More than doors: glass metal factory doors by us

A lot of you have asked about some glass doors we made for a jeweler in Toronto, and we are pleased to inform you that we custom make these as well.

Inspired by old factory doors, our glass metal factory doors mix the new with the old and bring it into your space, whether it be Brooklyn or a Toronto condo. In addition to the steel frame, each door lite (the glass panel component) has two glass stoppers that are hand welded from steel. Made by hand using original techniques and careful craftsmanship, this labour intensive process makes an authentic finished product.

Glass metal factory doors

Take a look at these glass metal factory doors we recently made for Ringcometrue in Toronto (right). Hand welded from steel in our South Etobicoke studio, we customize these doors to match your vision as well as your space.

2-in-1 glass divider

Below, our glass metal factory door separates a home office from the play room.

our sliding glass doors separate the home office from a play room while maintaining an open concept layout.

We worked on a home office for Toronto jeweller, Ringcometrue! As always, these doors are made in our studio in South Etobicoke, hand welded from steel. Each of the multiple lites (glass panels) are welded into glass stoppers on both sides.

We also made these glass metal factory doors for Gelinas Dental Studio in Roncesvalles. Owner Andrea Gelinas went to great lengths to create a comfortable yet chic atmosphere for her patients. We think her dental studio is so beautiful and we are thrilled we could help her accomplish this.

If you wish to divide a space, look into our custom glass-metal divider. It can create a new layout without closing your space or losing your light source. And beautiful lighting is good for many things: great photographs, positive vibes and your vitamin D intake.

Before and after: glass-metal divider

before

after

after

We didn’t want to lose the sunshine from the beautiful view in this condo, so our glass divider creates a “den” while keeping an open concept feel. Complete with styling by the amazing The Property Stylist!

If you want us to make something for you, email us at info@1925workbench.com with a picture of your space and your location. We will be in touch. 

To see more, find us on Instagram: @1925workbench

WE'RE HIRING!

We are a maker studio, specializing in making doors and furniture out of solid wood, as well as making hardware for the sliding doors. We are a fast-paced environment. Looking a person who is meticulous, has good work ethics, and a desire to learn.

Position: FINISHER with 2 plus years experience.

Job description:

-sanding: using belt sander, rotary sander, by hand

-applying finishing such as paint in spray booth, stained, urethane, oil finishes

-other tasks relating to making of doors and hardware, and that will be trained as work progresses

Interested candidates: Please email your resume to info@1925workbench.com with the subheading “For Hire: Finisher”. We look forward to reviewing your resume. Please do not call.

Our brick and mortar. This is where you’ll be coming to work.

Where do you see our new works now?

Instagram has been so great to post our new works as we work on them. It’s where you’ll see all our new and exciting projects. Join us there! https://www.instagram.com/1925workbench/ So many new things to see!!

An Entry door unit we made for a home in Stoufville, Ontario. White oak with clear finish.

News on our Single Track Bypass Hardware!

As you know, our single track bypass hardware is patent pending for utility patent, and the news is that we're almost there with having it granted! Stay tune for the official news. 

The utility patent different from that of a design patent. In our case, the utility patent is on the concept of having two doors bypassing on one track instead of two tracks. Anyone trying to make two doors bypass on the same track using similar ideas, even if it doesn't look like ours, would be infringing on the patent. A design patent is how something looks, one would have to copy that design exactly to be infringing. What we have would be the utility patent.

our stainless steel single track bypass on panel, chevron, pink doors we made to turn the back part of this basement a bedroom! 

We developed the Single Track Bypass Hardware because the double track one is too bulky looking. The balance between the hardware and the doors are lost. The heaviness of the hardware would be weighing on your eyes until you don't see the doors anymore :) The single track would create a cleaner profile, and less hardware to look at, or to tackle with. 

This image is from our studio. The Single Track Bypass Hardware seen here in the raw steel finish, Heavy Metal style. 

