Chest of Drawers

Thursday December 16, 2021

The third semester project at the Vermont Woodworking School is a chest of drawers. There are two main goals in this semester; learn web frame construction and get used to doing a lot of work. Most people try to go big during this semester and build a dresser or a vanity. I, in my quest for tedium and minutiae, built the smallest chest of drawers on record to house my fountain pens. The web frames are only 3/8" thick!

The renders

This is my magnum opus of rendering (though I wish it were a bit brighter). I’m happy to say the final product turned out almost exactly as I had designed it - due in part to my better Blender skills - but also to having a complete and cohesive design from the beginning.

The real thing

Because I wasn’t going big on scale I instead went big on details. The case for this piece is constructed from sapele with hand cut mitered dovetails. It features five walnut drawers with single entry dovetails, satinwood applied drawer faces, and turned walnut pulls. The drawer interiors are lined with red velvet. The biggest point of interest in this piece is the tambour door on the right side. It is also made from satinwood with a matching walnut pull. As I mentioned in my cabinet post, I wanted to redeem my previous mediocre shellac finish. Fittingly, the entire chest including the tambour (wow, was that finicky) is french polished.

This was probably my favorite project at the school.

Tags: wood