My Daughter’s Nightstand

This week I finished a cabinet carpentry project started after Thanksgiving in 2014. It was a stretch of my skills, the first time building a project with full panel construction, where all the panels were solid wood. Except for the bottom of the drawer, the entire structure is made of solid wood. To control cost, the choice of wood was pine and fir. The legs and rails are made from fir, bought as a 2×8 and re-milled by me with a tablesaw and a thickness planer. The top, panels, drawer sides, and the rest are made from 1×6 lumber.

I finished the wood with fourteen thousand coats of milk paint, sanding between each one. The milk paint, in cream color, was top-coated with Danish oil finish because milk paint’s rough finish can stain easily. The green glass knobs came from a collection of my grandfather’s.

The early design planned for through tenons, to leave little exposed pegs. I had also intended to carve a sun-and-moon theme, later to be painted with bright colors.

The panels were cut with the tablesaw. I mounted the panels in the tenoning jig. The runout was ridiculous. In spite of using a micrometer to true the tenoning jig, I had a very difficult time keeping the panel thickness constant. Next time I want to make panels I’ll buy a router jig for the purpose.

The drawer slides are also custom. I had roller suspended drawer slides, but neglected to design the drawer with enough clearance. The drawer front attaches to the drawer sides with hand-cut half-blind dovetails. I was pleased that my first attempt at half-blind dovetails worked out well.

The carcase is entirely mortise and tenon joints. I cut the tenons on the tablesaw wit the jig. In the entire cabinet the only metal fasteners are the clips that hold the table tops on, and the L-brackets that hold the draw slides on.