Our solid brass Single Track Bypass Hardware on doors that were wrapped in Kate Golding's Sumac wallpaper www.kategolding.ca Wallpaper produced by WYNIL www.wynil.com The amazing wallpaper installer here is Rod Dunn www.roderikdunn.com

We have three main finishes for our hardware: Raw steel, stainless steel, and solid brass. In the raw steel, there are two styles, the Heavy Metal with straight hangers and arrowhead, with arrowhead hangers! Upon request, we can do a powder coated black on the raw steel hardware. 

All our hardware are MADE IN CANADA and are made by us! We are grateful for all the support from our communities in Canada and the USA. Let's keep it local! We like it that way! 

Our new studio! Showroom and workshop

In June 2016, we found a charming white building in South Etobicoke that used to be a machine shop. The building belonged to the same family for 60 years. It was perfect for our brick and mortar, with the showroom in the front and the workshop in the back. 

The building came with this cute door cover in the front, and we thought it would be nice to have "wallpaper" painted on the inside of it. Because 1925Workbench started from our house, it would be a homey thing to do. We worked with Make Good Design and the result is fabulous!

We decided to paint our name really big on the wall in light grey so that it's like a watermark on the building. it also helps with finding us. in our last location, no one can ever find where we were!

We then set out to make every door, hardware and pieces of furniture you see in all the images here.

As you enter the building through the mustard yellow door (which we also made), you'll see our showroom, it's minimal with colour. It's a place where I (My Le) love to spend time to work. We love plants, and on the left corner of this picture is our Guava plant we had for 6 years.

We made the nun table and bench you see here for the Interior Design Show 2016. It is made completely of solid white oak, including the drawer boxes. The pink door was also made for IDS2016,

Beyond the white oak doors on the left is the workshop, it's where the white walls and minimalism stop, and the chaos of creation begins. The photographs on the walls are my own. We aim to blend art and design, function and aesthetics. The black frame here are windows that belong to a large black door made of ebonized oak.

Here is a larger view for context. We've made movable walls so that if we wanted to change the layout in the future that it is possible. the wall with the yellow door here creates a section for bed. see in the next few posts.

Here is our platform bed inside made of reclaimed wood. The left wall are electrical panels from the machine shop before us. we decided to leave them on the wall and paint them all white as an installation and to reclaim a piece of the building's history.

View of the electrical panels. it is my favorite part of the showroom.

my little work station using the walnut credenza. you'll see in the pictures below of the before, the space was slightly different.

The big ebonized oak door slides on the I-beam that goes across the room. The windows open too, and that's what you saw in the picture above.

One view from the yellow doors where you see the daybed made of white oak, inspired by mid-day naps in Vietnam.

Here is looking to the showroom from the workshop. Photograph on wall is my my le nguyen.

This is the before of the spot where the pink doors and walnut doors are now.

There's that wall with all the electrical panels that we painted white along with the rest of the space. Each of these control a machine in the old shop. They are now art for our showroom, taking back some history of the building.

A more complete angle of the showroom before we did anything. I still love that industrial look. But it's a tranquil place now for quiet work and for our clients to come discuss their project.

Tall white oak

We recently finished solid white oak slabs doors for a third floor master bedroom in Riverdale, Toronto. These doors cover each of the openings on this floor: top of staircase, walk-in closet, bathroom, and the bedroom. A paradise in your own home. 

This house was designed and built by ModernKind Inc

The New NXL Architects playground

I had a little visit with the new NXL Architect office a few days ago at 31 Scarsdale Rd. 

We made the sliding doors that covers almost the entire strip of the office's right side where the board rooms are. We even made the sliding hardware specifically for these doors as they were quite heavy being 2-1/4" thick of Baltic birch plywood with fluted glass panels.

I couldn't be more happy to see such a beautiful office that seems more like a playground as it was done so thoughtfully and creatively. We are so proud to have worked on this project. 

The note book on the shelf above belongs to the principal architect's father. Four doors were installed for the large board room. Two are stationary on each side, while two slides in a bi-parting manner to open and close. 

A more frontal view of the board room with the four doors. These doors slide on the existing I-beam!

The other set of doors is for a smaller think room. I felt like I was going back through time seeing this room amidst the modern, clean lines of the entire office.  

I took this picture of Rock while he worked on getting the doors installed months ago while NXL was under construction. Light through fluted glass is so beautiful. 

