Building a Dresser

[Sean Troy]

Hi all, my daughter would like me to build her a new dresser. I'm thinking for once, I'd like to use plans and follow them. Any suggestions on where to get dresser plans and I might as well ask now, what kind and where to get drawer slides for the dresser? Thank you for any help, Sean

[Tom Jones III]

Pertaining to drawer slides I love NK style and I'll never use store bought slides for a chest of drawers again. Google on sawmill creek and you'll find several good explanations of NK style drawers.

[Justin Bukoski]

Sean, there are some dresser plans from one of the woodworking magazines on plansnow.com. I haven't built from them but they seem ok. I've been buying slides from gliderite for my shop cabinets (good prices but have to buy 10 packs). I prefer Blum slides for furniture projects that are higher end. I buy mine from Amazon.

[Joe A Faulkner]

For a dresser, I would build a web frame - wooden slides. Wax them with a good paste wax and your drawers will glide quite nicely. Visit some antique stores or second hand stores and examine the construction on some of these pieces. The web frame takes a bit longer to build, but in the end you will be pleased with the results.

[John Michaels]

I'm building a dresser from plans that I purchased from the web sit below. Very well written plans, and easy to understand. The plans call for wooden slides. but if you decide to purchase metal slides you can easily modify the drawer dimensions as needed.

http://www.furnitureplans.com/pi_products/1300

[Dave Verstraete]

I've had good luck with plans from Woodsmith. They have complete instructions to finish the project. Just a step at a time. I have used WOOD magazine and have been pleased with the results.

[Paul Murphy]

There are some nice plans in the book "Chests of Drawers", by Bill Hylton.

If you are going to use metal drawer slides, you might try the fancy undermount slides with the soft close feature. I tried the Accuride 3132EC, and planned my drawer construction around them. Blum and others make similar products, and FWW has an article on undermount slides in issue 198 pg 68.

[Sean Troy]

For a dresser, I would build a web frame - wooden slides. Wax them with a good paste wax and your drawers will glide quite nicely. Visit some antique stores or second hand stores and examine the construction on some of these pieces. The web frame takes a bit longer to build, but in the end you will be pleased with the results.
I'm still using a dresser that was my Grandfathers and made from what he called Hard Rock Maple.He used it as a child back in the late 1890's. I'll examine the construction.

[Ralph Okonieski]

I used a plan from Finewoodworking.com. Search for "Cherry Chest of Drawers". Membership is required to view the plan.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/PlansAndProjects/PlansAndProjectsPDF.aspx?id=2915

Here are two pics of mine. I'm not much of a photographer. It was a challenge for my skill level but am very happy with the end result.

[Sean Troy]

Nice job Ralph !

[Jacob Mac]

If you like the style, "Building Period Furniture" by Glen Huey is fantastic. If nothing else, it shows some nice techniques for building dresser drawers.

[Van Huskey]

Pertaining to drawer slides I love NK style and I'll never use store bought slides for a chest of drawers again. Google on sawmill creek and you'll find several good explanations of NK style drawers.

I also highly recommend NK "en-co" drawers. They make so much more sense and work very well.

[Alex Berkovsky]

Pertaining to drawer slides I love NK style and I'll never use store bought slides for a chest of drawers again. Google on sawmill creek and you'll find several good explanations of NK style drawers.Tom,
I saw you tutorial a while back on NK style drawers and used them on my dresser. I am sold.

Sean,
I bought the dresser plans from Wood Magazine and now building a matching night stand.

http://www.woodstore.net/dresser.html

[Sean Troy]

Shaker style is what my daughter likes as well as my wife. Looks like it will be Shaker style.

[Jerome Hanby]

Shaker style is what my daughter likes as well as my wife. Looks like it will be Shaker style.


I think Norm built a a pretty forward Shaker style dresser It my be in his book Mostly Shaker. Think I picked up my copy for a dollar or two plus the four dollar s&h from an Amazon affiliate...

Just checked, it's in
The New Yankee Workshop

[Joe Chritz]

I used this plan for inspiration and modified it to make a TV stand with a couple drawers.

(better add the link) http://www.woodstore.net/shdrwivaandm.html

The construction is straight forward and it looks very good when completed. It uses the "dust frame" method with wooden drawer runners. I changed the drawers around and used half blind dovetails instead of the tablesaw joint they show.

I will be making a couple other dressers using the same style for the kids over this winter. Assuming I ever get caught up on projects.

Joe