Greene and Greene mirror

Greene & Greene Style Mirror

I wrote earlier about a commission where a customer wanted a mirror over their fireplace, but wanted something with a “Greene and Greene” flavor. Greene and Greene were architects and furniture designers who were big in the arts & crafts movement, and helped design what some folks call the “ultimate bungalows.” The furniture for these homes was custom designed for these homes alone, so there were no multiple pieces made.

Some of the key features for a G&G piece of furniture are

Cloud Lifts: Inspired by traditional Chinese and Japanese design, this motif features stepped, cascading curves on crest rails, drawer pulls, and stretchers, giving heavy pieces a surprising sense of visual lightness.
Ebony Accents: The brothers frequently used dark, square or rectangular ebony plugs over joint screws and dowels to provide a striking visual contrast against lighter woods.
Exposed Joinery: Joints are celebrated rather than hidden. Wood pegs are often “proud” (protruding slightly from the surface), and drawer joinery often features exposed “finger-proud” edges.
Rounded and Softened Edges: Corners and tabletops are heavily chamfered and rounded, inviting touch and softening otherwise geometric forms.
Leg Indents: The legs on their case pieces frequently feature subtle recesses or step-down indents before reaching the floor.

For the mirror, I chose to use cloud lifts, softened edges and ebony accents in my design. After getting approval of the dimensions and layout, I got to work.

Milled pieces to size and thickness (the top rail was 7/8” thick, the side stiles are ¾”, and the bottom rail is 5/8”)

Created plywood templates for the pieces by bandsawing them out, then using rasps, files and sandpaper to clean up.

Use templates to create cloud lift, and then to round over the edges

Use the router table to cut a rabbet in the back to hold the mirror

Layout the location of the ebony plugs, then drill out most of it on the drill press. Use a hollow chisel mortise head (without the interior drill bit) to make the square sides. Clean up with a chisel to a depth of 3/8”

Create the ebony plugs by milling to a little larger than 5/16” or ¼” square, cut to ¼” depth, and then use sandpaper and a buffer to “pillow the top.” Glue in and hammer down with a soft headed hammer.