Nightstand of maple and walnut (pics)

[John Huber]

Function: A bedside table for my wife. But instead of one drawer, make it a small chest of drawers. This sets the overall dimensions.

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Materials: I saw a demi-lune table at the woodworkers show and really liked the quilted maple top. I bought quilted maple veneer from JoeWoodworker.com for the top. There I ran across curly walnut and thought it would make attractive contrasting drawer fronts. To frame the drawers and edge the quilted maple top, I chose curly maple from Fine Lumber, who resawed and thickness sanded it to my specifications.

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Design: I wanted to feature the figure in the woods. So the design is simple and a combination of Arts & Crafts, Shaker, and American Empire. There are no drawer separators and the gaps around the drawers are small (1/16” +/- 1/32”). To avoid trouble from seasonal wood movement, the carcass and drawers are plywood.

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Engineering: My wife wanted the drawers to open and close with one hand and have access all the way to the rear. So I used Accuride drawer slides. Since I am both lazy and impatient, the drawer joinery is lock joints (rabbet and dado) rather than dovetails.

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Selecting workpieces: Both the curly maple and the curly walnut looked different depending on the viewing angle (the technical term is chatoyancy). So I put a coat of General Finishes Seal-A-Cell and Arm-R-Seal on the stock and viewed it in different orientations in the lighting where the finished nightstand will sit. It was news to me how much difference it made. Overall, I only used about half of the original stock.

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Finish: I used David J. Marks’ process. http://www.djmarks.com/stories/faq/What_is_the_mix_ratio_for_the_Linseed_Oil_Tung_Oil _and_Urethane_46687.asp
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Drawer Pulls: The one-handed pulls are mounted near the tops of the drawers to minimize obscuring the curly walnut figure. For strength they are laminates to two 3/16” layers of walnut of non-matching grain pattern so if a crack appears on one layer, it will not propagate through the other and break the pull. For more strength, the legs have a 1/8” poplar dowel almost all the way through. In addition, the ends of the dowels have a 1/32” thick wedge set into an undersized slot. When the dowels are glued into the pull, the wedge bottoms out and spreads the slot for a tight fit. The protruding end of the dowel fits into the drawer front and another wedge-and-slot reinforces the glue joint.


Do you think it is a little top-heavy? Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

[Kristian Wild]

I really like the contrast of the two figured woods. From your initial description I thought it would look too busy but it doesn't. As far as your question about it looking too top-heavy, I don't think so. My first impression about the heavy feel of the piece would be from the width of the curly maple frame around the panels on the sides and back.
Did you make any pulls out of maple to see how that looked over the walnut drawers before deciding on the walnut?
It's certainly hard to get the overall feel of a project while it's still on paper. Mine are always a surprise at the end!
If it's just the the top that looks heavy to you, you could always put a slight bevel on the underside of the top to lighten the look.
Very nice though, the finish sure brings out the best in the wood. Great job.

Kris

[John Huber]

Hello Kris,

Thank you for your comments! Actually, I didn't try maple pulls; I wanted the front to be "quiet" so as to not detract from the curly walnut. I tried a new method (for me anyway) to get a good idea of the finished product (especially if the "frame" around the drawer stack was the right proportions). I made the entire walnut veneer sheet into a panel and finished it to know the figure and chatoyancy. I took a photo of it, loaded it into Photoshop, and "cut" it up into candidates for the drawer faces. I did the same with the curly maple. Then I "built" a prototype of the front with these pieces. With my poor powers of visualization, it was a big help in getting me on the right track.

John

[Jim Becker]

John, that's some awesome material in that project! Wow! As to the design, I kinda like it. It does have a little heavy feel, but for me, the figure and contrast back that up a bit. I also like the multi-drawer format...very convenient for keeping "all those things" one likes to have bed-side in an organized fashion. Too many nightstands have either only one drawer or have drawers that are too big to be effective with organization.

[Ralph Okonieski]

Does not look top heavy to me. Very Nice. I'm generally a one-wood kinda person but yours and several other recent "Creek" projects are opening my paradigms to consider multi-wood projects. The curly maple is specially nice and can never go wrong with walnut.

Very well done !

[Ron Jones near Indy]

The walnut and maple really work well together. The figured wood makes the piece outstanding! Great work.

[Rick de Roque]

Love the quilted maple veneer top. The maple and walnut go well together. She should love it.
Rick

[John Miliunas]

John, often I find that function triumphs over form when building something to certain specifications or needs. When that happens, I tend to go with materials which will compensate for the "form" end of the equation. IMHO, you've accomplished both!!! :) Great functionality, awesome wood choices and, even though a bit on the "heavy" side, I still like the overall design, so you've even got "form" covered! Well done! :) :cool:

[Mark Pruitt]

Outstanding!!!

[Jim W. White]

Very, very nice work!! I think it looks great just the way it is; however, I agree with Kristian that beveling the underside of the top would be an easy adjustment to the look if you were overly concerned about the heaviness of the top.

Great job

[Terry Quiram]

John

Couldn't you find anything but pallet wood?:rolleyes: WOW that is one very nice piece of eye candy. Curly Maple AND Curly Walnut thats the best of both worlds. Wonderful piece of furniture.

Terry

[Steve Clardy]

Very nice!!

[Corey Hallagan]

Wow! That is beautiful, you made the most of that beautiful stock!

Corey

[Dana Nurmela]

Saweeet! Very nice design and choice of materials.

[Mark Singer]

John,
Very nice design and great work!

One suggestion....I would make small feet...like disks or flat squares at the corners to raise it about 1" off the floor... Maybe stainless steel discs....that would get the bottom off the floor and allow the piece to "breathe " making it appear lighter.....otherwise terrific!

[Blaine Harrison]

You've got some amazingly beautiful figured wood in this piece. The construction and design look great. The curly veneer on the top is awesome! Having made some drawer pulls from walnut myself, I appreciate seeing other designs. Yours is very nicely done.

Now.... sorry to rain on the parade here.....

While I love figured woods, particularly maple, I think this piece has a bit too much of it. However, other than to lighten the top slightly as has been suggested, I'm not sure how you could have changed it and still used the gorgeously figured woods you found. It just seems that the tiger stripe on the stiles of the front pull my eye from the curly walnut. The piece is definitely a woodworker's eye candy though.

Please don't take this as harsh criticism. This is just one man's opinion. There are only two that truly count and mine isn't one of them.

(btw, you'll get a chance to critique some of my work soon as I hope to finish up a QSWO sofa table in the next few weeks. Guess I'll find out whether I've committed blasphemy here on the Creek by posting criticism.)

Blaine

[Frank Fusco]

You asked for comments. It is beautiful, wonderful wood and contrasts. It does have a heavy look. My first impression was that it looks like something that belongs near the alter in a church.
That said, I couldn't do as well. I'm sure your wife will love it.

[Lincoln Myers]

Very nice piece John. I like the maple. The Walnut is a little dark for my taste, but all walnut is. I too like the multi-drawer approach to the nightstand.

Thanks for sharing the pics.

-Linc

[Zahid Naqvi]

That's a wonderful night stand, the materials and workmanship are both great.