Gruber Schlager Home Office
15 October 2008
“Abracadabra”
Earlier this week I featured a cabinet that completely hid away a TV, which I found to be a most elegant solution for those who must, because of space constrictions, have their TV placed in the living room, but would prefer not looking at it when it is not in use. That sort of thing does not work as well, though, for the larger screen TVs, but progress being what it is, there is always someone who is coming up with a new and better idea.
If you cannot hide the TV, why not use the TV to hide a home office? Looking at the TV at the top of this blog, no one would ever know that if you simply pivot it, the other side contains a desk unit for a home office. The last couple of weeks my wife telecommuted to her office. Because of the nature of her work as a Human Resources Manager, all she really needed to make that work was a laptop computer and a cell phone, which we simply put on a small portable table we had available to us. But if that were to go on permanently, and if we had, perchance, a home that dictated our placing the TV in the living room, then Gruber Schlager would have been just the solution to our needs.
The other thing I wanted to point out, though, is that Gruber Schlager is a German company that works in a numb
er of mediums to produce their many products for the home, and one of the things they most enjoy working with is wood, which is a circumstance that certainly warms the cockles of my little cabinetmaker’s heart! But I bring that up because they provide—as any manufacturer would—a number of finishes for their product, one of which is a hand-rubbed oil finish. I have put down a number of those over the years, always using tung oil, which is my particular favorite, although I’m told it can be done just as well with linseed oil.
This is not the forum for a detailed description of how an oil finish is applied to furniture, but I will say here that it is just about the most satisfying thing I do in the work shop. It is very much a labor of love, and something that one does out of respect for the finished product and all those woodworkers who have gone before. And if that sou
nds a little mystical and esoteric, then I have succeeded in what I wanted to do with this paragraph. But I bring all that up because Gruber Schlager has said the best thing anyone ever said on that subject.
In writing these blogs, I am most insistent on always writing my own, not just paraphrasing what someone else has written, but I cannot help lifting this passage from their website, because it strikes me as one of the most profound things anyone ever said about the end process of furniture making—applying a finish and installing hardware: “Solid wood acquiesces to the gentle caress of oil, forms a fascinating twosome with brilliant, high-gloss varnish, and revels in the flattery of glistening chrome.” Their company slogan is “Pure Living,” which seems about right. Their ad copy is pure magic!
Joseph
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