Dad's Bar

Recently, my parents had some remodeling done. I didn't do it, but it turned out amazing. In particular, my dad had a particular cabinetmaker in mine for a bar. This guy said he was about to retire and wanted to turn the business over to somebody else that he could teach to be really good. These cabinets are amazing. They are all solid cherry with a maple and walnut bar top. Dad paid a pretty penny for it, but it was his big splurge for the remodel. I got some pictures when I was there over Christmas and wanted to share. The craftsmanship is admirable, for sure.

Check out the detail on that bar top end grain. The joinery is amazing

Maple and walnut bar top

The complete setup

The back bar - 2 dorm refrigeratiors and wine rack with drawers

Check out the grain in that door face

 

 Check out the moldings on that drawer face - really incredible. The mark of a good cabinetmaker is an even spacing around drawer faces and the frames. The cabinet faces are spaced from the top, and the openings are wrapped with bullnose molding. The drawer faces are inset and wrapped with 2 different moldings that create an even face with the bullnose - an incredible effect. The doors are framed the same way with recessed panels. And there is a very even spacing between all of the doors.

Bottom line is that Dad got exactly what he wanted and it turned out really well done. I've been very impressed with this setup and would love to learn some from the guy who made it.

Not that master cabinetmaker

My Christmas gifts - all books this year, running, gardening, and woodworking

2 Queens II

Coming into some crunch time around the promised Christmas Eve install for these queen beds, we had some bad weather and my wife's birthday is in December as well. I did what I could do when I was able to do it. It starts with building out the nightstands and trimming out the platforms.

Now you can see how this whole thing fits together with the nightstands and drawers

hard to tell, but I got the trim all done for this one too

You can see the bottom spacer 2x4 here, and the nightstand shell

Got the other headboard trimmed out top & sides

and the parts to trim out the rest of the platform

To build out the nightstands, I start with the basics. The side of the nightstand has to come up to the top of the box. The box gets a trim board on top, and that's the same thickness as the top of the nightstand. The width I used 2 1x6's side by side. I wanted to put one drawer in there with an open shelf down below, some nightstands would be all drawers. It's not huge, but you could put a lamp, a drink, and a stack of books on there. The height on the bottom shelf is set by the 2x4 on the floor, so I supported it with a couple of other 2x4's under there. I wrapped it in a 1x4 trim. For the drawer casing, I used 2x6 scraps to form the drawer case sides, it also let me nail the top and the outside together. The hard part about building drawers is getting the sides exactly parallel. Since the nightstands have to detach with just a couple of screws I had to come up with some kind of base for the drawer too. And the face frame for the drawer needs to wrap flush and still allow free movement of the drawer.

The rest of the trim is straightforward. The headboard gets 1x3 to wrap the top and sides, then the footbard gets 1x3 on the sides and a 1x6 on the top to cover that much depth. I made a 45* cut on the nightstand top and the same cut on the 1x6 footboard top to trim out the sides. The entire platform has a nice wide level surface. that turned out to be my favorite part of the whole project.

It's a pocket hole party!

Cut another drawer casing

The drawer fit under the trim

The youngest on the sander getting ready to paint

Got both kids out to help

To make whitewash, you mix up 1 part of primer and about 3 parts water. The mix is different every time you add primer or water, so be sure to make up enough to cover the entire project. I had to cut all of the drawer faces for this one, which meant finishing the second drawer casing first. Then I cut the drawer faces so I could whitewash them along with the rest of the bed. Then I put on 2 coats of Old Masters - Masters Armor protective finish to seal up. That stuff really dries fast and hard, I really like it.

The other bed got painted white, so it didn't need the drawer cases finished first. However the trim was all edged with an Ogee bit, so I had to cut the tops for the nightstands and route those edges so the curve would be consistent. Having my 12 year old daughter holding a board in place so I could route a curve (she was in no danger - it was totally safe) has got to make this the strangest Christmas Eve ever.

After the paint dried, Ella and I went to install

The white bed - note where the nightstand should be

Detail on that ogee edge routed into the platform

This is already a really cool bed

The whitewashed bed turned out fantastic too

Client picked up the drawer pulls

This turned out great, but took way too long to install on Christmas Eve. Now I have to build the other 2 nightstands, the other 2 drawer casings, and 26 more drawers all without the original beds to size anything. this is going to be fun?

Starting the Queens

This project turned out to be one of the coolest things I've ever built, but the long road to get there means it probably won't happen again. The family that bought these was amazing, really the kind of people you would naturally bend over backwards to make them happy because they are so freaking nice. Originally they wanted a Full loft, then a queen loft, then in the end we decided on a tall queen with storage, but 2 rows of drawers instead of just 1 to make it even taller. Then build in a nightstand on each side as well, and make the supports a well-designed headboard and footboard, make the whole thing act like a platform. Oh, and then at the last minute, they doubled the order and wanted 2 beds exactly alike except for the finish (one whitewash, one paint) and the headboard height. Both beds are in rooms where the ceiling slants down into the wall, and I want the headboard to hit 2" below that mark each time, but the walls are different heights.

Two queen beds, some assembly required

stacked and ready to cut

two queen boxes

I started with the boxes, as usual. I didn't have the forms setup for queens so I took a little extra time to be sure I had the dimensions established and screwed the blocks into place so I could handle those. Next thing to cut up is the supports to start forming the headboards and footboards

Cut it up!

Some frames, assembled with pocket screws

Roughing out the headboards and footboards

a stack of frames

The hardest part of the entire build was figuring out how to put all of those drawers underneath the boxes. For both beds, I need the height for the bottom of the boxes to be the same. The rooms have carpet, so you don't want to leave the drawers sitting flat on the floor, you could never open one. So I can start with a 2x4 on the floor running between the headboard and footboard to act like a spacer or toe kick to support the drawers. I'd need another 2x4 on the back side of the casing to support the weight of the drawers. To build the cases, I cut 2x3's to the exact lengths needed, and drilled for pocket screws to get a clean joint. The short pieces are 11" long, I measured the length of the long pieces to create a face exactly long enough to span between the nightstand and the footboard to create a continuous look. Got the height the same way, make a mark between the 2x4 on the floor and the bottom of the bed box. So this took some assembly before really getting these measurements.

I have 2 rows of 3 drawers each, so 6 per side of each bed. That's 12 drawers per bed, 24 drawers total, that should be about the same size. Ideally they should be exactly the same size, but that never happens in handmade furniture. Plus 2 nightstands with a drawer each per bed, and I'm up to 28 drawers total for this project. and did I mention I hate making drawers? I made a storyboard so I could position those short pieces in the frames, and need 3 frames built up per side of the bed, so I built 12 frames.

For the headboard and footboard, I used 1x6's nailed down from the top with a 16ga finish nailer.  Getting everything square and centered was the hard part there, it really came together pretty quick. I also added support braces cut at 45* angles against the center support in the headboard, footboard, and mattress support. That makes a huge difference in stability.

Standing the beds together

Teenager provided to hold stuff and give size reference

the prototype drawer casing is clamped in for a trial

Funny thing, these beds side by side barely fit on my 8' x 12' deck so how can I fit the drawers or build the nightstands on here? Tune in later to find out.

This kicked off really cool. These beds are supposed to be a surprise to the kids for Christmas, so I need to have something ready to deliver on Christmas Eve. at this point, I new I wouldn't be able to finish everything on time, but we'll see how far we can get.