Playful design and materials experiments applied to a utilitarian object

Our old water heater cabinet, after years of my attempted fixes, finally needed replacement. It is located in a corner with poor drainage, and so I wanted to use materials that are resistant to rust and rot.

Seizing this as a (small) design opportunity, I tried a million different ideas, trying to break away from the old  design. Ultimately, I failed. The area is just too constricted between the back steps, window and plants. I came back to the same shed roof cabinet design .

I settled on trex composite decking for the frame and cement board siding, because they are impervious to rot and termites. Fasteners are stainless steel when available, otherwise galvanized steel, for resistance to rust. There is no wood in the cabinet.

One thing I did change was the colors. We selected very bright colors, as a preview of how we plan to repaint our house.

Somewhere along the way, I decided that the peaked roof of the cabinet kind of resembled a cat’s ear. We decided to add a cat’s eye, nose and whiskers to the front, creating a cat’s face-or at least half of one. Lisa suggested using materials from our garden. We used round river rocks for the eye and nose, bamboo for the whiskers. I made wire “settings” for the rocks, similar to how diamonds are set in jewelry. We also wanted sort of a grab-bar on the side, to help going up and down the stairs. We added a long piece of bamboo that resembles a cat’s tail.

A water pipe enters the cabinet on the side. I wanted to make a cover plate for the hole. In it, a cat’s head emerges from the trim to bite the pipe. This is a nod to our cat, who can be a little bite-y at times.

Photos, from the top:

Finished cabinet

Manipulated photo, showing the full cat’s face and bamboo tail

Cat face detail, showing rock eye and nose, and bamboo whiskers

Biting cat cover plate