Shaker-inspired vanity

[mater]

That is beautiful work. It looks great.

[ChrisD]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

JR, the choice of white oak was somewhat arbitrary. It's what I already had. I did select the straightest-grained boards as I thought it was a nice contrast to the figure on the primary material.

Bill, I have seen your work. I'm the one who should be asking YOU to come to Chicago and build furniture for my kids' rooms!

Keith, Alex: I think I liked the process of constructing that front piece more than the actual outcome. It was the only task in this project where I had the steps written down to make sure I did not mess up the sequence.

Ken, I'll take full credit for having the guts to wield a dovetail saw at those drawer fronts that I had taken so much care in cutting out of the front apron.

Karen, I was happy just to be able to say that in a way, I used woodworking to fix a plumbing problem. The holy fear of caulk can be a powerful motivator!

Kevin, the sink was LOML's choice and the first design decision made in the whole renovation project. The green tint drove the choice of tiles on the floor, in the shower stall, and pretty much the rest of the colors in the room.

Paul: my son and I had spent almost a half hour looking through walnut boards (which I thought were dark enough for the look that I was going for) before I noticed the panga panga. It is quite brittle but machines very well; virtually no tear-out. Most hardwoods generate chips when power-planed; this one generates powder. Hand-planing it was a different story though. I could not get good curlies no matter how light my cuts were. I'm quite sure it was a technique problem.

[John Hunter]

Very nice.

[Josh Hill]

Great Work!

Chris, this is fantastic!

The hand-cut half-blinds are fantastic! Great work, my friend; and the finish came out BEAUTIFULLY! Great call!

God bless and keep the sawdust flying!
Josh

[Hallagan]

That is a beauty! Some fine craftsmanship! Nice job.

Corey

[jabe]

Great work! Good design, can you post pictures of the drain?

[ChrisD]

Great work! Good design, can you post pictures of the drain?

Here you go (a little sawdusty)...

[Howard]

How did you cut the drawers out of the single board also used as the apron? Are they ripped and crosscut to size and then reglued together to create the apron and drawer fronts separately? If so, how did you join the pieces back together? I'm glad nobody considers a question to be a dumb question on this site. It just isn't obvious to me...

[ChrisD]

Howard,
I did it exactly as you described in your question below. The detailed steps:
1.) I ripped the original board into three pieces on the bandsaw for minimum kerf and grain pattern disruption.
2.) I very lightly jointed the edges that were to be glued back together -- just enough to yield square and true edges. You don't want to lose a lot of stock.
3.) I crosscut the middle strip into 5 pieces, 2 of which were for the drawer fronts.
4.) I glued the pieces back together to resemble the original board but with the drawer fronts cut out. I did use the drawer fronts as a layout guide to determine the distances between the pieces in the middle strip. To glue up, I laid the pieces on a wax-paper lined MDF board (for flatness) and used F-clamps. No biscuits or anything, just a simple butt joint.
5.) Once the glue set, I crosscut it to length and cut the tenons.
6.) The back apron was much less complicated to make so it was done only after the front piece was complete. There was definitely a much higher chance of messing up the dimensions while building the front piece.

I tried to shoot for a uniform 1/32" gap around the drawer front, but I'll get it closer on the next job! Look up Gary's Library Desk and you'll see what I mean: http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=22709

[dlminehart]

Love the vanity! Rather oxymoronic, though, given the humility of the Shakers!

[SHADOWFOX]

Great work, Chris!!