Art Deco Table With Hidden Trompe L'oeil Interior

The table is made with Pau Ferro veneer layed up in a waterfall fashion so it flows down and over each of the levels of the table. The top is quilted Maple surrounded by a thin Ebony inlay.

This photo shows the table with all of its misc. hidden areas open, including the two drink trays, the primary secret door, the secondary small door, and the hidden drawer in the Trompe L'oeil floor tiles. There is one more secret area that holds the magnetic key used to open all the hidden areas but it's not visible in this picture.

The small door in the image leads to a small space with a polished quilted Bubinga floor and arched ceiling. The veneer for the walls and ceiling gradually change to darker colors as they go deeper into the cavity to increase the sense of depth, sort of worked but sort of not. It does look cool though when you look up to the ceiling and see the detailing, unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures of that. SOSS hinges were the only hinges that would allow the main door to function properly and keep the gaps to a minimum from the outside.

We worked out a system of imbedded rare earth magnets that would hold pieces in place but also allow them to be opened with a special magnetic key. The main secret door is held closed by four magnets and there are additional magnets buried inside the hidden drawer and the outside face of the secret door.

We decided the special magnetic key should be hidden somewhere on the outside of the table so it could be accessed easily but not seen. The key itself has been veneered to match the surrounding wood and is spring loaded so a gentle push makes it pop out. It can then be used to open the main secret door and also to pull out the hidden drawer. The magnetic key is solid Ebony with Mother of Pearl inlays on both sides. You can see a quick glimpse of where the magnetic key is hidden in the video.

The drink trays (one on each side of the table) are spring loaded so a gentle push pops them open until they hit a padded stop. They both have polished stainless steel inserts that can be removed for cleaning if necessary. It took some time to work out a mechanism that would allow the trays to open and close consistently while also allowing for and minimizing any wood movement issues that could cause problems in the future. The feet are also polished stainless steel which I have found to be quite expensive to have machined and polished, I'm not sure what alternative material would give the same look for less cost though.

For anyone that's interested I drew the Trompe L'oeil image by hand then had it scanned and laser cut in a variety of veneers. What I got back from my laser cutter was a whole bunch of little baggies of parts that needed to be sorted into color and size and assembled into the background pieces. This proved to be quite time consuming because I mistakenly made many of the parts similar in size and shape which prolonged the assembly process unnecessarily. Live and learn, next time the pieces will be reshaped to not be so interchangeable.

Here is the image partly assembled. I had enough parts cut to make two different images, one is still partly assembled and I haven't decided what I'll be doing with it yet.

Here's another image of the pictures being roughly assembled on a copy of the drawing. At this point I'm just getting things together enough to see all the colors and switch out the ones that don't look correct. Thanks for looking and as always any comments or questions are welcome.