This is a little embarrassing, but I've been working on this cabinet for (maybe?) five years.  I remember what inspired it - I'd purchased a small stained glass panel from my friend Gayle, and thought it would look great in a cabinet door.

So I built the door. 

It had some tricky things going on - mostly that the grain of the wood wasn't oriented in a traditional direction. 

Assembling wood grains perpendicular to each another is often a recipe for disaster, so I built the door and let it rest. 

And rest.

And rest even longer.

Five years of resting... 

 It wasn't like I was sitting around, waiting for it to crack. Life got in the way, and it was put on a shelf. I'd look at it every so often. One thing I've learned - wood does what it wants to do, regardless of what we want it to do!

And finally - three things happened. 

One - I decided it had rested long enough, and it was stable. It was ready to have a cabinet built around it.  

Two -  I was tired of having it dangle around in my brain - and worrying that it would be damaged. 

And three -  I decided that this tall narrow cabinet was perfect for holding the Martin backpacker guitar that I'd purchased. So I built a cabinet for it. 

I'd long since used Gayle's glass panel in something else, so that wasn't an option. But I love little spy holes in doors, and the small "window" in the door was perfect for spying on the cabinet's contents. 

I struggled with the hanger - I'd purchased one, and didn't really like it. So I looked at different hangers when the light went off in my brain. 

Duh! 

Make one. 

It is perfect. 

A simple French cleat on the back simplifies hanging it. And...

BOOM! 

A new cabinet for the house!