Least I should forget to mention this later, doing an EM:HE house is not for the faint of heart.  The schedule is ridiculous; things change constantly; on site working conditions are poor; and failure, for any reason, is not an option.

Line drawing of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition house for Girard family in Voluntown, CT.

Project Scope: The EM:HE room was for a little girl named Hannah.  Her father nicknamed her Snowflake and that was to be the theme of the room.  Billy and I met to explore what could be developed for the room.  I brought about two dozen 8 x 10 pictures of other projects I had done.  I selected the pictures to try to show as many different types of CNC work as possible.  One never knows what might “click” in a customer’s imagination.  Billy spent quite a bit of time looking at each picture and asked questions about several.  I always feel better when a customer asks questions.  It shows that they are willing to communicate openly.

Since I knew the theme was snowflakes, I also brought some clip art of snowflakes.  Billy wanted a table with snowflakes cut into the skirt.  He drew a couple of curves showing what the skirt should look like and where the snowflake should be.  He then asked if I could do an oversized snowflake headboard that would be the focal point for the room as well as false shutters with snowflakes.

I asked if they had a drawing of the room.  Billy had a line drawing of the overall house (below).  Hannah’s room was part of one of the towers.  Not having an actual drawing was going to haunt us later.  I went back home to start the design process.

Fabrication Notes: Designing Billy’s table was straight forward.  The only challenge was that it was going to be made of ¾” MDF which meant the legs needed special attention to make them strong enough for a child’s room and still elegant.  Billy reviewed the perspective preview below and the table was ready for final design details.

Design for table with snowflake.

Shape chosen for snowflake pattern.

We went through several snowflake designs but finally settled on the one below.  It is almost 7 feet across and it was a compromise of level of detail, strength, and machine time to cut it.

We finally got a dimensioned, detail drawing of the room.  Much to our surprise, there were five windows instead of three and there was very little wall space.  We still didn’t know how tall the windows were going to be because the special order windows were being produced at the same time that we were making the furniture.  Since we didn’t know how tall the windows were going to be we could only make oversize “panels” for the false shutters and cut them to size on site.

The placement of the windows, and the need to get good video footage of Hannah as she opened the door to her room, dictated the location of the bed and the size of the headboard..  A toy chest behind the headboard provided storage, a place to sit in front of the window, and a solid anchor for the 60lb snowflake.

Preview drawing of headboard in 3D.

The use of preview drawings was key to making the design, fabrication, and install happen over a period of just a few days.  It allowed all of the stake holders to see what was happening, when it was happening.

The results were spectacular but not “over the top” like some EM:HE rooms.  Billy got what he wanted from the CNC work and he blended it into the rest of the room.  His selection of additional furniture, accessories and colors made the room “pop”.  Hannah got a dream bedroom.