Hi, I’ve started building the Contemporary Chest of Drawers as published in “Chests of Drawers” by Bill Hylton and I have a design question regarding the wood selection for the piece. Upon review of the material I have on hand, I’ve calculated that I have enough maple to create the frame work and I will need to buy additional material for the drawers. At this point since I need to buy additional wood to complete the project, I’m wondering what it might look like if I were to use a contrasting wood for the drawers such as black walnut? Since I’m contemplating using walnut, I’m further thinking that the chest would look better with a walnut top and sides to complete the look. So my questions are: does anyone have any experieicne mixing wood types within a project such as this, and if so, were you satisfied with your woods contrasting? Furthermore, is my idea of the top, sides and drawer fronts made out of walnut while the posts and web frames being made out of maple a good idea? Attached is a picture of the chest I’m planning to work on from the book. Thanks.
Replies
dfletcher:
As the picture of the cover of your book shows, mixing woods to add interest to a piece is done all the time. Personally, I prefer the top and frame to be of the darker wood and the drawers and side panels to be the lighter wood (sort of like framing a picture). It is also nice if the drawers, top, and side panels have some figure. If you have some scrap pieces of wood, I would suggest doing a greatly scaled down mock up of the front of the chest of drawers just to get a good visual on how a full sized finished piece will look. You can do this with super thin strips glued to heavy paper so you're not wasting a lot of wood. Also let me suggest that you take some alcohol and a piece of the maple with you when you go to buy the walnut. Wipe down a small section of both woods to get a sense of their color under a finish and put them next to each other.
Hopefully somebody with a sense of artistry will reply and give both of us an education.
gdblake
df,
As far as mixing woods , if this piece is being built for yourself then you decide , as long as you are happy that is all that counts.
If you want to see a piece I just completed with QSWO and Black Walnut go to the Knots gallery and look for the Black walnut and QSWO Desk ,it was posted about a week ago.
enjoy regards from paradise dusty
It is generally uncenventional to have lighter sides and top with dark front but that shouldn't stop you if you like the look. Several years ago I made bed for my grandaughter that is a combination of plains sawn and birds eye maple with cherry panels in the foot and head boards. I used nitro lacquer so the maple would yellow as the cherry darkend and after 4 years it is still my favorite piece. The bed may still be in the gallery if you want to see the contrast.
The advise to test arious combination is sound counsel and it can save you lots of work that ends in a project that isn't what you mind's eye envisioned.
Thanks everyone for your feedback.
Yes, the piece will be for me. I too recently built a book shelf with dark posts and light top and sides (walnut & cherry). I was very pleased with the result. As you pointed out, I will be reversing the woods from what I already know and am now questioning whether this will look good.
Good advice on the mock up. I will take some scraps and see how it looks with the light posts and dark sides, drawers and top.
One other idea I was thinking about was to only make the drawers out of walnut while the posts, top, and sides are all maple, but that too leads be to think the piece won't be balanced.
Nice QSWO and BW desk - pretty much just the opposite of the dresser I'm contemplating (posts/sides being reversed) :-)
Thanks again for your feedback. Off to mock up some pieces of wood.
-David
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