San Francisco Cherry Library
This custom built Cherry library in San Francisco was designed and built by Vorrath Woodworks. We started by sitting with the clients and talking to them about their needs, their wants, and their vision. They have art pieces from their travels all over the world, and wanted to incorporate those into the library, to bring more life and richness to the space. We came up with these alcove spaces of different sizes to accommodate specific works they wanted displayed. Each alcove has it's own recessed puck light to make sure the pieces were highlighted, and not lost in the shelves. The lighted alcoves also break up the monotony of book after book on a shelf, and give the space a more lived in feel.
The room doubles as a guest bedroom when needed, with a built in murphy bed on one wall, concealed by a wood mosaic. There are two closets on either side of the window, with wenge panel doors for guests to keep their clothes in. A storage bench under the window also with a wenge panel front, supplies a nice place to sit with a book, and plenty of room for storage of blankets and bedding.
The three walls of bookshelves were built in two parts each. They were assembled, and finished in our studio, and then transported on site. In order to get them into the house, a window on the second floor, 5 feet wide was used to pass the units through in halves. It was a bit of a nail biter, but not having to build on site, provides many advantages to us the woodworkers, and the clients don't have to deal with a month worth of their home being a construction site!
The end result is a gloriously warm space filled with books, and they're cherished relics from memorable adventures around the globe. We are in the process of building them a library ladder, and sitting chair to accompany.