Recently I have been working on a commission for a client’s kitchen cabinet doors. When she had her kitchen redone, the builder put in 3 cabinets above her stove. Two of them are regular cabinets with interior lighting but the middle one houses the ventilation for the stove so the builder covered it in sheet rock and now, through the cabinet door, the sheet rock is visible. There’s no way to avoid saying it— it looks ugly. For months, she and I have been working on designs, discussing glass options and trying to figure out how to best highlight her beautiful kitchen while minimizing the necessary but unattractive ventilation cabinet. The cabinets are 5 inches apart, including their doors, so when we finally settled on creating ribbons that flow across the span, I wanted to get the rhythm just right. There are also dividers in the cabinet doors so it looked best to keep the design really simple. In terms of density of glass, we decided it was best to make it fairly opaque so it won’t be obvious that there’s sheet rock behind the middle door. She chose a neutral color palate with gray, white and red to give it a pop. I have one more window to create and then some important puttying work to make the pieces strong. I think it’s coming along pretty nicely; I like the way the ribbons flow and twist (and I love how they are reflected on my work bench!). Even though what I am creating now is fairly simple, the process to get here has been anything but. And that’s what makes it special.