Speaking of Cleats

Vaughn McMillan

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Glen's recent post about the French cleat clamp rack in his shop reminded me about this installation job we did a few weeks ago. We had a client way up in the hills above Beverly Hills who needed a mirror installed in the master bedroom. Actually, six mirrors. They had bought these mirrors at an antique shop in New York. They were originally installed in the Toy Center building in Manhattan. They were heavy, with wood frames, each about 3' tall and nearly 4'wide. They were made to install as a tight grid, with no space between the mirrors. The final size was about 11' long and 6' high.

This was the only in my working with Perry where we didn't have the necessary materials in the truck to install something. We decided French cleats were the way to go, but we needed them to be very straight, and 11' long. We first saw the mirrors on a Friday, and told he client we'd have to come back the next week to do the installation. Since 11' long (or 12' long, for that matter) straight boards are hard to find at the Borgs, the next Monday I went to Bohnhoff Lumber (a big commercial lumber yard) and picked up four 12' long pieces of rough-cut poplar. Perry and I milled the lumber into nice straight cleats that afternoon, and installed the mirrors the next day.

Here are a few photos we took along the way. You might notice in a couple of the pics that the ends of the cleats are painted black. That's an old picture-hanging trick to make the cleat disappear behind the artwork...

Mirrors 1.jpgMirrors 2.jpgMirrors 3.jpg
Mirrors 4.jpgMirrors 5.jpgMirrors 6.jpg


And the finished installation. Nice bedroom, huh?

Mirrors 7.jpgMirrors 8.jpg

This was a pretty tricky installation, because everything had to be right on the money or else the six frames wouldn't line up right. We got them installed perfectly level and tight, but after looking at it, we realized that the base and crown molding weren't level, so we needed to tweak the whole assembly to make it look right. So we pulled the whole thing down and re-installed it, raising one end about 3/8". In the end, it looked great. (It was pretty common for us to have to tweak things to match unlevel trim or walls. We'd start with a bubble level but always finish with our eyes.)

And just for grins, here's the view out the bedroom window (and the living room downstairs, too)...

IMG_1087T 640.jpg

That's one of the reservoirs that stores drinking water for the west side of LA. It's not open to the public, but it makes for a nice view. You can buy the empty lot next door for a bit over $2 million. :rolleyes:
 
Very nice....But you could of cleaned the glass:rofl:

Believe it or not, the glass was clean. Not sure what these folks were thinking, but they had a couple of other antique mirrors in the master bedroom that were so old and faded you could barely tell they were mirrors. These six were almost as bad.
 
Nice bedroom, huh?

What bed? Where's the bed?:rolleyes: From the reflection I see a full sofa + two easy chairs + ottoman. Looks like a nice living room.
(Call me old fashioned, but I can't quite imaging needing seating for 6 people in my bedroom! ;) )

...art

ps: very nice installation though. As well a good eye by the owners, the piece really goes well on the wall. As for re-installing the whole thing... too bad you didn't have slotted holes for the mounting screws in the cleats!!
 
What bed? Where's the bed?:rolleyes: From the reflection I see a full sofa + two easy chairs + ottoman. Looks like a nice living room.
(Call me old fashioned, but I can't quite imaging needing seating for 6 people in my bedroom! ;) )

...art

ps: very nice installation though. As well a good eye by the owners, the piece really goes well on the wall. As for re-installing the whole thing... too bad you didn't have slotted holes for the mounting screws in the cleats!!
I think it's the pinkish blob in the bottom right mirror:thumb:
 
What bed? Where's the bed?:rolleyes: From the reflection I see a full sofa + two easy chairs + ottoman. Looks like a nice living room.(Call me old fashioned, but I can't quite imaging needing seating for 6 people in my bedroom! ;) )

...art

ps: very nice installation though. As well a good eye by the owners, the piece really goes well on the wall. As for re-installing the whole thing... too bad you didn't have slotted holes for the mounting screws in the cleats!!

I think it's the pinkish blob in the bottom right mirror:thumb:

Yep, I think that's a corner of the bed. I agree with Art...a bedroom is for sleeping and other bed-related activities, not entertaining a bunch of guests. This house had a fairly modest master suite, although the bath area was pretty large (probably about the same square footage as the master bedroom), with separate hair and makeup stations (for the wife), his and hers toilet/bidet rooms (again, for the wife :D ), and the wife's walk-in closet was big enough she had a floral arrangement in it. There were at least five phones in the bathroom alone. :rolleyes: In my travels with Perry, I saw a couple other houses with master suites bigger than my ~1900 sf house.
 
Very nice mirror Vaughn great installation tips i noticed the black and was wondering had you guys just left the lumber yards paint on ;):) thanks for the explanation.

In my view the mirror looks as though it gives the effect of another windows where the weather outside is raining. Not sure i could live with it for ever.

Guess this person likes to have er friends take a look at what she is gonna be wearing before she leaves the room or the "room" could have alternative purposes not specifically for sleeping.

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...Guess this person likes to have er friends take a look at what she is gonna be wearing before she leaves the room or the "room" could have alternative purposes not specifically for sleeping...

Nah, they just want another sitting/living area upstairs. I've seen a number of master suites with a nicer living room that the one in my house. I'd bet most of their friends haven't even seen their master suite. And a lot of these high-end houses have beautifully furnished rooms or areas that are seldom, if ever, used. A lot of it's for show more than for utility.
 
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