Spackle & Sawdust

A few months back, we learned that we were expecting our third child. My wife, the youngest of five kids, is adamant that this child have their very own crib and dresser. Who am I to argue? A couple weeks ago we learned it was a boy - so, I set off to design and build a “masculine” dresser.

Inspiration

My first step was to review some of my favorite projects on lumberjocks.com. I’ve added references to these projects at the end of this post. They’re all excellent…check ‘em out!

Perspiration

With those pieces in mind, I set out to design the new dresser. Here’s my current Sketchup rendering:

The light colored wood represents cherry and the dark, walnut. I spent some time debating reversing the side panels, that is, using walnut for the frame and cherry for the raised panel. This seems somehow more “right” since it more closely echos the drawer/face frame arrangement of the front. Howver, I just didn’t like the look as well. Feel free to tell me if you think otherwise! Also, since I enjoyed the “hand cut dovetail” process so much on the kid’s bench project, I figured I’d do a whole bunch of ‘em for the drawers. I’d never really considered using through dovetails for drawers, but I liked the look of them so well on the design references below, I figured I’d give ‘em a try here!

Decisions Remain

I’m still unsure what I want to use for pulls. I’m nearly positive that I will be crafting them in the shop out of hardwood…but I’m still looking for just the right design. Anyone have any ideas? Also, as with most of my pieces, I intend to customize this one with an inlay or two. I’m still unsure of the “what” and “where” at this point. I’m considering a pattern that cuts across a number of drawer fronts — but with the child due to arrive in early November, that may simply be too much to finish in time!

Google SketchUp!

Here’s my SketchUp drawing for anyone who’s interested in playing with it.

I’ve yet to cut my first board and wholeheartedly welcome any suggestions, comments or criticisms (preferably constructive ).

cherrywalnutdresser.skp

Design References

There are many examples of inspiring design and craftsmanship on lumberjocks.com. Here are the ones I used while working on my design. Thanks, guys!

Just after our second child, Sean, was born, my parents came out for a visit. While they were here, my mother mentioned that she was planning to purchase a toddler step for my niece, Samantha. Apparently this has become something of a tradition for her. I promptly nixed that idea, insisting that I build one for her instead. 18mos. later, during another visit with my folks, I was reminded that the bench was yet to be delivered. Sigh.

The past two weekends I managed to scrape together enough hours to complete this simple bench/step. As my niece’s middle name is “Rose”, the plan was to inlay a rose into the top. I’ve done very few hand cut* dovetails, so I figured I’d also take this opportunity to gain some practice. And while I’ve incorporated inlays into a number of my previous pieces, I always welcome the chance to gain some additional experience there as well. So a rather simple, blocky design was born. While it won’t likely win any design contests, I found cutting and fine tuning the dovetails very relaxing. It was also quite satisfying to assemble.
The sides are walnut, the top, is cherry. The inlaid rose petals are bloodwood and the stem is zebrawood. The finish is Watco Danish Oil, natural.

(*full disclosure: by “hand cut” I mean using a bandsaw and chisels instead of a router template. If it’s good enough for David Marks…)

UPDATE:

I decided it needed a couple top coats of a tung oil-based finish. This added a medium sheen to the piece and I think improved the look dramatically. I’ve replaced a couple of the older pics with the new ones below:

This project on my lumberjocks.com page: