Nightstand - Design help requested

[Ted Shrader]

All -

This is the basic shape for a pair of night stands I am going to build for my D & S-I-L. They will go beside the bed I made last year.

They want the drawers to have curved fronts as in the drawing. Where the night stands contact the floor is where the assistance is needed. She does not want bun feet. Other than that I am open to suggestions.

Also - the sides in the drawing are solid. Any thoughts about raised panels to tie them with the bed?

Thanks for your assistance.

Ted

[Christopher Pine]

The bed is awesome! You might consider the sides paneled like the bed?
Just a thought...

One thing I like on a practical level for bedside tables is a pull out table or shelf. Above the top drawer a shelf that will pull out for your drink, book, crackers...ooops might get kicked out of bed for that. I have them on my bedside table and use it often.. mine are no where near this nice though. Just a thought.
Looking forward to your progress
Chris

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Ted I really like your bed.

What about putting posts on the corners of your table and panels in the sides similar to your bed? The posts and panels could be proportional for the size of the tables and allow the posts to extend below the bottom to form the feet.

[Doug Shepard]

Well here's my 2 cents.
First - I love the bed.
Just curious how wide the end tables will be? From the pics, they almost look like dressers. As far as the feet, I think I'd make the side panels project about 3" below the bottom panel, then attach a piece down low across the front. Then cut out arches that proportionally match the headboard curve into the bottom of the two side panels and added front piece. Out of sight in the corners behind those pieces you can just use blocks.

[Mark Singer]

Ted,

I really like the bed. The scale of the nightstands seems too massive. I would raise them on legs. I would carry the bow front all the way across the front. Either let the drawer front carry through or shape the leg to flush with the bow front and on the same radius.

[Jamie Buxton]

Ted -
It seems to me that the bed is post and frame construction, while the drawing is carcass construction. That is, the bed has posts which go down to the ground, rails which connect them, and floating panels which fill in among them. The drawing shows the flat planes of what is essentially a box. The two styles are different, and don't obviously go together. Instead, consider starting the bedside design with a post at each corner. Each post goes down to the ground, solving the feet issue without involving buns. On the front, use the drawer fronts to fill the space between the posts. On the sides, use rails to connect the front post to the back, and fill in the middle with a floating panel. Now you've got something which is a stylistic cousin to that gorgeous bed.

Jamie

[Jim Becker]

I think that Jamie is correct that you should consider duplicating the post and rail construction. Getting it off the floor a little with "legs" as Mark suggests may also be just the ticket to mate the table(s) with the most excellent bed!

[Ted Shrader]

All -

I really appreciate the suggestions so far. I agree with the idea of frame/panel with legs to the ground. Ties in with the bed. That is the way I was leaning. Attached is a revised sketch.

The front apron is bowed up. Any thoughts about curves in the top or bottom rails?

Basic dimensions: 24"W x 18"D x 28"H

Mark - I like your comment about a continuous radius across the front that transfers from the legs to the drawer fronts. Haven't figured any easy way to represent that in SketchUp yet, though.

Thanks for the input so far. Keep it coming!

Regards,
Ted

[Jamie Buxton]

Ted --
Yeah, that looks more like it goes with the bed.

ummm.. I'm not sure if this would look good at all, but what happens if you carry the post up through the plane of the top, and put pyramidal caps on them, just like the bed post?

Jamie

[Mark Singer]

Ted,

It is much better. I would still try eliminating the bottom drawer and have longer legs to reduce th mass and make it feel lighter.

[Todd Burch]

Ted, I would get rid of the bottom rail - it takes up too much real estate for a short end table (cabinet). You can use a piece of 3/4" whatever to span the distance between the two front posts at the bottom, on edge, and then hide it with the bottom drawer front.

As far as the front, you can do a couple things to break up the big (curved, but) flat surface made up by the drawer fronts.

You could apply some thin (1/4") moulding all around the perimeter of each drawer front, giving them the appearance of a frame and panel drawer front. Or, you could treat the 3 drawer fronts as one big panel and apply the moulding to the top three sides of the top drawer, the outside edges of the middle drawer, and the bottom 3 sides of the bottom drawer. If you wanted you could even curve the top psuedo-rail to match the headboard top rail and maybe the bottom psuedo-rail to the match the footboard.

Even though it's a small cabinet, I would break the side panels up with a center stile. It's easy to get a "block" look with a big, overpowering panel.

Todd

(P.S. when I make the 1/4" applied moulding, I prepare the stock first, 1/4" by say, 1.75" or 2" wide, then use the same rail and stile cutter that I would have used on the bed parts to get the same profile.)

PPS - lose the front top rail too - same concept as losing the bottom rail.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Ted, I like the new sketch you made. It goes better with the bed.

I disagree with others here. What about leaving rails, and routing the top edge of the top drawer, the bottom edge of the bottom drawer and the sides of all the drawers with the same bit used to make the side panels. Thus, the 3 drawers would appear to be a single "curved" panel and be similar to the side panels of the table and similar to the panels of the bed?

[Dave Richards]

Ted, I agree with Mark, getting rid of the bottom drawer so it would have longer legs would make the night stand look lighter. As to the bottom rail I think I would either get rid of it as Todd suggests or make it bowed to match the drawer fronts and flat on its bottom edge.

Nice SU work, btw.

[Scott Parks]

Another vote for removing the bottom drawer. It feels too massive, out of scale. But otherwise, I like the revised drawing! To me, longer legs will give it a more elegant look to match that beauty of a bed. If it was a stand alone peice, I it would look O.K. as is...

[Ted Shrader]

All -

First, let me say thank you to Dave Richards for his expert tutelage in the use of SketchUp. He graciously offered (and I gratefully accepted) to assist if I would e-mail him the file. I did. The original intent was to write a tutorial based on the drawing, but when he saw it he sent me his phone number instead. We had a great conversation and Dave was exceptionally helpful. I learned many new techniques. THANKS, Dave!!!

Attached is the latest revision. Dimensions now are 33"H x 21"W x 18"D. The top of the mattress is 32", so the height of the night stand is more or less fixed. The customers (D & SIL) want the drawer fronts to be smooth to the edges - so no applied molding. But maybe I can talk them into a routed edge as Ken suggested, effectively making the drawer front profile the same as the panels.

Thank you all for the assistance so far. Additional comments encouraged.

Regards,
Ted

ps - Any thoughts on drawer front construction?