The cribbage nook

If you remember, back in March, my brother came out for a visit at  the start of the shut down. Being that our plans for attending the jets/flames game was cancelled we got creative in the workshop. Shawn digitally designed the cribbage nook on the drivers side behind the captains chair. Traditionally a spot for the typical dinette.

Although I have been working on the cabinetry it is now time to make those plans a reality.

As my usual, I cannot assume anything is square, so cardboard templates are the order of the day.

For this step I took it one step further and made a plywood template that I then refined , yet again, with cardboard edges.

Once I was happy with the design, it was time to choose a wood, and I had just the thing that has been in waiting. I have had this in my grubby little hands for a year or two at least. But this fine piece of wood has been in Canada since the late 60's early 70's. It is a headboard made of Muninga wood from south-central Africa. Michelle's parents were there in the mid 60's and they brought this back as one of many pieces from their time living in Kenya. Some time ago, Verna asked me if I could use the headboard, either in a bedroom or for something else. Well......something else has come up!

As careful as I could be I removed all the trim and metal bars.....yes metal bars were inset on the ends to keep the wood from delaminating in the high African humidity.

Once I transferred the outline of the faux wall from the plywood/cardboard template. My shop helper was in charge of cutting the 60 year old wood!

And what a job she did. Fits like a glove!

Now part of my job was to spend time removing all the old finish so that we can better match to the cabinet tops on either end of the crib area.

Its an odd looking piece, but when in place it fits right in.

Now I went on the hunt for wood for the cabinet tops, after looking at a lot of other African woods, I settled on Teak from south east Asia. The muniga is on the left (above) and the teak on the right.

Some planning and joining, lots of glue and some clamps....lets see how this works out!