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.