I was asked recently, for the first time in my life, to build a custom telephone niche.
Now, what, you may ask is a telephone niche?
Well, long prior to these Apple iPhones we all carry and even before cell phones existed (yes, there was such a time) we all called each other on telephones connected to a wire in the wall. That was back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and people had just discovered they had opposable thumbs.
Back in those days (olden times) people needed places to set their telephones where they would be accessible but still be out of the way. Telephone niches were the means to handle that problem.
When this customer (we will call her Ardyth) contacted me she emailed a string of photos of old-style telephone niches. She asked me if I could custom build her a craftsman style niche close to what was in one of the photos.
I gave her a quote which included the drawing on vellum shown above. Vellum is an old-fashioned paper draftsmen and artists use for drawings or blueprints. Nowadays drawings are most often made with computers. But I still hand draw on vellum or on Mylar. Old fashioned drafting tools for an old-fashioned looking product – perfect.
The carpentry was pretty straightforward. The niche was essentially, a box to insert into the wall, with decorative elements to give it character.
This design included a stylized flower on the front. The panel for that flower is ¾” thick red oak. I drew it on the wood by hand. Then I cut out the flower and its two leaves with a small bandsaw. Then I hand sanded the cut edges to mostly smooth. Finally, I stained the piece and gave it a gloss finish.
Ardyth was wonderfully happy with the finished piece. She left me a great review and shared a photo of the niche with one of her beautiful antique phones displayed in it.
Thank you Ardyth, for the chance to build you a nifty niche!