We made the hardware specially for these doors since they have to slide on the I-beam which had a thicker flat track. The wheels are metal instead of nylon to bear the weight of the doors. 

During under construction. Amazing what the space looks like now. 

Debuting our Library Ladder hardware.

We did a custom library ladder hardware while building a 16' high shelving for a client. We've been asked before but always said no. We're finally coming out of our no to library ladders and here it is! ***Click on link below to go to a video

https://www.instagram.com/p/BMiL-dSD07o/?taken-by=1925workbench

View fullsize

We built this wall unit along with the ladder and the coffee table. The library ladder hardware debuted with this project. 

Our New Studio!

We've been hiding from our website updates because we've been tied up with getting our new studio ready! I'm excited to say we've moved to South Etobicoke,  to a larger studio, with many new things including this website, and our new wordmark both designed by Brian Tran from www.seamulberry.com

Stay tune for more updates on our new studio! Our address is now 198 30th Street, Etobicoke, M8W.3C5

Breezeway largely made of Douglas Fir

When our client wanted to build another house beside their house for their son's family, they wanted a breezeway that would connect the two houses. But they didn't want to cover up the view or access to the backyard. So the solution is to put two large barndoors across the openings.

House&Home magazine Fall2015 small space issue features our house!

We had so much fun doing the photo shoot with House&Home. Kai and Morgan were so good at making our place look fantastic (that's right, our house don't normally look like this). Thank you Virginia and Sara for photographing our house in the best light!

1925Workbench is in Toronto Life anual Best of the City

We are really excited about this!

New! Our signature walnut stools!!

We are excited to launch our new solid walnut piece, the loveable and sturdy walnut stools!! It comes in 2 heights, 18" and 9" It is perfect for that occasional seating, side table, or an accent piece. It be used as stools for a dining set, or console. We use the little one as a stepping stool for our toddlers in the bathroom, it looks great!

Please inquire for pricing and sizes.

An old factory loft becomes homey with the barn door transformation

And old factory in New Market has been turned info beautiful living lofts. But what is missing in these lofts are the real barn doors that truly transforms the space. We retrofitted three openings in this two-bedroom unit, two openings with double doors, and one single door closet, and home couldn't be cozier.

This solid rift-cut white oak bed will have you seeing paradise birds

Paradise is not too far fetched here in the Regent Park condominium complex. Not if you've got a solid rift-cut oak bed on your side. Take a look for yourself and tell me you don't see paradise birds.

The coolest house in Windsor to date

Our client just sent these pictures in. We made and shipped these doors and hardware to Windsor, and now that they are installed, they've taken over all the attention in the city.

Sporting Life Ottawa received 4 barn doors for Christmas

Now that we are in July and it's so hot, it makes me think about the bitterly cold day of December 1st when Sporting life Ottawa received 4 early Christmas gifts, 2 in red and 2 in black. The cottage feel that Sporting Life is known for has just top the scale once these four doors were installed.

A gorgeous nursery in Parkdale

Somewhere in the hip Parkdale nestles a beautiful home with a lovingly put-together nursery for a baby boy.

Chicago panel walnut doors installed in Toronto Loft

Wanting to add a classic beauty to the trendy loft, our client wanted the Chicago walnut doors to stand guard his bedroom. What a lovely choice.

The walnut live edge desk for a newly revived home office

The waterfall edge is stunning with a live edge walnut piece because it actually does look like water is falling. This was made using one continuous solid piece of live edge walnut. The corner is mitered for that seamless fall.

Need I say again? Walnut, walnut, walnut. We can't have enough walnut. It is timeless beauty.

Set against the white built-in cabinetry and the grey tones rug, the walnut desk with raw steel legs really pops.

This is the view coming into the front door on your left side. Our client were thinking of putting a navy blue chair with this, I think it would look gorgeous because of that nice contrast between the deep blue and the yellow/brown warmth of the walnut, against a neutral backdrop. 

A closer look at the live edge. This would also work nicely as a mantle, or a simple kitchen island.

View from the dining room area looking into the the home office

Another look !