The year was 2003. America was enthralled with Trista and Ryan’s fairy tale romance on “The Bachelorette,” the air hung heavy with disappointment as theatre-goers paid $10 per ticket for “Matrix Reloaded,” the nation yielded to a type of temporary insanity called “Clay Aiken Fever,” the Terminator was elected to public office, and my wife and I fretted over our desperate need for storage in our downstairs powder room.
“I’m tired of storing towels and hand soap in the coat closet. I need some storage space in this powder room,” Dina said, making an impolite gesture at the pedestal sink.
“Uh huh,” I said. The commercial break had ended and Trista was about to make her final decision.
“Are you listening to me? Let’s go shopping tomorrow. I want to buy a storage cabinet.”
I sighed. “Sensitive firefighting poets get all the girls.”
“What? What are you watching in there?”
“Err… nothing,” I said, switching off the television, “Store-bought furniture is too expensive. Maybe I should build a cabinet instead.”
“Are you sure you know how to do that?”
“How hard can it be? They make it look so easy in these woodworking magazines. Besides, my cabinet will be way higher quality than the garbage they sell in the stores.”
“Well, if you think you can do it… go ahead. But hurry up ‘cause I need to fit our winter coats in this closet.” She sat down on the couch and grabbed the remote from my hand. “Cool, Entertainment Tonight is on. I wonder what the latest news is on J.Lo and Ben. I heard that movie Gigli is pretty good… we should go see it tomorrow since we don’t need to go shopping anymore.”
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Ask any woodworker about their first furniture project and they’ll probably cringe and change the subject. As time goes by, our skills improve and projects that were once a source of pride become a secret shame. That’s human nature, I guess, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Every single project is a learning experience and analyzing some of your older pieces can be educational. So, in the spirit of higher education, here’s a short description of my very first furniture project.
My first project was a small linen cabinet for our powder room. I designed and built it to specifically fit that space. I moved the cabinet out of the powder room to take the pictures for this post; there wasn’t enough room in there for me to get a good angle.
The cabinet is built of solid cherry with frame and panel construction in a vaguely shaker style. It’s style is actually somewhat similar to my current nightstand project. There are no curves on the linen cabinet, though. Curves were out of my league when I built this.
In 2003, my basement shop consisted of a dirty bare concrete floor, a single 15A electrical outlet, one 60W light bulb, a tiny Ryobi table saw, and a lunchbox planer. The table saw sat on the floor because I didn’t have a stand to put it on. Since I didn’t have a workbench at the time, all my glue-ups were also done on the uneven concrete floor. I’m amazed that I ended up with glued-up panels that are even remotely flat.
I used some mortise and tenon joints to join the carcase (and a couple of pocket screws… I admit it). I struggled to make these joints for two reasons: (1) inexperience and (2) I didn’t have the appropriate tools. I was using a router and a makeshift router table, but my accuracy was poor. I remember the joinery being a very frustrating experience. The joinery on this piece is not visible, however, so I guess it doesn’t really matter.
The interior has two shelves: one on the bottom and one in the middle. I forgot to install supports for the middle shelf before assembling the carcase, so it is held up by four small blocks of wood that I glued to the legs. Oops.
I wisely left the interior of the cabinet unfinished. Putting an oil-based finish on the interior of a cabinet or drawer is a recipe for disaster. The oil will off-gas forever, and anything you put in there will be saturated with the smell. Over the years, the unfinished interior has absorbed the smell of the scented soaps that we store in it. It smells great.
The exterior of the cabinet is finished with Tried and True Original Wood Finish. This finish is a combination of polymerized linseed oil and beeswax. It’s attractive, but it isn’t very durable, so I don’t recommend it for pieces that will see a lot of abuse. This cabinet sees very light use so it’s an acceptable finish.
The door is probably the most interesting part of this cabinet. It’s construction was pretty ambitious for my skills at the time, but it turned out pretty well. It’s a frame and panel structure with bridle joints at all four corners. I used walnut dowels to peg the joints. I cut the bridle joints on the table saw and I managed to get a good fit on all four.
Overall, I’m not ashamed of my first furniture project. If I were to build it today, I would certainly do things differently, and the build quality would be better (at least, I hope it would). This piece serves a valuable function in our house, though, and I suspect it will last for many many years.
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I squinted in the bright sunlight when we emerged from the theatre. “Wow… Gigli was great! I can’t wait for it to come out on DVD.”
“It was ok, I guess,” Dina said.
“You know, I was thinking some more about this storage cabinet. If I get really good at this woodworking thing, I think it would be cool to share what I learn with other people on the internet. Maybe I could even put some videos up on a webpage or something. I even have the perfect name picked out: The Wood Whisperer.”
Dina laughed, choking on the Diet Coke she had brought out of the theater. “Nobody’s ever gonna want to watch woodworking videos on the internet. That’s nuts.”
“Maybe you’re right. It is a pretty crazy idea. It’s a cool name, though… don’t ya think?”
“I guess so. Hey… did you ever wonder why so many people pay full price for movies in the evening when they could just pay for a matinee before 6:00pm?”
“Yeah, that is weird,” I said, “What’s up with that?”
Great looking piece. Sometimes simply is best in the long run. Functionality is what counts. As in life, you learn from experience in woodworking.
Who knows, in the future this may be the next antique someone just has to have.
You said that T&T original is not very durable. I am curious what you mean by that… do you mean the sort of abuse that dings and dents? Or something else? AFAIK, linseed oil doesn’t create a film finish that would build up into a heavy plastic-y surface, so I’m not sure what we can expect from it in terms of protection.
-ben
@Ben: That’s exactly what I meant… linseed oil offers basically no protection for the wood. I use it for pieces that won’t get touched much, but I would never recommend it for something like a kitchen table that will take a lot of abuse. Heavy use items need a film finish.
modern furniture has dispelled all the age-old norms and introduced new materials, designs and styles. Earlier, wood was the primary material for any type of furniture. Today, it has been replaced by synthetic fibers, cane. These materials are not only easier to maintain, but can be molded into several different shapes and are extremely lightweight as compared to wood.
Is it okay to put part of this on my site if I include a link to this website?