Textured Blue Cabinet
This is a before and after situation. The image on the left shows this cabinet as it was originally built. The images on the right show the cabinet after I planed the low-relief carving of the drawers and made new doors. I found that I like the low-relief carving more when the carving itself is smaller, or if the carved elements are larger in relation to the overall object.
Making the surface change allowed for a re-design of everything but the base structure of the cabinet. The original cabinet had wood latches that slid on a flat, black surface above the carved background. The new cabinet is set up for latches, and the latch parts are waiting in a drawer, but after installing the window panels I liked the look of the voids left for the latches. I can put the latches in at any time, but I like the look, and this has been a good opportunity to see how doors might work without latches. In my experience doors always have a latch of one kind or another-the doors on this cabinet have not moved in the few years the cabinet has been hanging. I like latches and I like designing and making them, but after this experience I will consider designs without latches. In order fort this to work the doors need to be hung properly, and the cabinet needs to hang plumb or maybe canted back a hair.
Two other things to note: the carving on the window panels was done after the panels were painted, and after the doors and drawers were painted I sanded the edges to expose the light wood. The light wood exposure matches the window carving and provides a thin frame for the moving elements. While it wasn't intentional, the thin, light border can be seen to reflect back to the black border on the original cabinet.