Dresser design Question!

[Lee Schierer]

My daugther wants me to make a dresser for her husband to match the dresser I made for her a while back. Hers looks like this:


The attached drawing shows two ideas we have. The concern is over the size of the drawers if we make the two wide ones as shown in the right hand view. The drawers will be 46" wide. Making it two drawers side by side will make 20" wide drawers and result in more cost. The upper portion will be raised panel doors to match the drawer fronts below. There will be 1 or 2 adjustable shelves behind the doors.

The height to width ratio looks right to me, now that I loaded the correct file for the picture. It was supposed to be 44-1/2" wide not 54-1/2". as Mark Mazzo pointed out.

I would appreciate your comments and suggestions.

[Daniel Rabinovitz]

Lee
Looks good
I also thought about the length of the large drawers.
How about 4 small drawers - 20 inch
and one large bottom drawer - 46 inch

I was thinking about the large drawers "racking" as you pulled them
out or pushed them in. Hence the thought about one large drawer rather than two.
I also thought about what might go into the large drawer - sweaters, blankets and such.
As opposed to fitting that stuff into small drawers. That stuff would probably fit into small - 20" - drawers without too much lost space.

Boy!, the ratio looks real good to me too (from your drawing).
Daniel

[Jim Becker]

The "look" of the wider drawers on the bottom is more in line with the design of the original piece. A possible compromise is the do the double doors, but eliminate the stile between them...use a hidden stile for support and keep the drawer fronts with just the normal 1/16" or so between them. That thin line will be marginally visible and the piece will appear to have the wider drawers at first glance.

[Pete Lamberty]

Hi Lee, I like the overall dimensions of the entire cabinet, but I don't like the look of the drawers. Niether drawer drawing looks great to me. At first thought I would ask you to do another drawing with one drawer at the bottom, then two equal size drawers in the middle, and then three equal size drawers at the top. I don't know if this would look better then what you have already done, but its worth a try. I would also suggest that you do a little research and look at alot of photos of cabinets to see how their drawers are arranged. You may see something that will really look great on your cabinet. Hope this gives you some ideas. Pete

[Mark Mazzo]

Hi Lee,

Nice dresser for your daughter and also a nice design for the new one.

My first glance hinted that the new design seemed little "squatty". By that I mean that it looks a little too wide for its height. It also seems that a 46" wide drawer will be somewhat cumbersome to operate. However, I like the look of the right hand drawing of the design (i.e. two large drawers).

I took the ratio of the height (71.75") to width (54.5") and came up with 1.31. This confirmed my eyeball look at the ratio. My suggestion would be to narrow the piece a little to get closer to the "golden ratio" of 1.61 and thereby also having narrower lower drawers.

The dimensions would end up more like 71.75" x 44.5". That would give you a lower drawer width of about 39.5" given the same leg widths of 2.5". Still quite a wide drawer, but I think it would be better operationally.

Obviously, you could get a similar ratio by making it taller, but the piece is pretty tall now. Also, going taller would not help with the lower drawer width issue.

Hope that this helps.

--Mark

[Bruce Page]

Lee, I agree with Daniel, I think four smaller drawers and one large drawer at the bottom would have the best balance. It's going to be a nice looking piece either way!


Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger. — Franklin P. Jones

[John Preston]

46" is way too wide for a drawer, I think. That's as big as one of those industrial size sideways file cabinets. That's big. My sideways file cabinet is only 34" wide. And it's still big.

My advice is to make them two wide, but to change your progression.

The way you have the drawers on the left picture now, the drawers are very blocky. Make each drawer shallower, starting with the botton one. 11" is a lot of sweaters. I'd never see the ones on the bottom. If you change the drawer heights, the drawers will look better, maybe to something like the golden rule thing.

Any way you do it, try and match the other dresser. If the other dresser has similar proportions, then you might not want to change the proporitons too much.

[Brad Schafer]

My daugther wants me to make a dresser for her husband to match the dresser I made for her a while back. Hers looks like this:

(snip)

based on the drawings, the frame is circa 44" (which won't hold a 46" drawer).

FWIW, i have a cabinet/dresser similar to the one drawn (without the round top) that's a little over 40" wide. has 3 drawers, all full cabinet width (well, around 37-38"). plenty of room, looks nice, and drawers work just dandy.

i can try to post a pic if you think it will help.

the unit in the posted drawing is a little wider than my dresser, but i think it looks just fine ... and based on the photo, you're bound to build a nice looking piece.

good luck,


b