Design and Construction

The design of any project of this nature requires a balance of considerations. The unique nature of this project: a child's bed with a projected sale price of $75,000 required continuous consideration for a balance between the elaborateness of the design and the refinement of the workmanship. The economics look like this: for a given price, the less elaborate the design, the more refinement of workmanship that can be afforded. Granted the asking price necessitates a high level of quality control. However because the bed is intended for a little girl, the degree of refinement required is not the same as if the piece was intended for some one's living room. This consideration is what allowed for the elaborateness of the design that was arrived at. It is the design of the bed and the extraordinary degree of technical difficulty that is overcome in order to accomplish the design that sets this piece apart and grants its value.

My first design objective was to reduce the obviousness of the pumpkin. I sought to create first, the appearance of a carriage, preserving the pumpkin theme more by suggestion and less by solid geometry. I accomplished this by opening up the coach and completing the pumpkin shape above, with lines defined only by the ribs supporting the canopy.

I attempted to preserve whenever possible, the storybook theme of its pumpkin patch origin. To do this, I created a mixture of organic and elegant shapes. The ribs that support the canopy and define the pumpkin's geometry above were carved to depict the deeply ridged stems of pumpkins as they rise up from the voluted window sills.

I made an attempt to incorporate shapes that are familiar to little girls: the hearts that adorn the wheel spokes, the moons supporting the driver's seat and of course, the flower petal canopy. There was originally an intention to elaborate with detail, the butterfly wing shapes that are formed on the sides of the driver's seat. The details were omitted when it became clear that the labor on the project was going to exceed what was reasonable to ask compensation for. As a result, it might require some imagination for some people to recognize the butterflies.

The tear drop shape that forms the entries is also reflected at the drivers seat backrest.

The bulging contours that define the pumpkin shape on the carriage sides represent a stubborn refusal in the design process to compromise the design for sake of managing the technical difficulty of construction. Their successful completion was an accomplishment that would be difficult to duplicate.

The finished product deviates little from the original drawings, except the the canopy was originally drawn as an upholstered reflection of the pumpkin shape that presents below on the carriage. The mock up looked to me like an acorn cap and I replaced it with the flower petal shapes that allowed me to project the canopy outward to overhang the window sills below.

Please feel free to ask if you would like anything else about this bed elaborated on. I plan to write a little bit about the construction of the bed in the next article.