new project question

[Mike Steinhilper]

I am building a variation of this. I have about 18 bf of walnut. How can I make the best use of the walnut, i.e. the top, drawer faces, etc.? And, secondly, what secondary wood for the wine rack portion etc? In other words, what parts should I use Walnut, what parts something else?

[Jeff Sudmeier]

It is all up to you from a design standpoint :)

You could make the top, sides and face from from Walnut and then make the drawer faces, wine rack and doors from something else...

There are a bunch of combos :)

To elaborate on my comments above, your main decision is going to be: Do you want the secondary woods to be a design feature or do you want to hide them? For the drawer, you can use plwood inards and a walnut face, it won't affect the design much. If it was me I would probably use the two woods to contrast each other and be a design feature, but everyone has different taste :)

[John Gregory]

Any wood not seen can be done in a secondary wood. Otherwise like Jeff said it is just a matter of taste, or pieces less visable.

[Chris Barton]

As the two sages that preceeded me said, it's all a matter of taste. I will add one more opinion. Since walnut is relatively cheap in the south, I would consider making sides, top and face trim for this piece out of walnut, the drawer sides from either poplar or soft maple, and the back and drawer bottoms out of plywood (probably birch since it can be made to match almost anything). Secondary support woods (completely out of sight, like glue blocks and such) could be from whatever you have handy.

[Michael Sloan]

My understanding is that Walnut and Oak typically are not used in wine cellars. I asked why once and was told that strong smelling woods like oak might influence the taste of the wine by seeping through the cork. I don't really buy this argument, but I did hear it from an "expert" (a wine cellar racking salesman, so take it for what it may be worth). Redwood, and cedar are commonly used in wine cellars, with mahogany and cherry occasionally used.

For your application, I would be more concerned about appearance than any other consideration. 18 board feet does not strike me as enough to build that piece without including some other wood in key places, so if the walnut grain was really nice, I might use the walnut for the top, the door panels and the side panels. If the walnut grain is clear and clean, I might frame everthing in walnut, and find some other nice wood for the top and panels.

Looks like a nice piece. Have fun.

Mike

[Mike Steinhilper]

Thanks for the input guys... what goes with Walnut? Is that a stupid question?

[Donnie Raines]

It all lies in what appeals to you: if contrast is something you would like, go with a maple or poplar. If you would prefer a more uniformed look, buy more walnut or use some cherry. You could also dye some lighter colored woods to match the walnut...I am sure some trial and error will take place to accomplish this.

For what it is worth, I think the unit would look appropriate all one color. It seems to be more formal......but thats just me.

[Mike Steinhilper]

Donnie, I think that is the best solution of all... buy more walnut! I tend to overlook the obvious

[Dan Stuewe]

Do you have an idea on making the bottle rack? My wife wants me to incorporate a rack like that in a window seat and I'm just not sure on the best way to go about making it.

[Ron Fritz]

I have the same question as Dan concerning the construction method for building the wine rack. Last year I saw a picture of a wine cabinet that I liked and drew up the plans and built the wine cabinet for my son. As you can see in the attached pictures, I chose to use a simple construction for the rack. If I were to do another wine cabinet I would use solid material as in Mike's picture. I just wasn't sure of the best approach for constructing the solid racks.

[Mike Steinhilper]

my thinking on the rack part is this: i recently built an apothecary cabinet that had horizontal dividers with dados routed in them. Vertical dividers fit right in the dados. Do this same procedure. Dry fit it, and turn it on the diagonal. Mark the cuts. Disassemble, cut and reassemble?

[Vaughn McMillan]

Thanks for the input guys... what goes with Walnut? Is that a stupid question?
Caramel, chocolate chips, ice cream, whipped cream, maybe a cherry...the list is endless.

Sorry, couldn't resist. :D

And on SMC, there are no stupid questions. I already asked them all. ;)

Back to the wood question, as others have mentioned, a lot of it depends on your taste. If you're looking for contrast, lighter woods like maple work, a bit less contrast could be cherry or maybe canary wood. For a uni-color look, it's hard to beat walnut for the whole thing, too.

- Vaughn