Short story: Both my wife and I had our baby dressers passed to us when we moved out. Both dressers were bought.

My sister, 20 years younger than me, is about to have her first child. I wanted to make her a dresser, to be passed to my nephew when he's mature enough.

Plans and carcass test fit attached.

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Next up: Drawer parts and test fits.

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Then on to attaching pulls and final test fits.

There was a big OOPS moment here! If you look closely, you can see the right pull of the middle drawer is offset. Somehow I managed to measure 1" off. I was all set to go out and buy more wood for that drawer, but I didn't want to mismatch the wood. So I made a dowel from a cutoff and drove it in. (After sanding and staining it barely shows.)

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Getting close to the finish here! Literally, the finish.

My sister's baby room motif is patterns of gray, woodsy colors. I wanted to go with contrast. So I decided the carcass and pulls will be finished in "classic gray" The drawer fronts and top will be finished in "red oak".

Pictures of the carcass and drawer fronts.

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Excellent! I think your sister will be happy for such a nice dresser... as far as your mistake, I'm sure it will make a conversation about your effort of love. Best wishes for the new baby.

Well that's a very nice thing to do for family. Turned out pretty good too. Nobody will even mention that dowel, I'd put money on that.


-T

Finished.

Not sure what all the haze is in the pics, as it's not visible in real life.

While it's not terrible, I'm unhappy enough with the top I may replace it. I'd planed the uneven glued edges, then sanded the top smooth. I didn't concern myself with the bottom surface except around the parts that would be visible. At stain time I strained the bottom first, and when I strained the top all of the plane marks came back like "hey there buddy, miss us?".

Oops! Here's the pics.

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The last photo showing the finished top and fronts, looks great, BUT the sides look like a mistake, or raw wood! The color doesn't match at all. Now that's just my first impression/opinion, and I'm only looking at photos.



I don't mean to rain on your parade,
but I'd be interested to know if any one else feels the same?





Would you consider paint as a solution, a neutral color like the greys or white for a baby's room. A gender "specific" color like blue or pink wouldn't work ... probably?

The wood is poplar, which is giving the carcass a green tint. Over time the wood should lighten and the gray stain should show better.

Based on what I'm told, this should fit right in with my sister's chosen motif. She wants natural/wooded.

Nice job! Looks great.

great craftsmanship !!

I think the negative impression of different wood is from the view
with the drawers open. closed, I can see how all ties in together.
good job !

This looks lovely. I can say as someone who is currently working on (a much less nice) project with poplar, I am not fond of it. But you have done a bang up job.

I wasn't quite sure what he meant by that. I figured it was a difference in opinion on aesthetics.

Every project is an experiment.

It was my first time working with plywood drawers. Plywood saws well and makes really easy dovetails, but grooves and rabbets can go awry very quickly and take a much more delicate touch, lest you blow the layers out.

I wanted to contrast the drawer sides from the fronts, hence the unstained sides. I also wanted to see how the staining and sealing process would go, if there would be difficulty gluing afterward. (No, I did not stain/seal inside the pins.) I was somewhat concerned about how far the stain/seal would penetrate. No problems found.

Thank you. My choice for poplar wasn't necessarily aesthetic. I had a bunch of 8 foot 1x2 poplar boards in my garage for 15 years that I don't even remember what I bought it for, and wanted to use up. I only had about 4 feet of it left when I was done! Also, poplar is relatively cheap compared to hardwood lumbers, good for the budget.

I had originally planned to paint. I decided to stain later into the project. I would have made some different construction choices if I'd planned to stain early on. Things such as board face orientation, etc.

I find poplar easy to work with, as it's soft with straight grain. Because it's soft, I'm curious how well it will hold up to a little kid over the years.

My sister cried when it was presented to her at the baby shower. That's good enough for me.

Nice work. Aside from excellent craftsmanship, the next thing I notice is the sound construction.

Wondering why you didn't go with a solid bottoms?

Love those divider dovetails!!

Thank you!

I've been using plywood drawer bottoms in all my projects. The only change in my strategy was plywood drawer sides and backs.