Sad Valley

We nearly lost our minds when Tomcat Design and Build showed us the creative deck for this new death themed bar they were working on in NE Portland. The acid-trip-at-a-funeral-home vibes made me feel like I was at home in East Austin and the creative details of the booths were really exciting for me to help engineer. When the owner Jeremy came to pick out fabrics and told us he wanted something sparkly, we knew the perfect choice - Polaris by Futura Vinyl. We picked out some coordinating solid for the seats and got started engineering.

The build involved two circle booths that were inset in these rooms. One of the easiest options to make this happen would be to build the booths inside the room and add upholstery later - however working on site is really inefficient in our trade. There are so many tools and supplies and so much sewing that it really would be more efficient (and cheaper) for us to build these cabinets offsite in modular pieces. However - how to you build a circle in multiple pieces and still make sure that each component will fit through a standard door opening? If you can separate it into small enough pieces - how do you minimize seams in a way that are both logical and aesthetically pleasing. With carpentry you can mask seams with trim or caulk and paint to hide these seams, however with fabric these are not an option.

I began sketching out the blocked forms in Sketchup, and then created a block the size of the door opening I could use to decide possible ways to separate these cabinets. I was able to separate the cabinets into four pieces. However when they were assembled it would just look like two sides. When we finished and installed, everything fit perfectly!

Visit Sad Valley at 832 N Killingsworth St, Portland, OR 97217