A hand-carved walnut cabinet for rooms that need one thing nobody else can have. Ebonized oak relief doors on an unlacquered brass base, carved once and never repeated, specified for lobbies, host stands and back bars. Built to order in our Chicago workshop.
Built in Chicago
Lifetime warranty
Final approval before delivery
Nationwide white-glove installation
Hospitality interiors are full of furniture that can be ordered twice. The Noir cannot. Every door panel is carved by hand, so the relief pattern in your lobby exists in one property and nowhere else. It is a walnut cabinet with ebonized oak doors on an unlacquered brass base, and it is specified when a room needs a piece guests stop and look at.
A catalog casegood is a known quantity: your designer can specify it, and so can the hotel across the street. The Noir is carved once. The pattern is developed with your design team before work begins and is never repeated for another client. In a category where differentiation is the whole job, an object that is genuinely unrepeatable is worth more than one that merely looks expensive.
The carcass is solid walnut throughout, not veneer over plywood. The figure varies board to board, from straight grain to the sweeping movement older walnut carries. The door and drawer faces are solid white oak, carved in relief and then ebonized, which drives black into the grain rather than laying it on the surface, so the texture of the carving and the depth of the color read together.
The base is brass, left unlacquered. In a residence that means it warms slowly toward the walnut. In a lobby or a restaurant, where the piece is touched and cleaned daily, it will patina faster and less evenly, and that is the honest trade for a living finish. If a property wants the brass to stay bright, we lacquer it and say so up front.
The proportions suit a lobby credenza, a restaurant host stand, a back bar, a private dining room, or a retail point of sale. At sixty inches wide and twenty-nine high the top carries what the room needs it to and still reads as a piece of furniture rather than millwork. Dimensions are built to the wall and the opening.
Behind the carved fronts it is built as a working cabinet. Doors and drawers run on Blum TIP-ON BLUMOTION hardware, opening with a light press and drawing themselves closed, so there is no visible pull to interrupt the carving and nothing for a guest to catch. The drawers are dovetailed maple boxes, the interior carries adjustable shelving configured around what the piece will actually hold, and the back panel is veneered plywood for stability. For hospitality installations we recommend the 2K polyurethane spray finish for the walnut, applied in our commercial spray booth, which stands up to daily cleaning.
A property rarely needs one. Host stand, back bar, and lobby credenza can be carved as a related family, drawn together and delivered together, with the wood selected across the whole set so the pieces read as one commission rather than three purchases. Shop drawings and finish samples go to your designer or GC for approval before anything is carved.
The first Noir was built to hide a printer. Jerry Rodman was working at Hewlett Packard in Chicago and made it for his wife, and it turned out too good to be a printer cabinet. It became the first piece Statement Chicago ever put its name on.
Every Noir is carved once, by hand, and never repeated. For a hospitality commission that is the entire point: the pattern in your lobby will not exist in any other property, and it cannot be ordered by anyone else.
Every Noir is hand-carved, so every pattern is original and never repeated for another property. The pattern is developed with your design team before work begins.
Shelves, drawers, or a combination, configured around use: menus and POS for a host stand, glassware and bottles for a back bar, linens or collateral for a lobby piece. Power can be routed into the interior where a terminal or tablet needs it.
Unlacquered brass as shown, which will patina with handling. Lacquered brass is available where a property wants the finish to stay bright, and alternate metals can be specified.
Multiple pieces can be carved as a related family and drawn, quoted, and delivered together, with the wood selected across the whole set so the pieces read as one commission.
We collaborate with clients, designers, and architects, providing shop drawings and finish samples for review and approval and coordinating on materials, delivery access, and installation timing around a fit-out schedule.
The piece shown is 60 inches wide by 29 high by 19 deep. Dimensions are built to the wall and the opening.
Solid walnut carcass with ebonized white oak fronts as shown. Other species are available, though the contrast between warm walnut and black carved oak is the argument of the piece.
2K polyurethane spray finish applied in our commercial spray booth, recommended for hospitality installations. A hand rubbed oil finish using Odie's Universal Oil is available where the room allows for it.
Client Experience
“I can’t say enough about the quality, craftsmanship, and creativity that he puts behind all his pieces. They are in a class of their own.”
Custom furniture client, Chicago
A solid walnut cabinet with hand-carved ebonized oak doors on a brass base, specified for hospitality interiors: hotel lobbies, restaurant host stands, back bars, private clubs, and retail. Every door panel is carved once by hand, so no two are alike. Built to order in our Chicago workshop.
It is the same piece, specified for a public room. The Noir Relief Sideboard is our residential version. This page covers hospitality commissions: interiors configured for host stands and back bars, finishes chosen for daily cleaning, pieces carved as a matched family across a property, and shop drawings coordinated with your designer or GC.
Because a catalog casegood can be specified by anyone, including the property across the street. The Noir is carved once and the pattern is never repeated for another client, so the piece in your lobby is genuinely unrepeatable rather than merely expensive.
Noir commissions begin at $9,500 per piece. Final pricing depends on the dimensions, the carving, the interior configuration, and the finish. Multi-piece commissions for a property are drawn, quoted, and scheduled together.
Yes. A host stand, back bar, and lobby credenza can be carved as a related family, with the wood selected across the whole set so the pieces read as one commission rather than three separate purchases. The carving patterns relate to each other without repeating.
Yes, with the right finish. For hospitality installations we recommend the 2K polyurethane spray finish on the walnut, applied in our commercial spray booth, which stands up to daily cleaning. The doors and drawers run on Blum TIP-ON BLUMOTION hardware, so there is no exposed pull for a guest to catch.
It patinas, and faster than it would in a home, because the base is touched and cleaned every day. That is the honest trade for a living finish. If the property wants the brass to stay bright we lacquer it, and we raise that at specification rather than after installation.
The piece shown is 60 inches wide, 29 high, and 19 deep. Dimensions are built to the wall and the opening, and the proportions suit a lobby credenza, host stand, back bar, or point of sale.
Yes. Shelves, drawers, or a combination are configured around use, whether that is menus and a POS terminal, glassware and bottles, or collateral and linens. Power can be routed into the interior where a terminal or tablet needs it.
Ebonizing chemically blackens the wood by driving color into the grain rather than painting or staining the surface. The oak panels are ebonized after carving, so the relief texture and the black read together. It looks different from paint because it is.
The carcass is solid walnut throughout, not veneer over plywood. The door and drawer faces are solid white oak, carved and ebonized. The drawers are dovetailed maple boxes, the interior carries adjustable shelving, and the back panel is veneered plywood for stability.
Yes. We collaborate with clients, designers, and architects. We provide shop drawings and finish samples for review and approval before anything is carved, and coordinate on materials, delivery access, and installation timing around a fit-out schedule.
Build time is 10 to 12 weeks from the time the commission is confirmed and the deposit is received, covering carving, ebonizing, finishing, and quality review. Multi-piece commissions are scheduled in sequence, and we allow additional time up front for drawings and approvals.
The cabinet travels as one piece with the doors and drawers shipped separately, both to protect the hand-carved fronts in transit and to make the piece easier to move into the room. Our white glove delivery partners review the access path ahead of time and set the piece in place on site. We build, ship, and install nationwide.
Every piece that leaves Statement Chicago is built by Jerry Rodman, a furniture maker who has been in business for 11 years, and his team of four carpenters in our Chicago workshop. Jerry carves every Noir panel himself. The Noir was the first piece he built under his own name.
Custom boardroom furniture
Share the room dimensions, seating count, power and data requirements, and your target installation date. We will guide the proportions, material, engineering, and delivery.
