to put these into the mix.

We then walked over to the Fogg Museum in Harvard Square, where they wanted to show me an authentic Bauhaus bookcase which had been discovered in a college dormitory in what is now Slovakia. This formed the basis of the bookcase on the right and also offered the interesting possibility of sliding panels for doors, which could be moved back and forth at will to change the dynamics of the design!

Armed with all these ideas, I drew up a visual preliminary idea using colored pencils, which I presented at our third meeting. Since the clients had quite a bit of visual talent, I suggested that they use my preliminary idea as a jumping off point and email me various versions of their designs using Microsft Powerpoint. What followed was several weeks of give and take, until we finally had a design that everyone approved of.

Then came the easy part, building it in my shop! We built the units completely and then dismantled them for transport. The installation was actually very simple and after some minor adjustments and some changes to the lighting scheme, we were done!

"When I came over to mount the hardware, I had a pleasant surprise. The client had asked Shreve Crump and Low to make a little brass plaque which said "Greg Treleaven Carpenters 2003". They wanted me to put this on the back of the doors, which I was delighted to do!"

One morning, I stopped by to make a few minor adjustments to find a note from them. It's rare that we have
the opportunity to produce something this "artistic" but when the opportunity comes along, we are always grateful!