These Cambridge clients were very much enamored of Bauhaus Architecture and the well known Post Modern artist Piet Mondrian.

I too admire Mondrian 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 with their decor. I made about thirty different sample blocks for us to look at.

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

The clients had some ancient Cambodian doors which they wanted fitted into the overall scheme.

We went to the Fogg Museum at Harvard where they showed me a Bauhaus bookcase discovered in Slovakia. Excellent idea! Armed with ideas,

I drew up some colored visuals for our third meeting. Since the clients had quite a bit of 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 had a design.

Then came the easy part, building the cabinets! When complete, we dismantled them for transport. The installation was actually very simple. 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 a door, which I was delighted to do!

It’s rare that we have the opportunity to produce something this “artistic” but when the opportunity comes along, we are always grateful!