Kitchen cabinet maker uses computer cut marquetry on his door designs

"Little is being done in cabinetry in general and kitchen design in particular that wasn't around 40 years ago" says Bob Baldwin a custom kitchen cabinet designer and maufacturer. As an example, he cites door panels that remain much the same in their choice of wood species and finishes. "There was some innovation about 20 years ago with what we call European style cabinetry in the USA but other than not having face frames and offering white cabinets, it's really not a huge change" he says.

In Bob's contemporary kitchen designs, cabinet doors become a canvas for his art. "I want to use flat panel doors to bring color, shape, and design into the kitchen" he says.

"Imagine a flowering vine snaking its way across the upper cabinet doors, or a flock of birds or butterflies or clouds or a garden scene on the base cabinets or a colorful landscape. This is not being done, and I think it should be. It would bring color into the kitchen and make every kitchen unique. Instead of painting or printing such scenes, I want to use inlayed stained wood veneers to make art with a more permanent feel than most disposable kitchen designs. The wood grain would add to the effect."

Bob uses solid bamboo flat panels for the doors and drawer fronts because bamboo is not an endangered wood species, unlike some of the exotic tropical woods, and because its fine grain acts as a non-intrusive backdrop for his designs' inlays.

Bob now proposes to produce his designs as doors which can be fitted to any standard size of kitchen cabinet. "Cabinet boxes are large and hard to ship," he says, "but cabinet doors aren't. Also, cabinet boxes are all the same - you can hang just about any door on them. That means that I can ship my door design anywhere, and they can be installed on someone else's cabinets.