Small Oak Bookcase, with Mission inspired details

[Art Mulder]

Here is a small bookcase that I completed in January.

It started when I came across some lovely 5/4 clear red oak lumber for a great price. I'd been wanting to design a bookcase for the Living Room, and this lumber was it. The thick 5/4 pieces allowed me some design room. So I made the sides and top a full 1" thick, the shelves a more conventional 3/4" thick, and resawed some of the boards in half and planed them down to a slender 3/8" thick for a shiplapped back.

I like Mission and used some of it's stylings in this piece, with the corbels under the top. As well I find that the vertical lines in the sides to me seem to fit with with the theme.

The design in Sketchup...
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Closeup of the arched bottom...
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I've never made a shiplap back before...
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Gluing the corbels into place...
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And the finished piece...
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Thanks for looking,
...art

More photos and a few more details on my webpage (http://www.wordsnwood.com/2009/oakbookcase/).

[Don Bullock]

Art, that's a great project. I just archived the pictures for my "great idea" file. Thanks for posting the detailed pictures on the webpage. I especially like the detail on the sides.

[John Keeton]

Now, I like that! What did you use for the vertical cuts in the sides?

[Glenn Clabo]

Nice work Art. From design...to completion...you nailed it.

[Joe Cunningham]

Wow Art, that turned out great. I love how you have the sketchup design and then a photo of the piece in the final location. They look so similar--design to execution. I think I need to spend more time in the design phase for my projects, usually I just have an idea in my head that I sketch out. So far they come pretty close, but never quite *this* close.

I think that would look good next my home office desk filled with my computer books. About how many bd ft. of 5/4 did this take? I am finishing up a table project and looking to my next one, and a bookcase like this would be perfect.

[Jim Kountz]

Art, nice job I really like the piece!! I love the mission style stuff!!

[Jason Tuinstra]

Art, what a great project. Nice details, lines and execution. Great job! It looks plenty sturdy.

[Joe Chritz]

I like it.

The thicker sides add a nice design touch over what would normally be done with a face frame, I looks much cleaner your way.

I haven't done a shiplap back either but now that I have ability to resaw without going to another shop I will start. Everytime I buy 1/4 plywood I tell myself I never will again.

Joe

[GERALD HARGROVE]

Very nice. Great detail and on the book case.

[Art Mulder]

Now, I like that! What did you use for the vertical cuts in the sides?

Well the shallow cuts are a 1/32nd" deep cut on the table saw.
The deep ones along the center are on the router table with a V-bit


Wow Art, that turned out great. I love how you have the sketchup design and then a photo of the piece in the final location. They look so similar--design to execution. I think I need to spend more time in the design phase for my projects, usually I just have an idea in my head that I sketch out. So far they come pretty close, but never quite *this* close.

I think that would look good next my home office desk filled with my computer books. About how many bd ft. of 5/4 did this take? I am finishing up a table project and looking to my next one, and a bookcase like this would be perfect.

Joe, I never keep track of stuff like that, sorry.

And I'm using Sketchup more and more. Some projects I just see in my head and go. Others, like this one, where I poke and poke (and poke!) at a design for a few months, really benefit from having it in sketchup.

And I've found it really helps me to try and roughly sketch out the location also. So I can envision better just what it will look like it's final location.

For instance, last year I used this sketch...
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... when planning out a small table to go alongside a chair in our LR. In that case I was fortunate to be able to find a chair model on the net -- I wasn't really interested in having to draw out a chair! But having it in the sketch helped me work through a few ideas before settling on one.

(though to be honest, in that situation I also made a very rough cardboard box/shape to see how it would fit in the actual Living Room.)


Art, what a great project. Nice details, lines and execution. Great job! It looks plenty sturdy.
Thanks, Jason. It sure is sturdy. Heavy too. All that red oak, and the extra thickness in the sides and top. I was rather startled the first time I tried to pick up the whole thing. :eek:

It's kind of weird, but I've almost never worked with red oak. When I was a kid, my dad (a carpenter, not a fine woodworker) used oak oak oak, whenever he built something for the house. And there was oak oak oak, everywhere out there for storebought furniture as well. So when I started Woodworking myself, I just kind of stayed away from oak, since I was sort of tired of it. As a hobbiest I haven't got a huge volume of work, but I did tend to use mostly Cherry, and sometimes Cherry/Maple, in a lot of projects. But almost never Oak.

I wasn't even that keen on buying this oak when I saw the deal. But the price was good, and when I saw how lovely the wood was.... :D;)

Thanks for the kind comments!
...art

[Jim Becker]

Nice work, Art!

[Brent Ring]

Great Job Art!