Last summer a customer asked
me to design and build a Victorian-
style cupola for a renovation
project. The features he
wanted included round-top shutters,
a curved hip roof coming to a peak,
and a means of fastening a weathervane
at the peak.
The base of the cupola was
framed, sheathed, and trimmed in
conventional fashion, but rather
than build custom round-top shutters,
we agreed to use stock rectangular
shutters and overlay the
curved trim. The real challenge lay
in framing the roof .
We experimented with full-scale
mock-ups to find the appropriate
size and bend of the rafters. The
common rafters are arcs of a circle
with a 7-foot radius. The hip rafters
are a bit trickier because they are
elliptical.